THE CAROLINA HOUSEWIFE OR HOUSE AND HOME

THE CAROLINA HOUSEWIFE OR HOUSE AND HOME

THE CAROLINA HOUSEWIFE OR HOUSE AND HOME: BY A LADY OF CHARLESTON. W.R. Babcock & Co. Charleston, S.C. 1st. 1847. 221 pgs. Re-bound in a mid 20th century black cloth with gold title on the spine, Replaced end-papers with previous owner’s book plate on the new end-papers (perhaps lifted from the original binding). Some scattered foxing and tanning as expected.

This is the earliest known cookbook published in South Carolina. Its author was Sarah Rutledge who wrote it as "A Lady of Charleston," and published it “for charitable purposes.” Sarah was the daughter of Edward Rutledge, a South Carolina governor and the youngest delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence. It is a foundational, primary source for antebellum Low Country cuisine.

Recipes include Beaufort rice bread, hominy fritters, okra soup, baked shrimps and tomatoes, stewed spinach, baked plum pudding, and ginger pound cake. A detailed index divides the book into chapters for breakfast breads and cakes, soups, fish and seafood, meats, poultry, sauces, vegetables, eggs and cheese, pastries and puddings, ices, preserves, liqueurs (medicinal, of course), pickles, tea cakes, and miscellaneous covering items like herbs, candies, and food coloring. Among-est the 19th century recipes are medicinal treatments, and culinary techniques specifically used by South Carolina social elites.

From the Preface:

“The ‘Carolina Housewife’ will contain principally receipts for dishes that have been made in our own homes, and with no more elaborate abattrie de cuisine than that belonging to families of moderate income; even those dishes lately introduced among us have been successfully made by our own cooks.”

“This volume, though not large, contains upwards of five hundred and fifty receipts. …. The one now offered is (as it professes to be) a selection from the family receipt books of friends and acquaintances, who have kindly placed their manuscripts at the disposal of the editor. It is believe that the recipes are original, except a few translated from the French and German, which, as they are very good and little known, it is hoped, will add to the value of the book. In this work are to be found nearly a hundred dishes in which rice or corn form a part of the ingredients.”

A very nice copy of a very scarce cookbook.