Easy and Economical Book of Jewish Cookery, Upon Strictly Orthodox Principles, An.
Scarce Early Jewish Cookbook By A Woman
[Cookbooks]. Atrutel, [Estella] Mrs. J. An Easy and Economical Book of Jewish Cookery. Upon Strictly Orthodox Principles. Dedicated (by kind permission) to the Baroness Lionel de Rothschild. All Rights Reserved. London: Printed and Published by P. Vallentine, 1880.
8vo.; occasional foxing; green cloth, tan leather spine label stamped in gilt.
First edition of this scarce early domestic manual for Orthodox Jews, written by a Jewish woman. Despite the note on the title page to the Appendix (of “miscellaneous recipes of meat, fish, pastry, &c.”), which states that it is an addition to the second edition, this is a true first, and is rare: two copies of the 1894 edition are recorded in the RLG Union Catalogue, but no copies are cited of this 1880 edition. This copy bears the stamp, on the title page, of Woolf Cooper, “Hebrew Bookseller … London.” Another stamp, in Hebrew and English, is on the front endpaper: “1927-1995 Efraim Gery,” from whose library it likely derived. It was as well used as it was cared for: there are pencil x’s to recipes throughout, occasional finger smudges to margins, and a few small stains to page edges which may well be the result of some culinary experiments.
Atrutel discusses the nature of her publication project in a preface:
In offering to the Jewish public this work, the writer will feel proud if she has been the means, however humble, of introducing among the Sisters of her Faith a taste for easy and economical cookery, upon a strictly orthodox principle. She has long seen the want of such a book, therefore she has exerted her humble efforts to make it a useful guide for domestic economy to young persons who leave their homes without the slightest knowledge of cooking, or the general management of the kitchen. Bad management in that department spoils the whole machinery of the house… (p. i)
In addition, Atrutel has included “a few observations upon the religious observances necessary in the kitchen…” (p. i). Atrutel, whom we could not trace in any of the standard references, provides her readers a range of delights for the table, from the basic, “Stock for white soups” and “broiled steak with carrots,” to the more exotic, “Sheep’s heart with celery,” “pickled nasturtiums,” to a flavorful selection of blancmanges, ice creams and preserves, and an elaborate “bride’s cake” that requires thirty-six eggs and five hours of baking. She also includes a special section on specific dishes for Passover, noting, “I know from experience that with a little trouble, and certainly with very little more expense, we can have everything as nice if not better.” In addition, she throws in some suggestions for successful homemaking outside the kitchen. But in the conclusion of her preface lies perhaps the greatest nugget of common wisdom: “Wives should remember that good cooking will keep their husbands in good temper. It certainly must be very annoying to the husband that, having provided well for his table, he finds his wife does not take the trouble to see it well cooked” (p. viii).
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