Blog and website for William Rubel, author and cook specializing in traditional cuisines

The first page of the first edition of Amelia Simmons cookbook

First American Cookbook Author, 1796Amelia Simmons, in her book, American Cookery, 1796, was the first author to record the combination of turkey and cranberry sauce. Amelia Simmon’s first book was short, under fifty pages. It stands as a bridge between English and American cookery as it developed in the first third of the 19th century. Amelia Simmons’ recipes are well grounded in 18th century English tradition, but well larded with North American ingredients — cornmeal, jerusalem artichokes, potatoes, pumpkins, turkey, cranberries. The American penchant for using an alkalai to make cakes — today’s soda — was well represented in this book — alkali was recommended as a leavening where English cooks would have used eggs or yeast. While combining cranberry sauce with turkey is not conceptually original — the English had a comparable sauce — Americans have generally dropped fruit sauces from meats while having retained this one practice. American-style gingerbread — a soft cake rather than a crisp cookie — makes its first appearance in Amelia Simmons book. Pumpkin pie is also here, baked in a crust without a top in a recipe that we easily recognize: milk, pumpkin, eggs, molasses, allspice, and ginger.

While Amelia Simmons, American Cookery, stands as a bridge between the English cookbooks that had been popular in America in the 18th century, and the many cookbooks written by Americans that were to be published in the first three decades of the 19th century, in many ways she stands as a harbinger at once American culinary conservatism and American eagerness to adopt culinary short-cuts.

Taken as a whole, in the intervening two hundred years since Amelia Simmons wrote her book and today, mainstream American cuisine failed to follow-up her highlighting American ingredients — for it was, in fact, the American ingredients that made American Cookery American, rather than simply English. Pumpkin never got out of the pie into the savory courses where, it had, in Colonial practice, also had a place. Jerusalem artichokes all but disappeared out of American cuisine. Outside of the South, dried corn fell out of favor, no northern hominy, cornbreads, or grits. What could have been seen as a revolutionary interest in New World ingredients — a revolution in culinary practice to go with the recent political revolution, failed to materialize. However, where Amelia Simmons did prove prescient, was in her use or alkali as a leavening agent — a concept that eventually transformed American baked goods and beverages — chemically produces carbon dioxide being the basis of the American soft drink industry. Perhaps more profoundly, using soda as a leavening, while faster, produces a product with less complexity than one that is leavened by eggs or yeast. American cuisine, particularly in the twentieth century adopted labor saving expedients — canning, freezing, and refrigeration — that reduced over-all quality. It would not be fair, of course, to lay the future direction of American culinary culture on the doorstep of Ameila Simmons. Her work, American Cookery, is a little jewel — an excellent introduction to late 18th century American cooking.

Historically, turkeys, along with outer poultry and farm animals, were slaughtered in the biggest numbers in the fall when farmers were forced to cull their animals because only a limited number could be kept through the winter. However, turkeys were killed at other times of the year, as well. English eighteenth century cookbooks refer to birds killed in June and give roasting times for birds that could not have been more than four to eight pounds. As Amelia Simmons refers to cranberry sauce as a recommended accompaniment, she is implying that the turkey would be eaten in the fall when cranberries are fresh. Mangoes, also a recommended accompaniment are not, actually, mangoes, but rather refer to pickled fruit.

In trying to replicate an 18th century turkey recipe the difficulty is in how to acquire a suitable bird. The turkeys most readily available in American markets are young birds — two to four months — from a variety of turkey that grows very quickly. They will the taste more similar to a young turkey — a June or July turkey — though significantly bigger, than they will taste like an 18th century turkey slaughtered in the fall. To get closer to taste and texture of a turkey Amelia Simmons would have expected, you need to find a bird grown from one of the older varieties — a variety that grows more slowly. I would still look for smaller birds — one in the ten to twelve pound range. Ideally, of course, though this will be difficult, buy a bird that has really and truly grazed in fields. See my page on heritage turkeys for possible sources.

Amelia Simmons instruction for roasting is to “hang down to a steady fire.” As she mentions spit roasting in other recipes we can assume that she specifically intends that the bird not be spit roasted. I believe that she is recommending that the turkey be roasted in front of the fire hanging from a long string — a method I call “String Roasting” and develop fully in my book, The Magic of Fire. For whatever reason, I, and others I have consulted about string roasting, believe that string roasting produces the most succulent bird. I find this true of chicken as well as turkey. No, I have not done a blind taste testing, and as, in fact, I have made many wonderfully succulent birds on a spit maybe it is just the memory of seeing the bird soundlessly turning in the glow of the firelight without any apparent mechanical intervention that makes string-roasted birds always so memorable. Or maybe there is something to it, maybe the way the juices flow within the bird when hanging vertically rather than horizontally really does make a difference. Whatever the reason, to be completely authentic, roast the turkey hanging from a string. If you don’t have my book, I have an explanation of string roasting on my web site.

Amelia Simmons could have called for the turkey to be roasted in a bread oven. She didn’t. That she specifically suggests roasting in front of a fire suggests that this is a considered recommendation. Of course, if don’t have a fire on which to roast the bird, either on a spit or hanging from a string, then roast it in an oven.

One vital detail — the bird must be a room temperature — 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit before roasting, whether from a string, on a spit, or in the oven. A cold or partially frozen bird does not roast evenly — the breast will dry out before the rest of the meat is cooked.

The First Stuffing: “Grate a wheat loaf, 1 quarter of a pound butter, one quarter of a pound salt pork, finely chopped, 2 eggs, a little sweet marjoram, summer savory, parsley and sage, pepper and salt (if the pork be not sufficient,) fill the bird and sew up.”

The bread should be stale. If you have an oven with a pilot light leave a loaf in the oven until it is crisp. Grate it on a grater, as you would cheese. Do not buy breadcrumbs in a box. They are invariably stale. By specifying a wheat loaf Amelia Simmons is saying not to use a rye or barley loaf, but a whole what loaf would be fine. I would grate the bread, incorporate melted butter, the chopped salt pork, eggs, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. If you can buy bacon in slab form then you can substitute that for salt pork.

When it comes to flavorings, Amelia Simmons palette is that of eighteenth century England. While we tend to imagine that fresh herbs were discovered in the American late-twentieth century culinary renaissance, keep in mind that every 18th century household had its own kitchen garden. Herbs were grown for medicinal as well as culinary reasons. Fresh herbs abound in 18th century English cooking — and in Amelia Simmons.

The most interesting idea that I find in the stuffings that Amelia Simmons proposes is that of stuffing birds with potatoes — either roast potatoes or mashed potatoes. Her second variant under, To stuff and roast a Turkey, or Fowl, she writes, “Others omit the sweet herbs, and add parsley done with potatoes.” This is certainly in cookbook author shorthand. I gather she means that some substitute potatoes for the bread, which means using beef suet as the fat. The third variant is potato with butter as the fat. If you can’t get beef suet for any of these recipes, then substitute butter. That butter or suet were used more or less interchangeably is implied from the fact that butter is the main fat in the first stuffing recipe, To Stuff a Turkey, and suet in the second, To stuff and roast a Turkey, or Fowl.