Letitia Burwell, author of A Girl’s Life in Virginia Before the War, commented that every Virginia housewife (and presumably many slaves as well) “knew how to compound all the various dishes in Mrs. “Not surprisingly, the book’s regional emphasis made it especially popular in the South,” writes the blog. It contains a lot of practical advice–more than the English cookbooks that were available, according to Feeding America–as well as a broad range of recipes that use grown-in-Virginia ingredients. It was first published in 1825, just four years before Randolph’s death. Perhaps capitalizing on this, she wrote The Virginia Housewife Or, Methodical Cook. Randolph’s knowledge of how to party led her to write the first cookbook published in America.Īfter a change in fortunes, Randolph found herself running a popular boarding house that was known, as her plantation home had been previously, for its entertaining and cooking.

But though Randolph’s life was largely like those of many other young women from plantation-owning familes-privately educated for wifehood, married at 18, having eight children in her lifetime-one of her interests had an outsize impact on broader American society. For instance, according to Michigan State University’s Feeding America blog, her brother was married to Martha Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson’s daughter. Long before Julia Child, James Beard or Anthony Bourdain, Mary Randolph helped define American cuisine.Ī Virginia-born member of a plantation-owning and slaveholding family, Randolph had prominent connections.

Define dredge in cooking