2/ After Leslie's father passed away, the family faced economic hardship. Her mother opened a boarding school & to assist with the preparation of meals, Leslie attended the first American culinary school, that of Elizabeth Goodfellow for two terms.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
3) Leslie grew tired of copying out recipes for all her friends, and on the advice of her brother, published her first cookbook in 1828. Her most popular book, 'Directions for cookery in its various branches' was published in 1837 & sold 150,000 copies.
4/ Goodfellow's teachings emphasised fresh, good quality ingredients & her method of writing was one of the first to list the ingredients required at the beginning of the text. Leslie's descriptions are simple but instructive & was intended to appeal to all strands of society.
5/ A celebrity in American society at this stage, The Indian Meal Book (1846), pictured above, was Leslie's 9th cookbook. Strange parallels can be drawn between how Indian corn was being promoted in both Ireland and America around this time during the height of the Great Famine.
6/ As an experiment, one of our Library colleagues attempted to replicate Leslie's Sweet Kentucky Cake recipe at the weekend. It got the cat's stamp of approval and we are all still alive to tell the tale!
Comments