ABSTRACT
The need for cookbooks was always present in America, as large numbers of the nation's homemakers were immigrants far removed from their family sources of information about cooking. The arrival of millions of immigrants, the increasingly urbanized population, and the growing importance of processed and prepared foods called for the development of an entirely new approach to cookbooks during the late Industrial Revolution. There are two types of cookbooks in marketplace: those that attempt to provide basic information to the presumably untutored cook, and those whose goal is to move the purchaser toward new kinds of foods and meal experiences. American Cookery was one of the first books to promote the use of pearl ash, an early form of baking powder, and the book has many recipes for biscuits and doughs for meat pies, the most likely breadstuffs consumed on a daily basis.
