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.

Minced Pie of Beef: Minced Pie of Beef, from Amelia Simmons’s 1796 American Cookery.; pie; beef; raisins; apples; recipe; eighteenth century; 1700s; America’s Vicennial

I considered putting this ahead of the Fourth, but ultimately it was a little too weird. If, however, you’ve got some cooked beef left over that you can shred this is a fascinating look at how people ate in the years just following the war for independence.

The original recipe calls for last week’s American Paste Number 3 but any pie crust or puff pastry will do.

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.

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When I feel sad, I need a bowl of leek and potato soup. — Jacques Pépin (Today's Gourmet: Garlic Soup)