World-wide – Ancient Civilization Two things should be noted: Throughout ancient history, most recipe documentation was done by royals or the wealthy; and plagiarism was a major issue with associated with cookbooks.
The first beginnings of recipe documentation and format can be traced back to ancient Mesopotamia; ruled by Amorite kings of the First Babylonian Empire. Cuneiform tablets are the earliest recorded recipes. The earliest surviving recipes, which give instructions for a series of meaty stews, are inscribed on cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia. Recipes also survive from ancient Egypt, Greece, China, and Persia (Viet, 2017).
A collection of three tablets are held at the Yale University Babylonian Collection of “350 lines of script that contained approximately 40 recipes for Mesopotamian cuisine that was en vogue around the Mesopotamian hearth in the mid-2nd century BC” (Monaco, 2017). "Though seemingly simple, their minimal instructions could only have been followed by experienced chefs working for the highest echelons of society. This particular tablet features 25 recipes for stews and soups, both meat and vegetarian, including some directions—though no measurements or cooking times—for an amursanu-pigeon stew: Split the pigeon in half—add other meat. Prepare the water, add fat and salt to taste; Breadcrumbs, onion, samidu, leeks, and garlic (first soak the herbs in milk). When it is cooked, it is ready to serve" (Recipes, 2016).
Figure 1. Babylonian cuneiform recipe tablet; possibly from Larsa, Iraq; found ca. 1750-1800.
“For millennia, however, most people weren’t literate and never wrote down cooking instructions. New cooks picked up knowledge by watching more experienced friends and family at work, in the kitchen or around the fire, through looking, listening, and tasting” (Viet, 2017).
As time progressed, recipe documentation and format appeared in 15th and16th century health and medical books. The first known cookbook of this type was De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine by Bartolomeo Platina; written in Latin around 1465. Platina’s book circulated mainly in Rome and Venice; with reprints and various translations. "By today's standards, early cookbooks offered very little in the way of systematic, step-by-step instruction. Quantities of ingredients were rarely given, and directions were ambiguous. 15th and 16th century books on food mainly described how to prepare ingredients with health and medicine in mind, and reflected the medieval preference for heavily spiced foods in vinegar based sauces" (Early, n.d.).
Figure 2. P. 138 of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine.
During this time, other cookbooks were also written and published in Platina’s part of the world, as well as other parts with the same recipe format of step-by-step instructions, and obscure amounts. These books were generally in the possession of the wealthy.
Europe During the 17th and 18th centuries, numerous English cookbooks were written and published. One well-known cookbook was New Booke of Cookerie by John Murrell; published in 1615. English cookery was influenced by the French, as stated in some of Murrell’s recipe titles. Murrell used the same recipe format as seen in Ancient Babylon; simple step-by-step instructions which are vague, with no clear amounts.
Figure 3. Book cover and recipes from New Booke of Cookerie.
America In the 17th and 18th century, recipe documentation in America continued to use oral tradition like other cultures around the world; however recipe documentation begins to take shape in the form of journaling. "In the 17th and 18th centuries, distinct national cuisines began to emerge, though the majority of published cookbooks record only the food habits of the wealthy. Alongside the growing body of published cookbooks was a rich oral tradition of shared family knowledge. Most middle class homemakers learned how to cook by watching their mothers and older sisters. Family traditions were often preserved by writing favorite recipes into household journals, which were passed down from one generation to the next" (Early, n.d.). Journaling wasn’t commonplace, but some begun to make use of it; including the middle-class. Journaling developed recipe collections that were eventually made into actual cookbooks.
Although English, the one example below is an example of what journaling may have looked like in America during this time period.
Figure 4. Example of recipe journaling.
The growing number of published cookbooks as previously quoted most likely refer to English cookbooks that came to American as a result of colonization, because it wasn’t till the late 18th century, that cookbooks began to be written and published in America.
The first known American cookbook was American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, published in 1796. "Recipes, as a format and genre, only really began coming of age in the 18th century, as widespread literacy emerged. This was around the same time, of course, that the United States came into its own as a country. The first American cookbook, American Cookery, was published in 1796. Author Amelia Simmons copied some of her text from an English cookbook but also wrote sections that were wholly new, using native North American ingredients like “pompkins,” “cramberries,” and “Indian corn.” Simmons’s audience was mainly middle-class and elite women, who were more likely to be able to read and who could afford luxuries like a printed book in the first place" (Viet, 2017).
Many of the recipes Simmons included were from England; most likely with the same recipe format used by the English. The difference in some of her recipes is that she includes numbering instruction steps (for example, No. 2, No. 3). Regardless, Simmons recipes are still vague and ambiguous. "Food historians generally agree Amelia Simmons American Cookery, published in Hartford, CT, 1796 is the first 'American' cookbook. Why? It was the first cookbook to include indigenous ingredients, most notably corn meal … Like most of the other cookbooks used in colonial America it was a reprint of a European cooking texts. colonists [Colonists] used cookbooks published in their native countries. English cooks would have had books written by Hannah Glasse, John Farley, John Murrell, and E. Smith (Colonial, n.d.).
Figure 5. American Cookery by Amelia Simmons.
In the 19th century, recipe documentation become more common as a result of industrialization and urbanization, which resulted in the spread of literacy. According to Sandra Oliver, former Food History News publisher, during this time period, “Between Roman times and the 19th century, women typically passed down their recipes to younger generations by example. But as literacy became more widespread over the last 200 years, women slowly shifted to writing their instructions down” (Arnold-Ratliff, 2011).
During the 19th century, recipe format design became what it is today. "From the 18th century onwards, an increasing number of cookery books were written by and for the growing middle class, which placed a new emphasis on how to achieve economy in the kitchen. Not until the 19th century did cookbooks begin to resemble the clear and comprehensive instruction manuals we use today" (Early, n.d.).
The domestic science or home economic movement largely influenced the systematic recipe format we know today by applying a scientific approach to cooking and housekeeping. "By the very end of the 19th century, American home economics reformers, inspired by figures like Catharine Beecher, had begun arguing that housekeeping in general, and cooking in particular, should be more methodical and scientific, and they embraced motion studies and standardization measures that were redefining industrial production in this era" (Viet, 2017).
Although Farmer and her contemporaries (Beecher and others) helped make homemaking more scientific, it was Farmer who first applied the science of cooking into her recipe format design. Farmer listed precise measurements (amounts) in a 2-column ingredient list, with an instructional paragraph beneath; thus introducing a more scientific approach to cooking. "By the start of the 20th century, instead of offering a few prosy sentences that gestured vaguely toward ingredient amounts, American recipes increasingly began with a list of ingredients in precise, numerical quantities: teaspoons, ounces, cups" (Viet, 2017). Farmer’s recipe format has not changed, and is still the main format used today; regardless of other formats available.
Figure 6. Example of Farmer’s recipe format, p. 282.