Leslie's approach of casting such a wide net was rather innovative. Until this point in time, many cookbook writers appealed to singular groups—such as the upper class with its taste (and budget) for pastries and sweetmeats, or the thrifty women Lydia Maria Child targeted in The American Frugal Housewife. But Leslie found a way to capture the attention of a wide audience.
As Patrick Dunne and Charles L. Mackie assert, through the success of Leslie's cookbooks, Goodfellow and Leslie essentially changed the way American women viewed food preparation. Leslie's recipes had much clearer instructions than those of her predecessors, listing specific quantities and making it much easier for those with less-developed cooking skills to re-create popular dishes of the time.50
So she included women from all walks of life in her intended audience. She assured her readers (reflecting the attitudes of her day) that her receipts were written in a style “so plain and minute, as to be perfectly intelligible to servants, and persons of the most moderate capacity.”51 The level of detail in Leslie's directions conjures up images of her as a student inside Mrs. Goodfellow's “classroom” writing down her teacher's instructions verbatim, as if she was taking notes for an absent schoolmate.
This clarity in Leslie's recipes is apparent from the very beginning; in the preface of Seventy-Five Receipts she reassures her readers: “The following Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, are original, and have been used by the author and many of her friends with uniform success,” she boldly states. “All the ingredients, with their proper quantities, are enumerated in a list at the head of each receipt, a plan which will greatly facilitate the business of procuring and preparing the requisite articles.”52 Prior to this, recipes were commonly written out in paragraph form. Leslie made things easier by listing ingredients first, something we take for granted when reading a recipe today, but at that time it was a novel approach, and an influence of her mentor, Mrs. Goodfellow.53
Eliza also had a knack for seeing a need and interest for various cooking techniques and methods, and then introducing them to the American public. It is likely Mrs. Goodfellow had some input here as well, perhaps suggesting what types of recipes Eliza could include in her cookbooks.
For example, Leslie's second book, Domestic French Cookery, “chiefly translated from Sulpice Barué,” which was published in 1832, was especially well-received in the South, where there was a sizable interest in French cooking.54 As Leslie indicates in the book's preface, her purpose in writing Domestic French Cookery was to provide a select variety of recipes for French specialties that were adapted to products and ingredients found in America. She included only dishes that she felt were well-suited to American palates and the country's diversity of foods, making subtle changes and substitutions in her versions.55
Leslie's savvy in knowing how to adapt and “Americanize” French cookery in order to make it viable in this new nation differentiated her work. She realized many people did not speak or read French, so she interpreted the terms and directions. Her goal was to make a book available for people who appreciated fine French foods, but perhaps did not have the culinary skills required to create them. She was also hoping that exposure to these dishes would help improve American cookery, and suggests “this little work may be found equally useful in private families, hotels, and boarding-houses.”56
A great deal of mystery surrounded this cookbook for many years, in particular the background of Monsieur Barué and how Leslie obtained these recipes. Leslie makes no mention in any of her writings about who he was, any relationship they may have had, or how this book even came to be published. Historians often wondered if they were authentic or simply contrived, especially since Katherine Bitting's Gastronomic Bibliography (published in 1939) maintains that there is no listing of a Sulpice Barué in Vicaire's well-known French cookbook reference book, Bibliographie Gastronomique.
However, through meticulous research, food historian Jan Longone revealed that Barué was indeed the editor of several editions of Louis-Eustache Audot's La Cuisinière de la Campagne et de la Ville (1827–1829), and had also contributed 150 recipes of his own to the volumes. Leslie's cookbook was simply a translated compilation of these receipts, as duly noted on the book's cover. She never mentioned this work in her autobiographical letter because she evidently never considered it to be anything more than a translation.57
According to William Woys Weaver, Leslie's Domestic French Cookery came about as an attempt by Philadelphia publishers to establish more control over the West Indian and Latin American trade (since Boston monopolized the U.S. book market at the time). Publishing this volume in Philadelphia was a way to infiltrate the New Orleans market (with its large French influence). He maintains its success had nothing to do with the high-class (French) cooking that was popular in Philadelphia, because the recipes chosen by Leslie were more bourgeois (middle or merchant class) in nature, not the elaborate French cuisine produced in Philadelphia at that time by French-trained chefs and caterers.58
The fact that Leslie made any type of French recipes available to the general public was quite remarkable, especially for a woman. Male professionals dominated French cooking from its earliest days, with creative chefs striving to concoct luxurious dishes for royal families, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants. Their handiwork eventually trickled down into a number of other food service occupations such as catering, pastry and confectionary making, and restaurant work. For a long time French cookbooks were written by men, mainly for other men employed in these positions.59
The French Cook by Louis Eustache Ude had been reprinted in America before Leslie's Domestic French Cookery, and although Ude's intention was to produce an easier method of French cookery for cooks of all levels, his writing style was less direct than Leslie's. But after Leslie's Domestic French Cookery, more adaptations of French cookbooks were introduced to the American public, including one produced by J. M. Sanderson of Philadelphia's Franklin House in 184360 and Charles Elme Francatelli's The Modern Cook, published in 1846.
Then Pierre Blot, a Frenchman who came to the United States in the 1850s, published his first book in 1863, What to Eat and How to Cook It. Similar to Leslie, his recipes were “systematically and practically arranged, to enable the housekeeper to prepare the most difficult or simple dishes in the best manner.” Two years later he opened with much fanfare what many food experts consider the first school of French cookery in the U.S.—the New York Cooking Academy, and in 1867 authored the Hand-book Of Practical Cookery, For Ladies and Professional Cooks.61 We'll visit him again later in our story.
So although Leslie was among the first of American cookbook writers to offer French cooking instructions for the masses, it is not known which (if any) of these French cooking techniques came from Mrs. Goodfellow's lectures. More than likely, Mrs. Goodfellow taught the “Anglicized” versions of French recipes, which had been popular in England and printed in the British cookbooks Goodfellow used as textbooks.
For example, there is a recipe for “Ragou of Onions” attributed to Mrs. Goodfellow in a manuscript cookbook compiled in Philadelphia. The directions call for browning onions in a stew pan with butter; then adding flour, gravy, cayenne pepper, salt, and mustard and cooking until the mixture is thick.62 Ragout is a French term for a rich stew of meat and vegetables, particularly one with a highly flavorful sauce added near the end of the cooking time. It was adapted into English as ragoo in the seventeenth century,63 and according to Andrew F. Smith, ragout recipes were published in the United States beginning in 1828.64
The “Queries and Answers” column from the January 1931 issue of American Cookery magazine provides additional insight into some of the French techniques that may have been taught by Mrs. Goodfellow. In explaining the differences between ragouts and salmis, the columnist says (facetiously), “A hundred years ago, more or less, when we went to cooking school, we learned that a salmi is a stew of game; a ragout is a stew with either vinegar or wine added while cooking.” According to the art
icle, the wine or vinegar served to soften the tough connective tissue of any meat that needed it, whether game or butcher's meat.65 As the receipt attributed to Mrs. Goodfellow did not contain any meat, the softening agents were not required.
In Domestic French Cookery, Leslie lists recipes for “Ragooed Cabbage,” “Ragooed mushrooms,” and “Ragooed Livers.” Fittingly, the “Ragooed Livers” call for white wine, but the vegetable recipes do not. The other recipes for similarly cooked dishes are all labeled “stewed,” in line with Leslie's translations of French cooking for the American public. The Game and Poultry section also includes receipts for “A Salmi” and “Cold Salmi,”66 and a recipe for “Salmi of Partridges” (French dish) is found in The Lady's Receipt-Book: A Useful Companion for Large or Small Families (1947).67
In Directions for Cookery, Leslie includes the recipe for an often unpredictable French dish, omelette soufflé. She includes such strict instructions that it should have a disclaimer attached. Perhaps this was one technique not typically taught by Mrs. Goodfellow, or maybe Leslie had little confidence in her readers' ability to replicate the light, fluffy delicacy. Either way, her description makes it sound like something only the most daring housewives would want to try; even modern home cooks who have attempted this dish can attest to its level of difficulty.
She warns not to begin to make an omelette soufflé until guests have finished their dinner, so that it may be ready to serve as soon as the meat course is removed. “Send it immediately to table, or it will fall and flatten,” she cautions. “An omelette soufflé is a very nice and-delicate thing when properly managed; but if flat and heavy it should not be brought to table.” To prevent this horrid scenario from happening, her final bit of advice provides less adventurous cooks with a way to opt out altogether. “If you live in a large town, the safest way of avoiding a failure in an omelette soufflé is to hire a French cook to come to your kitchen with his own utensils and ingredients, and make and bake it himself, while the first part of the dinner is progressing in the dining room.”68 One can only imagine what Mrs. Goodfellow thought of that suggestion; it seems unlikely that she would have advised Leslie to print this in her cookbook, but perhaps even she realized there were limits to the cooking abilities of nonprofessionals.
Another of Leslie's cookbooks that smartly filled a market niche, yet had long baffled food historians, was The Indian Meal Book, first published in 1846 in London. In this cookbook, Leslie provides recipes that feature cornmeal as a main ingredient, designed to be a nutritious and less expensive substitute for wheat flour during the time of the potato famine in Ireland. The purpose of this book was to educate the Irish and British about the versatility of maize, or Indian corn, as it was called, thus helping them survive the potato crop failure.69
Americans had been experimenting with cornmeal for years and knew how to incorporate it into palatable baked goods. Indeed, “Indian Pound Cake” was considered one of Mrs. Goodfellow's signature recipes. Leslie included it in many of her cookbooks, and permutations of the recipe also found their way into Philadelphia area manuscript cookbooks of the time.70
It had been assumed that The Indian Meal Book had been first published in 1847 by the Philadelphia publishing house Carey and Hart, as Leslie had worked with them on several of her books, a relationship fostered by her sister Patty's marriage to Henry C. Carey. However, once again, sleuthing by Jan Longone found the two earlier editions published in London. What has never been determined is how Leslie was chosen to write the book. Was it her idea (or even Goodfellow's), or was she commissioned to write it by the London publisher or some other? It remains a mystery.71
The many uses of cornmeal adopted from the Native Americans are just one example of how ingredients and flavors from other cultures were integrated with foods widely available in North America. In New Receipts for Cooking (1854), Miss Leslie's recipe for “Guisada or Spanish Stew” calls for “hare, rabbit, partridges, pheasants, or chickens,” all of which were popular fare in the United States at that time. Stewing was a common cooking method, especially for game meat, but one thing that differentiated this recipe was Leslie's suggestion at the end: “It will be improved by the juice of one or two oranges, squeezed in toward the last.”72
Citrus fruits like oranges were just one of the numerous exotics that were shipped to Philadelphia and other American ports from warmer climates including Spain, India, and the Caribbean. Diverse flavorings such as West Indian molasses, turmeric, cayenne pepper, rose and orange flower water, nutmeg, and cinnamon were among the many others. As a result, recipes such as West India Cocoa-Nut Cake, chicken curry, Alpistekas (Spanish cakes), and Pollo Valenciano were included in Miss Leslie's cookbooks, helping to familiarize Americans with a variety of taste combinations.73
Sauces and condiments using these imported spices and seasonings were central to these multicultural dishes, and Leslie's cookbooks featured instructions for different versions, including what foods they go best with and how to serve them. Her “East India Sauce for Fish” recipe says to “mix well together a jill of India soy; a jill of chili vinegar; half a pint of walnut catchup, and a pint of mushroom-catchup. Shake the whole hard, and transfer it to small green bottles, putting a teaspoonful of sweet oil at the top of each, and keep the sauce in a cool dry place. When eating fish, mix a little of this with the melted butter on your plate.”74
The “catchups” she is referring to were salty, spicy liquids, thinner than the thick tomato “ketchup” we slather on our hamburgers today. More like a soy sauce, there were versions made from walnuts, mushrooms, cucumbers, lemons, and lobster, as well as grapes and tomatoes. Leslie even had a recipe for “camp catchup” that was made out of ale or porter, white wine, shallots or onions, nutmeg, and ginger.75
All these varieties originated from Asian cuisines, introduced to Europe by Dutch traders. The word ketchup derives from the Chinese word kêtsiap, a fermented fish sauce, which was most likely originally the Malay word kechap, (now spelled kecap), or soy sauce. Common features included their salty taste, concentrated consistency, and long shelf life.76 Although rather time-consuming to prepare, they provided interesting preserved seasonings at the ready, especially in the days before refrigeration. Up until about 1850, when ketchup was listed as an ingredient in an American recipe, it most likely was referring to those sauces made out of mushroom, walnut, or oyster. The use of these savory flavor enhancers continued throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, mostly owing to the continued popularity of Miss Leslie's cookbooks.77
Also from India, spicy curries were not unfamiliar to Americans, especially to those of English descent, as recipes for them had been included by British cookbook authors such as Hannah Glasse and William Kitchener beginning in the eighteenth century.78 In America, The Virginia House-wife (1824) by Mary Randolph has instructions regarding “To Make a Curry of Catfish” and “To Make a Dish of Curry After the East Indian Manner,” as well as a general recipe for curry powder that she says can be “used as a fine flavoured seasoning for fish, fowls, steaks, chops, veal cutlets, hashes, minces, alamodes, turtle soup, and in all rich dishes, gravies, sauce, etc.”79
Eliza Leslie also incorporated several curry recipes in her cookbooks, stating that in its homeland of India, curry powder is “much used as a peculiar flavoring for soups, stews, and hashes.” Like Hannah Glasse, she used a curry powder made of freshly ground spices to season these dishes. Her instructions say to “pound in a marble mortar three ounces of turmeric, three ounces of coriander seed, and a quarter of an ounce of cayenne; one ounce of mustard, one ounce of cardamoms, a half ounce of cummin seed, and half an ounce of mace. Let all these ingredients be thoroughly mixed in the mortar, and then sift it through a fine sieve, dry it for an hour before the fire, and put it into clean bottles, securing the corks well. Use from two to three table-spoonfuls at a time, in proportion to the size of the dish you intend to curry.”
She states that this very pungent powder (with turmeric as a core
ingredient) is indispensable to all curries, which may be made using any meat, poultry, game, or even oysters. Onions and boiled rice are also vital to the authenticity, she maintains, adding “in India there is always something acid in the mixture, as lemons, sour apple juice, or green tamarinds.” As a suggestion she recommends adding two ounces of finely grated coconut, a “pleasant improvement to curried dishes, and (is) universally liked.”80
Persons of African descent were another group that had a huge influence on the cuisines of the southern United States and Caribbean, and Leslie paid homage to their expertise as well. She is the first white author to openly acknowledge African American women as the source of some of her recipes.81 As previously mentioned, in the preface of New Receipts for Cooking (1854) she credits Southern women as contributors of several of the cookbook's recipes, claiming that “many were dictated by colored cooks, of high reputation in the art, for which nature seems to have gifted that race with a peculiar capability.”82 Her “compliments” seem back-handed today, but were reflective of the time; the idea of racial subordination surfaces in several of Leslie's fiction books as well.
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