The universal cookery book

From the librarian's dossier · AI-generated, grounded in the scanned text

The Universal Cookery Book (1887) by Gertrude Strohm is a wide-ranging American household manual covering meats, poultry, game, vegetables, pickles, preserves, breads, puddings, pies, cakes, ice creams, confectionery, and remedies for the sick. Drawing on period sources such as Marion Harland, Arthur's Home Magazine, Godey's Lady's Book, and the Presbyterian Cook-Book, the book blends practical instruction with literary excerpts from authors like Charles Dickens, Charles Lamb, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Burroughs, alongside narrative vignettes such as Sam Lawson's frozen turkey and Aunt Cindy's dinner. With 361 anchored food records and only 2 medicinal ones, the collection is overwhelmingly a culinary text, though it closes with a small section of home remedies and invalid cookery reflecting period domestic medicine. The recipes span from simple everyday fare like baked beans and codfish balls to elaborate French-influenced preparations such as Fricandeau and Beef a la Mode. Readers today will find a snapshot of Victorian-era American kitchen life: careful market-selection advice, thrifty use of leftovers, and an emphasis on proper technique in roasting, broiling, and preserving. The book concludes with an alphabetical index and a publisher's advertisement for other cookery titles, situating it within the commercial cookbook culture of its time.

The book is organized into numbered chapters covering broad food categories in sequence: shellfish and meats, poultry and game, eggs and vegetables, pickles and preserves, breads and rolls, puddings and pies, cakes and frozen desserts, confectionery and beverages, and finally invalid cookery and home remedies. Each chapter groups related recipes together, often introduced by literary quotations or short narrative anecdotes. The final section (section 10) contains a remedies collection followed by a comprehensive alphabetical index and a publisher's advertisement for other cookery titles.