"The Virginia Housewife" by Mary Randolph

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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This book, "The Virginia Housewife", holds the distinction of being first regional cookbook published in America. It was published in 1824, and emphasized Virginia recipes and ingredients and offered clear directions and reassuring advice for the novice housekeeper. As Mary Randolph wrote: "let everything be done at a proper time, keep every thing in the proper place, and put every thing to its proper use."

"The Virginia Housewife" began appearing in all fashionable households and has gone through many editions and is still in print today. In the book, Mary popularized more than 40 vegetables and introduced to the southern public dishes from abroad, such as gazpacho.

Mary Randolph was the eldest of thirteen children of Thomas Mann and Anne Cary Randolph. She married her cousin, David Meade Randolph and first lived in Richmond. They operated a boarding house on Cary Street. She soon acquired a reputaion as a gracious hostess and a talented cook. In 1819, the Randolphs moved to Washington. It was 5 years later that the book "The Virginia Housewife" became very popular.

Mary Randolph was a cousin of Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, the wife of George Washington Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington House. Her paternal ancestors included Pocahontas. One of the twelve siblings was Thomas Mann Randolf,Jr who was son-in-law of Thomas Jefferson.

Mary Randolph is buried in what became Arlington National Cemetery. She had the distinction of being the first recorded person to be buried there.
 
As stated in "The Southerner's Handbook", page 36, "The Virginia Housewife" is the foundational text of Southern cooking. This book was the work of Mary Randolph, a famed cook and hostess in Richmond, Virginia. Within its pages, fried oysters and cornbread share space with colonial holdovers like molasses beer and roast calf's head. Also present, the first written recipe for macaroni and cheese."
 
She must have been Mary Custis Lee's second cousin, if she was GWP's wife's cousin ( it gets confusing in a big hurry, doesn't it? ) These old names really inter-married a lot AND gave children as many family names as could fit on a birth certificate too, making it tougher.

" The Virginia Housewife OR Methodical Cook ", title is a little intimidating, isn't it? Happy Birthday, Mary Randolph!
 
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31822031021991;view=1up;seq=5

1830! Must be one of the longest running, re-printed cookbooks, if they're still bringing out new editions.

book mary randolph.JPG

You know, re-reading Mary Randolph's bio here it occurred to me how much cooking Mary Randolph was involved with. Boarding houses provided at least one sit-down meal a day for residents. Maybe it was different in places but her boarding house kitchen would have had a lot of recipes passing through.
 
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