The Original White House Cook Book: Cooking, Etiquette, Menus, and More from the Executive Estate - 1887 Edition

My friend is an excellent cook! She loves every aspect of cooking, including growing her own vegetables, fresh herbs and canning. When I saw this book, I knew she’d love to add it to her collection and she has!

This cookbook is the exact reprint of the original 1887 White House Cookbook,which has been a favorite, and therefore in print for decades.For the purpose of a better insight as to what this cookbook offers,it seems advantageous to list a brief summary of the author's credentials.Mrs. F.L.Gillette made a life-long and thorough study of cookery and housekeeping,especially as it is adapted to the practical wants of the average American home.Hugo Ziemann was at one time caterer for the Prince Napoleon who was killed while fighting the Zulus in Africa.He was steward of the Hotel Splendide in Paris. He conducted the Brunswick Cafe' in New York.And at the Hotel Richelieu, in Chicago, his cuisine won the appause of even gourmets of foreign lands.Every recipe had been "tried and tested" before it was included in the cookbook.And this book was intended to give knowledge to housekeepers of all classes.Embodied here are some original features.Such as --1. Menus for the holidays.2. Menus for one week of each month, for the entire year, which would cover all varieties of seasonable foods.3. Convenient classification of topics, and explanations of preparing.4. Detailed instructions for carving of: beef, veal, mutton, pork, venison, turkey, goose, duck, and salmon.5. Interesting information about the "White House", menus served on special occasions,views of the interior of the White House, and portraits of all the ladies of the White Houseto the point of this 1887 edition book.6. For convenience the book is in large, plain type.Some recipes offered are not of much need nowadays, such as how to make catsup or home-made yeast.But some of the "sauces for puddings" sound yummy!The "Measures and weights" page is fun. Did you know that "2 Wine-glasses equal one gill or half a cup"?The contents cover a vast variety of topics and recipes.Although there is much information that is more entertaining then would be applicable,there is also much information that would still be usefull today in 2011.If your a cook that enjoys the rapport of old fashioned cookbooks, and the fun of rejuvenateing some old recipes,this is an excellent book, you wouldn't want to miss.

Interesting information of how things got done back then, but recipes are are not written with measurements.

This book is perfect as described and beautiful. Unfortunately it wreaks of either fabric softener or deodorizer and can not be gifted as intended. What a huge shame, and disappointment.

Love to cook and love old things so this was perfect. Interesting how recipes were written back then. Still need to try making one of the recipes.

It's a cookbook!

I purchased this for my wife as a gift. She’s going to love it.

Interesting read but extremely limited in recipes

I really enjoyed reading this book. I knew it was a cookbook that had been published in 1887 so I bought it to find out about that era but I was surprised at how much I learned from this book. I'm an okay cook so maybe someone else with more experience wouldn't be surprised at some of the cooking facts but I think that much of the stuff they talk about is relevent in today's cooking.I knew from other reviews that the recipes were in a paragraph form rather than the standard list of items and I didn't think I'd like that type of format but again I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this informal style of writing. A lot of modern recipes I've followed will often give you a list of ingredients and then a short paragraph telling you what to add to what but they don't explain why. I found the recipes in this book more informative for the most part. I also liked the way they measured ingredients in this book. A lot of times it was a half a teacup of this or a lump of butter the size of a walnut. I guess this could drive some people crazy but for someone like myself who is used to measuring ingredients precisely I found it a very liberating way of cooking.There is more than just recipes, for example it also has pages on how to carve the different animals, the cuts of meat from them how to serve them to your guests. There are pages on how to dye cotton, silk, wool, recipes for health/personal care (I'd take those with a grain of salt but interesting to read), menus for the White House table - a week from each month of the year, just to name a few (Interesting to see how differently we eat today.).All in all a very good read and there are menus in there that I'd like to try. I'll be using this book for a reference in my kitchen for sure.

Mom had the original And I have it now although it is in a state of disrepair as it is in excess of 100 years old.I looked into having it refurbished and found that buying a new copy was 10 times cheaperLove it

Just the cook book for me. Love the refreshing way it is written-just like telling a friend how to do something simple. Love it.