Fifty Years in a Maryland Kitchen (Howard, Mrs. B.C. [Jane Grant Gilmore])

xvi, 378 pp.  Green pebbled cloth, gilt-lettered spine. First Edition. Baltimore: Turnbull Bros., 1873. 

Born into a wealthy Baltimore family in 1801, Mrs. Howard penned her incredibly popular cookbook at age 72, after giving birth to twelve children. She and her husband lived on a large estate renowned for its gardens, just north of Baltimore City. Her cookbook was “produced solely for the purpose of aiding certain benevolent undertakings…”, thus she reluctantly allowed her name to be included. The book tells the story of recipes in Maryland at the time, including carrot plum pudding, lobster soup, clam pie, barbecued shad, fried chickens, okra or gumbo chicken, etc. Mild rubbing to extremities and spine ends, else very good - an important work on 19th c. American cooking. 

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