A South Dakota State University history professor’s ongoing study of cookbooks finds something spicy simmering in the 18th century: A slow recipe for social change.

Professor April Brooks came across copies of a once-popular cookbook while doing research in London: “The Whole Duty of a Woman, or A Guide to the Female Sex.” It was first published in 1695 and remained in print at least through 1835.

“It starts with a morality essay but it’s actually a cookbook, which I found a really odd combination,” Brooks said.

Though published in England, it was imported to America as well, and the number of copies that remain suggests it was widely used.

“It was kind of like ‘The Joy of Cooking’ or ‘The Fannie Farmer Cookbook’ of the 18th century,” Brooks said. “It supposedly is not the most successfully sold cookbook of the 18th century, but it’s definitely near the top of the list because it was reproduced so many times.”

As a specialist in 18th century English history, Brooks was interested in what the cookbook and the accompanying essay might be able to tell her about the audience to whom the book was addressed.

She notes that the fact that the cookbook exists at all, and was apparently so common, is evidence of the increasing literacy level among women. Before 1600, probably one woman in 10 could read, Brooks said. But by the start of the 18th, that was on the increase. By 1750, that figure had risen to approximately five women in 10 who possessed some rudimentary reading skills.

In addition the references to Greece and Rome suggest the unnamed author of the cookbook expected women to be able to understand allusions to classical learning.

“I see it in the cookbook section. Some ingredients are listed by their Latin names. I see it in the morality essay as well, because they are assuming that you are versed in Greek and Latin history and mythology,” Brooks said. “In the morality essay, all the exemplary women are figures from classical times.”

Behind that assumed knowledge on the part of readers, Brooks sees a suggestion that young women are listening in on their brothers’ lessons in households with home tutors, and by the eighteenth century, even attending boarding school. That subject material, and the date, offer clues about the intended audience of the cookbook.

“The year 1695 makes perfect sense to be the first edition of a cookbook with a morality lesson attached to it, because in the late 17th century England was changing and its middle class was increasing in size. What I’m thinking is that this cookbook was done to teach the middle class how to either supervise their servants in the production of food or do it themselves,” Brooks said. “This tremendous, changing time in English history is what I would call ‘the age of gentrification.’ It’s the development of a prosperous middle class. So I’m looking at this to see how they are educating the middle class. What lessons are they learning as they rise in status?”

Brooks noted that the ingredient lists suggest something new is happening, too, for which the English language at that time doesn’t have a specific word. Recipes of the day are clearly written for a public that is accustomed to using sugar from the Caribbean, where sugar cane had been introduced shortly after Columbus discovered the New World; tea from Sri Lanka and other Asian lands; cocoa from the New World; coffee from North Africa and the Middle East.

“Trade in these new products fueled the British economy, and it was a worldwide economy. It was globalization. We don’t talk about globalization until we get to the 20th century, but that’s what they were doing,” Brooks said.

All the ingredients the cookbook calls for would be readily available to middle class English households of the day, although some products eventually fell out of favor. One recipe — “to procure rest” — includes a dram of opium, for example. A century later, 19th century English society awakened to the dangers of opium addiction.
Recipes also provide insights about changing ideas on such topics as hygiene. For example, Brooks found in the British Magazine from 1764 a recipe “for cleansing of the teeth.” It is to be used "only once in the space of two or three months."