(Southern - Kentucky) Ladies of the Presbytarian Church, Paris, KY. Housekeeping in the Blue Grass: a new and practical cook book, containing nearly a thousand recipes...

...many of them new, and all of them tried and known to be valuable, such as have been used by the best house-keepers of Kentucky and other states: together with many miscellaneous recipes, useful in families, etc.

xv, [1], 188 pp. Illus. with 18 pages of ads for local businesses and products. Gilt-lettered & dec. green cloth. First Edition. Cincinnati: George Stevens, 1875.

One of the most important early Kentucky cookbooks, with recipes for regional favorites like stuffed ham, okra soup, gumbo, chow chow, Kentucky cornbread, rice corn-meal bread, green corn fritters, fried peaches, cashaw, cymblings, peach marmalade, whisky punch, catawba punch, brandy peaches, etc. From the introduction, the importance of the work is parsed: " …first, of its containing recipes of dishes which have gratified the appetites of families and guests of some of the best housekeepers in this far-famed region; secondly, and by way of climax, in that it was conceived in the earnest desire of the ladies connected with the ‘Missionary Society’ of the Southern Presbyterian Church, Paris, Ky., to do something more in the way of benevolence than was found practicable in the use of the needle." Several old manuscript recipes written on blank pages inserted by publisher for this purpose, for sweet pickle, Sally Lunn, etc. Contemporaneous owner's name & elegant rubber stamp ("Mrs. L.L. Warren, Cor. 4th Ave. & Walnut St., Louisville, Kentucky") to half title.  Mrs. Levi Legg (Mary) Warren (1814-1900) was married to a Louisville merchant who was treasurer of a fund to aid Southerners after the Civil War. Pieces of cloth worn off spine ends, heavy rubbing to spine ends, darkening to cloth extremities; inner joints cracked, interior spots & food stains, front free endpaper lacking, etc. Good only; still rare.