Martha Washington's recipes. Over five hundred classics dating from the Elizabethan and Jacobean times, are gathered in this family cookbook that captures the essence of early American folk culture. Handed down as a manuscript cookbook for generations, Martha Washington's Book of Cookery has been annotated by Karen Hess, a noted culinary historian and cook. "Amerian cookery is a tapestry of extraordinary complex design, reflecting out rich and varied ethnic origins, our New World produce, and our frontier history," writes Hess in her Introduction. For the historian, she documents early American cookery with prose and photographs of Washington's original manuscript and an appendix detailing extensive primary-source research. For the cook, she explains terms and techniques unfamiliar to the modern kitchen, showing how to make old fashioned recipes the traditional way, such as: rose petal vinegar, Oxford Kate's sausages, roast capon with oysters, mince pie, fried pudding, almond butter ginger bread, apple cider. In In paperback for the first time, Martha Washington's "Booke of Cookery" is both a significant primary resource for historians and the perfect gift for enthusiastic cooks and fans of the culinary arts.

The Papers of Martha Washington is the first scholarly edition of Martha Washington's correspondence, spanning her entire life, from her youth as a wealthy but largely unknown Virginia plantation mistress through her ascent to becoming an American icon. Her family letters make up most of the volume, bringing to light Martha Washington's personality in her own words. As she rose to fame, she began to correspond with such significant figures in American history as Mercy Otis Warren, Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Willing Powel, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Her correspondence paints a picture of social life during the Revolutionary War and the early republic. The dozens of people who sent condolence letters after her husband's death are a who's who of key Federalist figures at the turn of the nineteenth century. For periods from which few materials survive, the editors have selected financial papers and third-party documents that bridge the gaps in the correspondence. Although Martha burned all but four of the letters between her and George Washington, the remaining documents tell a fascinating story about the early United States from a unique female perspective. This volume offers readers a more three-dimensional, accurate portrait of Martha Washington and enhances our understanding of women's contributions to early American history. Aside from correspondence, the Papers of Martha Washington also includes directories of key people and places, timelines, maps, editorial essays, a calendar of financial documents, and appendices documenting everything from the inventory of the contents of Mount Vernon to the division of dower slaves, serving as an invaluable historical tool and a readable introduction to the life of America's first First Lady.