The Spirit of Seventy-Six!

In honor of the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence, all recipes through July 4, 2026 will be from Centennial and Bicentennial cookbooks and the 1796 first American cookbook. Enjoy this look at the (gastronomic) spirit of ’76 as we head into the sestercentennial!

I’ve also published a Sestercentennial Cookery with recipes and photos.

Royal Paste Number 9: Amelia Simmons’s Royal Paste No. 9, from the 1796 American Cookery.; pie crust; recipe; eighteenth century; 1700s; America’s Vicennial

This is an involved process, and I’d really recommend it only if you want your Sestercentennial pie or tart to bear full authenticity. That said, it’s a very nice pastry shell, especially for next week’s Cranberry Tarts.

While you’ve probably got some leeway, try to keep everything cold. While Amelia Simmons and her cohort would not have had refrigeration, they probably made this dish in October or November or even December. They may well have been doing it in a place that didn’t have heating either.

Drop in again soon for another vintage recipe! I’ll have a different recipe every Sunday afternoon throughout the year. Keep an eye on this page or subscribe to the RSS feed for further details. You can also browse past featured Club recipes as well as some of the vintage promotional cookbooks I’ve used as sources. And I collect many of these recipes in A Traveling Man’s Cookery Book.

Recipe blogging:

Originals:

Inspirations:

Archives:

Perhaps no ingredient is as important as curiosity. — Samin Nosrat (Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat•)