Welcome to Eating the Past. I'm your host Evelyn Funda here today to talk about a historic cookbook and later to extend an invitation to listeners.
The hosts of this program have often referenced the impressive collection of cookbooks at Utah State University's Library Special Collections and Archives, and one of those that recently caught my eye is my focus today.
It's an 1877 book entitled “Six Little Cooks,” or, “Aunt Jane's Cooking Class,” by Elizabeth Stansbury Kirkland, who was an author, educator, historian, and founder of the Kirkland School for Girls in Chicago.
The aim of that school was to rethink the educational model of Victorian finishing schools, which prepared young women to attract a husband of some social standing by developing their social graces, enhancing personal beauty and comportment, and practicing the decorative arts like embroidery.
By contrast, Kirkland's school and her book “Six Little Cooks” emphasized the professional management and organization of the domestic sphere, the importance of a basic understanding of food chemistry, as well as the social role of food in civic engagement. “Six Little Cooks” is part domestic novel, in the tradition of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and part instruction manual for girls from relatively affluent families.
The story focuses on six girls, ages 9 to 12, as a visiting aunt guides them through preparations of dozens of popular dishes of the time. Aunt Jane teaches them domestic lessons on kitchen hygiene and organization, precise measurements, serving etiquette, food presentation, and what it takes to be a good hostess.
The ages of these novice cooks seem especially remarkable because Kirkland shows them successfully preparing dishes that even experienced cooks might find challenging. For instance, a boiled egg custard that does not curdle, pie crust that is impeccably flaky, meringue that holds its peaks, and an exacting candy recipe where the precise temperature of the boiling sugar determines success or failure.
They bake several fancy cakes in ovens lacking the temperature control of modern appliances, including a tipsy cake where a sponge cake is soaked with, quote, “as much wine as it will absorb.” Early on, they prepare a family breakfast where their popovers rise high and brown beautifully. Their coffee, which is boiled with an egg, comes out rich and strong, and their omelet is tender and tasty.
It's a feast, their father proclaims, that is, quote, superior to anything they have at Delmonico's. The girls expertly navigate recipes like one for gingersnaps that only instructs them to, quote, “add just enough flour to roll easily.”
When the neighbor's cook is sick, they step up to prepare and serve a ladies luncheon that includes chicken croquettes, veal meatballs, lettuce with freshly made mayonnaise, the tipsy cake and custard, and Saratoga potatoes, essentially potato chips, which requires them to deep-fry thinly sliced potatoes.
Can you do all of these? As a cookbook, Kirkland's “Six Little Cooks” is often a curiosity of recipes and methods we no longer rely on, and as a novel, it's no great piece of literature, but the characters are sweet, as are nearly all of the book's 200 recipes. So, so much sugar here.
Yet the book shines as an artifact of social history and the domestic education of women in the 19th century. If you care to read it for yourself, you can find a link to the digital copy in our show notes.
“Six Little Cooks” is one of the many historical cookbooks that will be referenced in a new exhibit at USU's library that celebrates the partnership between their archival collection and Eating the Past's five years of episodes.
Listeners are cordially invited to the opening of the exhibit to be held this Thursday, September 17th, from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. in the library's atrium. There, visitors can meet our program hosts, me included, sample historic treats, and learn more about food history.
The event is free and open to the public. If you can't make it that day, check it out anytime the library is open through late November.
I hope we see you there. More information about the exhibit is available in our show notes at upr.org. Also stay tuned for a new season with a brand-new theme that we're excited to bring you. That's right here Sundays at noon on your UPR station.
To read a digital copy of Six Little Cooks, click here:
https://libraryusu.access.preservica.com/uncategorized/IO_324c978d-b26d-4400-b209-2a8a8b174559/
Information about the “Eating the Past: Cookbooks in the Archives” Exhibit at USU’s Library, Sept 17-Nov 23.
The exhibit explores the history of food through rare and historic cookbooks and other culinary artifacts from Utah State University Libraries' Special Collections & Archives.
