National Network for Equitable Library Service

Published in 1872 in Boston, The Appledore Cook Book was authored by renowned cooking teacher and writer Maria Parloa to be a go-to cookbook for new brides and housekeepers, and it was specifically geared toward simpler recipes with less expensive ingredients. This first of many cookbooks by Parloa was inspired by her time spent cooking at the Appledore House hotel on the Isles of Shoals, Maine. The Appledore Cook Book contains the first known recipe for tomato chowder (known today as tomato soup) as well as delectable family-sized recipes such as Lamb Chops, Dumplings for Soup, Baked Potatoes, Fried Ham, Buckwheat Cakes, Apple Cake, Ginger Snaps and Pumpkin Pie. Emphasizing the purpose of this popular cookbook, Parloa states in the preface, “The great trouble with all the cook books which I have known... is, that they are too expensive, and that they use weight instead of measure, and also that they take for granted that the young housekeeper knows many things which she really does not.” With The Appledore Cook Book, Parloa provides just such a cookbook of simple-yet-tasty, inexpensive meals—a theme as popular in the 19th century as it is today. This edition of The Appledore Cook Book was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.