Books and My Food: With Literary Quotations and Original Recipes for Every ..

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Books and My Food is an unusual 1904 hybrid of literary anthology and household cookbook, compiled by Elisabeth Luther Cary. Rather than organizing recipes by ingredient or course, the book follows a calendar structure, offering one recipe per day across a full year, from January through December. Each daily entry opens with a literary quotation drawn from novelists and poets such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Thackeray, Lamb, and Bronte, followed by a practical recipe meant to echo or complement the quoted passage. The dishes themselves are largely familiar English and American fare of the period: roasted and broiled meats, game birds, soups, sauces, preserved and pickled goods, puddings, cakes, and holiday specialties. The author states her intent plainly, that these are well-known dishes she wants prepared correctly rather than exotic novelties. With 329 anchored food records across the book, it offers a substantial working collection of period recipes wrapped in a literary conceit. Modern readers will find it a charming window into how domestic cookery and literary culture intertwined in genteel American households at the turn of the twentieth century, useful both as a source of historical recipes and as an artifact of how cookbooks could double as reading material and cultural signaling.

The book is organized as a day-by-day calendar running from January 1st through December 31st, divided here into seven sections that track roughly two months apiece (with the final section covering only December 15-31). Each daily entry pairs a literary quotation with a corresponding recipe, so the structure is chronological by date rather than by food category or course. Headings throughout are the specific calendar dates (for example JANUARY 1ST, APRIL 17TH, OCTOBER 17TH, DECEMBER 15TH). The book opens with a preface in section 1 and closes in section 7 with an alphabetical recipe index running from almonds through ham, allowing readers to locate specific dishes outside the calendar sequence.