It is a delightfully smart book that Isabel Cotton Smith has created - exclusive, distinctive, and brimming with delicacies that unfortunately so seldom adorn the dining tables of American homes. Louis Diat, Chef De Cuisine, Ritz-Carleton Hotel, NYC 1926

{HISTORY}

Intended to educate wealthy young women, society debutantes, and aristocratic households who were managing domestic staff or the lack thereof, Isabel Cotton Smith set out to teach women all the basics in the creative fields of culinary arts and home management. It took her nine years to write The Blue Book of Cookery before it was finally published in 1926. Part cookbook and part primer on how to run a household, Isabel firmly believed that all women (and men too) should know how to cook delicious creative, cost-effective meals for their families. This was a component in the raising of well-bred women of the 1920s era that Isabel felt was lacking in America.

Shortly after The Blue Book of Cookery was published, Isabel opened a training school for domestic servants on the Upper East of New York City. In response to the complaints that she constantly heard from her society friends that there was no good help left in the city, Isabel started the school to educate maids, kitchen staff, and butlers on how to excel at their jobs. The school became so popular that it extended classes to newly-marrieds and prospective brides anxious to to learn the art of homekeeping and cooking for their new families. (See cooking school photo included here courtesy of the Daily News February 4, 1928).

What's really interesting about this now rare book is Isabel's emphasis on practical household management, economy of food, the use or non-use of domestic help and meal planning all seen through the lens of her society standing. Isabel grew up in a wealthy, aristocratic family, but the tragic death of her husband in an auto accident at a young age taught her that money could be fleeting and it was best to rely upon one's own financial independence and gumption. So she saw both sides of the coin - what it was like to live with money and without money.

"The secret of charm in living is like that of success in life - it is to make the most of what you have," Emily Post writes in the introduction. That is always what Isabel strived to do throughout her life and what she endeavored to teach others through her cookbook and her training school. That makes this book fascinating on a few different fronts. It is an interesting look at social standing in the early 20th century and how that plays a part on everyday life especially regarding the graceful arts of homekeeping, cooking, and hospitality, whether tackling it all with help or without.

Also interesting, unlike many cookbooks, even ones published today, Isabel throughout stresses the importance of individuality in tailoring dietary needs, household management, and costs to each reader's specific needs. Instead of proclaiming there is only one way to do things, she simply offers helpful outlines and general rules of thumb to make life at home more pleasant, attractive, and organized for all individuals. sharing the same space. 

Needless to say, The Blue Book of Cookery struck a chord with homekeepers and cooks and went through several reprints all the way through the 1940s. This rare hard to find second printing of the first edition was published in October 1926, the same year that the cookbook debuted.

{SPECIAL FEATURES}

- Published in 1926, Second Printing 

- Rare, hard-to-find edition

- 650 pages not including several book advertisements following the index

- Color and black and white plates are peppered throughout

- Interesting sections (new for the times) include school menus for children; economical menus for the family broken down by season; kitchenette cooking (aka apartment cooking) and associated menu costs of food broken down by ingredient; roles and responsibilities of each person living in a house including servants 

- Contains over 2000 recipes  for all meals of the day

- Introduction by Emily Post

- Interesting recipes include Cucumber and Chive Sandwiches, Spinach Custard, Rolled Oats and Peanut Cookies, Coconut  Pound-Cake, Steamed Chocolate Sponge Pudding, Huckleberry Pudding, Cheese Dudley, Montauk Sandwiches, New Orleans Chicken Salad, Potato and Tomato Salad, Chicken Hamilton, English Mudffins, Boned Brisket with Onion Sauce, Beef Birds, Crown of French Chops, Chestnut Croquettes, Stuffed Summer Squash, Southern Hard Crab Gumbo, Chestnut Soup, Caviar in Lemon Baskets, Graham-flour Griddlecakes, Eggs Newport, Eggs and Artichokes, Graham-flour Popovers, Miss Tyler Crullers, Cheese Fritters, and Fig Folds 

- Adventurous cooks will find interest in the wide range of organ meta recipes, and exotic ingredients involving pigs' feet, calf heads,  frogs' legs, etc.

- Bakers will love the many from-scratch heirloom recipes for cakes, cookies, breads, and desserts including several with multiple variations based on ingredients or particular recipes attributed to specific home bakers

{CONDITION}

In beautiful almost-antique condition. This cookbook is very clean inside and out, with no spots, stains or markings. The binding is tight and all pages are intact. Some of the pages bear some light speckling around the edges - most likely a reaction to the acid in the paper occurring over time. There is also one light discoloration spot that affects the interior corner of the first 70 pages of the cookbook. This is very light and insignificant. please see photos.

{SIZE}

Measures 8.25" inches (length) x 5.5 inches (width) x 1.75" inches (thickness) and weighs 2 lbs.

{FOR THE COLLECTOR}

Two birds of feather flock together when this book is combined with Emily Post's 1925 book, Etiquette. Between the two it's a fascinating look at life in high society in the 1920s. 

Find another 1920s-era domestic staff cooking school cookbook here.