Lettice Bryan: Difference between revisions

Bryan published ''The Kentucky Housewife'', said to be Kentucky's first cookbook, in 1839. Anthropology professor John van Willigen described the recipes as being "about meat slaughtered at home and what was there on the farm".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Guadagni |first=Rachael |date=2014-04-17 |title=The Way to Kentucky's Heart |url=http://www.kentuckymonthly.com/api/content/bf4e6122-c406-11e3-abe5-1231380a02d9/ |access-date=2024-05-03 |website=kentuckymonthly.com |language=en-us}}</ref> The book contains 1,300 recipiesrecipes: [[Florence Fabricant]] of [[The New York Times]] described it as a "hefty tome. She compared it in style to [[Mary Randolph]]'s 1824 ''[[The Virginia House-Wife|The Virginia Housewife]]''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fabricant |first=Florence |date=1991-06-12 |title=Food Notes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/12/garden/food-notes-217091.html |access-date=2024-05-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> but noted differences in their versions of [[pumpkin pie]]. While both included [[brandy]], Randolph used [[butter]] and a [[Shortcrust pastry#Decorative techniques|lattice top]], with Bryan's pie having a dusting of grated sugar.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fabricant |first=Florence |date=1993-11-17 |title=Pity the Part-Time Eaters Of Pumpkin |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/17/garden/pity-the-part-time-eaters-of-pumpkin.html |access-date=2024-05-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In a paper on plantation cookbooks, Kathryn Matheny wrote that Bryan did not give detailed procedures in her recipes, this being the prevailing style for cookbooks of the era.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Matheny |first=Kathryn |date=Spring–Summer 2021 |title=We All Cook by Ear: Plantation Cookbooks and the Paradox of the Written Recipe |url=https://eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=272820b0-b565-445f-a3f0-1d21c44aea8d%40redis |journal=Southern Studies |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=55 |via=[[Ebasco]]}}</ref> Food historian Stephen Schmidt described in a 2001 [[Yankee (magazine)|Yankee Magazine]] article a traditional [[Plum cake#United States|election cake]] weighing as much as {{Convert|90|lb}}, noting that Bryan and her contemporaries [[Lydia Maria Child]] and [[Eliza Leslie]] offered recipes for {{Convert|5-7|lb|adj=on}} versions.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Schmidt |first=Stephen |date=May 2001 |title=Why Cake? Why Hartford? |url=https://eds.p.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=120e520e-8750-46bb-a2d8-2e93266fc244%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=4478706 |magazine=[[Yankee (magazine)|Yankee]] |pages=22-25 |volume=65 |issue=4 |issn=0044-0191}}</ref> A recipe for mutton casserole was included, although casseroles were not well known in southern cooking at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tipton |first=Carrie Allen |date=November 25, 2013 |title=The Casserole: A Good Company Dish |url=https://deepsouthmag.com/2013/11/25/the-casserole-a-good-company-dish/ |access-date=May 3, 2024 |website=Deep South Magazine}}</ref>