This cookbook, organized as a fundraiser by the ladies of a Congregational church in Marysville, Ohio in 1876, was a big hit with Midwestern housewives. It was published in several more editions.
Alice James took the mystery out of cooking for young housewives by providing tasty, economical recipes specially designed for a small family of two or three.
Abby Fisher moved from Alabama to California during the 1870s, where she sold pickles, jellies and preserves, and won an award at the 1879 Sacramento State Fair. Local San Francisco area women encouraged this African-American cook to capture her decades of Southern culinary experience in a cookbook. Mrs. Fisher couldn’t read or write, so she dictated the recipes.
