When bread rises in the oven, the heart of the housewife rises with it. Frederika Bremer (1801-1865), writer and feminist reformer

 {HISTORY}

One of the oldest houses in Atlanta GA, the Tullie Smith House, is a simple plantation-style farmhouse that was built in 1845 and sat on 800 acres.  It remained in the Smith family for over 200 years before it was bequeathed along with its detached kitchen to the Atlanta Historical Society. In the 1970s, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and underwent restoration and improvements in order to become a house museum open to the public for tours and study of 19th-century Southern farm life.

During the renovation process, the Kitchen Guild of the Tullie Smith House published this cookbook of collected recipes, gardening advice, and wisdom on domestic topics. Many of the recipes came from private journals, family scrapbooks, unpublished manuscripts, private kitchens and 1800s-era cookbooks and newspaper ads.  Containing more than just recipes, this is a highly researched account of farm life in the Piedmont section of Georgia during the mid to late 1800s.  Each recipe and helpful technique or piece of advice contains a source or an origin story, giving provenance to all information included and also the opportunity to conduct further research.  

Much of the contributed information came from Atlanta families but there is also a significant amount of recipes, wisdom, and diary excerpts from other Southern states including South Carolina,  Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Alabama and Florida. There is a mix between unaltered recipes, cooked in traditional ways of the 1800s, and also recipes that retrain their original authenticity but have been updated for modern (1970s-era!) kitchens and cooking equipment. This is a nice blend between two centuries and offers home cooks both the chance to try some authentic recipes from the 1800s just as they would have been made in their day, along with trying slightly modified dishes that are a smidge easier to recreate using modern measurements, cooking temps and cookware.

All in all, this is an incredible collection of Southern heritage recipes. The baking sections are especially interesting. 

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- Published in 1976

- 232 pages

- Paperback binding

- Copies of original handwritten recipes are peppered throughout along with 19th century newspapers advertisements including the first ad for Coca-Cola published in 1886

- Interesting recipes include Watermelon Rind Pickles, Her Common Biscuits, Rice Waffles, 150-Year-Old Spoon Bread, Georgia Chicken Pie, Cream Peanut Soup, A Nice Dish of Cheese, Southern Seed Cake, Hickory Nut Cookies, Cabinet Pudding, Superior Black Cake, Peach Marmalade, Gram's Succotash, and  a whole section on wild game cooking and more exotic fare

{CONDITION}

In lovely vintage condition. There is a fountain-pen ink stain that runs along the bottom of the book that affects about 1/3 of the pages. It does not affect the reading of the text in any way as the spots never reach the words. Please see photos. Otherwise, this book is in great shape, especially considering it is almost 50 years old. The spine is tight, all pages are intact and the cover and interior pages are clean and bright. 

{SIZE}

Measures 9" inches (length) x 6" inches (width) x .75" inches (thickness) and weighs just under 1lb.

{STYLE IDEA}

Pair this cookbook with age-appropriate 1800s-era antiques for an authentic meal, Southern style.