American Cookery

American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons, is the first known cookbook written by an American, published in Hartford, Connecticut in 1796. Until then, the cookbooks printed and used in the Thirteen Colonies were British. Its full title is: American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life.

This book was quite popular and was printed, reprinted and pirated for 30 years after its first appearance. Only four copies of the first edition are known to exist.

The only biographical information known about the author is from the cover and title pages of her cookbook that list her as "Amelia Simmons, An American Orphan"; all else is by inference. American Cookery is her only known published work. The preface reads:

The candor of the American Ladies is solicitously intreated by the Authoress, as she is circumscribed in her knowledge, this being original work in this country.

This indicates that she probably lacked formal education. Based on other quotes from her preface, she was most likely a domestic laborer. She wrote of "those females who have parents, or brothers, or riches," and how female orphans may be "reduced to the necessity of going into families in the line of domestics."

Culinary historian Karen Hess says that because "...the first edition is from Hartford, historians have always assumed that she was a New Englander." This assumption is bolstered by the inclusion of southern New England specialties such as Indian pudding and johnnycakes. However, many of the later editions were published from a cluster around the Hudson River Valley (e.g. - Albany, Salem, Troy, Poughkeepsie, New York). Also, several Dutch words appeared in her work (for example, slaw and cookey), words that would have more likely come from that region, rather than New England. So a case can be made that Simmons more likely came from the Hudson Valley region.

Karen Hess also referred to Miss Simmons as a "good plain cook", noting the generous use and variety of herbs and the use of wine in her recipes. Simmons also showed the use of English "extraordinarily fine roasting techniques" in her recipes.

There were 13 known editions of this book published between 1796 and 1831.American Cookery has also been reprinted in several editions and formats in the 20th Century.

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