His death left the family in rather dire circumstances, and it was not long after that Lydia was forced to open a boardinghouse in order to support her five children. As the oldest, Eliza helped out by giving drawing lessons and in later years coloring maps and painting feather fans along with her sister Ann.15 She also did some work copying the pieces of master painters, and her copy of Salvator Rosa's Banditti in Ruins was exhibited in 1812 when she was twenty-five.16 According to Eliza, the family kept their monetary difficulties to themselves and were able to remain debt-free through hard work and perseverance.17
Although the family did not ask for any help, it was provided for them in the form of tuition assistance for Eliza's two brothers. Both were able to attend the University of Pennsylvania through the aid of two instructors—Dr. Rogers, who taught English, and mathematics professor Robert Patterson, who had been a friend of their father.18 Eventually Eliza's four siblings left home, but it appears that she remained with her mother, assisting with the boardinghouse and attending Mrs. Goodfellow's cooking classes.
Eliza described her brother Charles as having an “extraordinary genius for painting,” and he went to London to study and enrich his artistic skills. He married while there and became quite successful, rapidly becoming one of the more accomplished painters in Europe. Eliza's sister Ann moved to New York and often visited London, where Charles gave her painting lessons, allowing her to become quite successful at copying pictures. Her other sister, Martha (referred to as Patty), married Henry C. Carey, son of Mathew Carey, founder of one of Philadelphia's earliest publishing houses. Eliza's youngest brother, Thomas Jefferson Leslie, attended West Point Academy and was for many years a paymaster in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of major.19
In the summer of 1820 Eliza moved to Tom's residence in West Point to recuperate after a long illness,20 and it was this brother who recommended to Eliza that she try to compile a book of the many recipes she had collected while a student at Mrs. Goodfellow's. She forged ahead with the idea, and in 1827 her first book was published, entitled Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats, “By a Lady of Philadelphia.” Although it was very successful and went through several editions, it was not the literary accomplishment Eliza dreamed of producing, and she spoke of it in rather humble terms. She described it as “most un-parnasseau,” and says, “truth was, I had a tolerable collection of receipts taken by myself while a pupil at Mrs. Goodfellow's celebrated cooking-school in Philadelphia. I had so many applications from my friends for copies of these directions, that my brother suggested my getting rid of the inconvenience by giving them to the public in print.”21
These musings were from Eliza's reflective letter to her friend Alice B. Haven, which serves as the most comprehensive existing autobiographical information about her. However, since this letter was dated August 1, 1851 (six months after Goodfellow died), it is possible Eliza never expressed these feelings to her instructor, perhaps preferring to thoughtfully wait until after she was gone to voice her true sentiments.
And even though it might not have been Eliza's genre of choice, she ended up writing a total of nine cookbooks between 1827 and 1857, several of which were reprinted and updated in numerous formats. In fact, these nine cookery books grew into an amazing seventy-two reiterations, according to Eleanor Lowenstein's bibliography American Cookery Books, 1742–1860. Furthermore, reissues of Leslie's books continued until the early 1880s, decades after her death.22
Leslie became revered and respected for her knowledge and advice regarding cooking and household management. Modern food historians John and Karen Hess assert that “American cookery reached its highest level in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, with Miss Leslie as its guide.”23 In Nineteenth-Century American Fiction Writers, Elisa E. Beshero-Bondar describes Leslie as “literally a household word in Victorian America,” having “taught generations of American women how to cook, behave themselves in public, and clean their houses.”24
So even though “home economics” may not have been Leslie's first passion, interest in her cooking techniques has continued to trickle down into every generation since then, even into modern times. Almost two centuries have passed since she first began publishing recipes, but to this day she is widely recognized as one of the most influential American cookbook writers ever.25 Reprints of her cookbooks and recipes still appear in updated versions, allowing modern cooks to replicate her classic dishes.
And the success of Seventy-Five Receipts did get her foot in the door, thus securing a publisher and enabling her to do what she really enjoyed—writing literary works of fiction. In addition to the cookbooks, she eventually wrote short stories and storybooks for young people as well as one novella and a number of short stories for adults. She also served as an editor for Home Book of Fashion, Literature and Domestic Economy, The Gift (an annual), The Violet (a juvenile souvenir), and briefly her own magazine, Miss Leslie's Magazine, in addition to being a regular contributor to Godey's Lady's Book and Graham's Magazine. These are the achievements she proudly highlights when telling her life story. Ironically though, it is the books on “domestic economy” that she begrudgingly admits were most profitable and successful.26
However, the fact that Eliza Leslie kept writing cookbooks shows that she must have appreciated the income and recognition, and came to rely on them for her livelihood. She was sharp enough to be aware of the fact that prior to the publishing of her first cookbook, she was never really able to spread her wings much, as her chief responsibility had been helping her mother, and she had become dependent on her brother Tom's support. The success of Seventy-Five Receipts gave her the financial independence and courage to break out on her own, at the age of forty.27
Through the 1820s and 1830s Eliza lived with Tom and his family on and off in West Point, and later New York City, when he was transferred there. At this point, New York was already developing into the fast-paced, vibrant city that it is today. As per letters to her friend Abby Bailey, Eliza describes it as much livelier and busier than Philadelphia, but less comfortable, accessible, and functional. She also thought New Yorkers were rather brash and extroverted, less reserved and intellectual than Philadelphians. However, she appreciated their hospitable nature, and thought New York was generally a pleasant place.28 So it appears she liked New York's energy and social atmosphere but missed the finer architecture, art, and literature she was accustomed to in Philadelphia.
Leslie also visited Boston in the summer of 1831, finding Bostonians “exactly” to her taste, as this colonial city was more similar to Philadelphia. Not only were the ladies “well-educated, intelligent and of frank and polished manner,” but many prominent residents showered her with attention. She was pleased that it was a city of readers and writers, both male and female, and felt that nobody was trying to put on false airs,29 a trait she detested. She liked it there—she fit in.
These experiences undoubtedly gave her additional material regarding social customs for her behavior book and fiction sketches, allowing her to compare and contrast what was popular in these cities with Philadelphia style and norms. She may have also picked up different recipes and techniques for her cookbooks from these places.
Eventually she made her way back to Philadelphia and appeared to again receive instruction and guidance from Mrs. Goodfellow. However, for some reason she does not acknowledge her mentor in her cookbooks until the late 1840s, not long before Goodfellow died. Considering the respectful way Miss Leslie does reference her, it is hard to imagine that she was trying to take all the credit on her own. Perhaps Mrs. Goodfellow didn't think it would have been proper for Eliza to give her attribution, although it would have been terrific advertising for her school and shop. When Eliza does mention Mrs. Goodfellow, it is always in a favorable light. For example, in Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book, she begins her pound cake recipe by stating, “One of Mrs. Goodfellow's maxims was, ‘up-weight of flour, and downweight of everything else’—and she was right, as the exce
llence of her cakes sufficiently proved, during the thirty years that she taught her art in Philadelphia, with unexampled success.”30
Did Eliza Leslie ever use the knowledge she learned from Mrs. Goodfellow to teach as well, either teaming with Mrs. Goodfellow or on her own? There is no existing evidence that she did, and food historian William Woys Weaver does not believe so, due to these revered declarations and asides about Mrs. Goodfellow and her methodology that Leslie makes in some of her cookbooks.31 So although Leslie was essentially educating women about many aspects of cooking techniques through the detailed recipes and instructions in her books, she appeared to leave the hands-on teaching to Mrs. Goodfellow.
The true relationship between the two women has never been plumbed. At the very least, it is clear Mrs. Goodfellow was Eliza's mentor and an indispensable resource for her writing. Although Eliza did publish three cookbooks after Mrs. Goodfellow died in 1851, they were basically revisions and updates of the original recipes, mixed with “new receipts” she credited to other sources. For example, Miss Leslie's New Receipts for Cooking, published in 1854, includes recipes of “French origin” as well as some “obtained from the South, and from ladies noted for their skill in housewifery.”32
It is possible that Leslie was running her recipes past Mrs. Goodfellow the whole time she was writing (or at least until the time of Goodfellow's death in 1851). The fact that Leslie was living in a hotel for several years later in life33 meant that she was most likely eating her meals in the hotel dining room, and would have had no place to test her recipes, although the publisher's description at the beginning of Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book (1857) claims that all its receipts are new and have been “fully tried and tested by the author since the publication of her former books.”34
In any case, Leslie became famous for her cookbooks, household advice, and short stories depicting domestic conventions and behavior, even though she never managed her own home or became a wife or mother. In fact, her rather nontraditional living accommodations for an unmarried woman at that time created quite a stir, causing some of the Philadelphia high society ladies to dislike and distrust her. Well known for her opinionated comments which could escalate into heated discussions at parties, Eliza didn't hide behind a veneer of propriety.35 And while some people were intimidated by her often acerbic remarks and unconventional behavior, others admired her honesty, loyalty, and generosity.36 An acquaintance referred to her as “the stiffest, though most companionable, of the three Leslie girls.”37
For her first book (Seventy-Five Receipts), she published as “A Lady of Philadelphia,” as it was a common practice for female writers at that time to withhold one's identity. However, once she gained some notice, she instead deliberately signed her true name to her books (either Eliza Leslie or Miss Leslie), another example of her boldness. And she peppered her writings with her opinions and double entendres.38
These bits and pieces of satire and wisdom brought a humorous and interesting quality to her cookbooks, giving them a more readable quality than a typical collection of recipes. And while her style may have offended some, it undoubtedly added to the books' popularity, as she was still able to sell thousands of them to women of various economic levels, thus spreading Goodfellow's advice and instructions across the country.
Eliza Leslie's success stemmed from the skillful way she was able to address the needs of the wide variety of cultures and social classes that were meshing together in nineteenth-century America. This could have been a result of Mrs. Goodfellow's influence, but it also helped that Leslie had experienced the culinary styles of a number of large cities during her lifetime, including London, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, in addition to the influence of relatives from Maryland. While other cookbook writers at the time focused mainly on the regional foods they were familiar with, Leslie had the foresight to take a more cosmopolitan approach to American cooking. Her cookbooks provided recipes representing all parts of the country—from Carolina punch to Yankee pumpkin pudding, as well as everything in between.39
By the time her third cookbook, Directions for Cookery, in Its Various Branches, was published in 1837, she had expanded her subject matter to include all sorts of cookery (not just pastry and sweetmeats), which were “particularly adapted to the domestic economy of her own country.” In the preface she explicitly explained that she designed the book “as a manual of American housewifery,” avoiding recipes that required European utensils and ingredients difficult to find in America. She had also begun to follow the increasingly popular trend of suggesting the use of chemical leavenings such as pearlash and saleratus, although she sometimes preceded these directions with the advice “not to use too much as it gives an unpleasant taste.”
Often considered Leslie's most significant work, Directions for Cookery had the highest number of printings of any cookbook in nineteenth-century America, with every run producing at least one thousand copies.40 In its heyday, it was recommended by fellow cookbook author Sarah Rutledge in The Carolina Housewife (1847) for general-purpose kitchen instructions. And modern culinary experts John and Karen Hess rank it along with Mrs. Randolph's Virgina House-wife as one of the two best American cookbooks ever written, possessing a “concern for quality that now seems almost alien.”41
In Directions for Cookery, Mrs. Goodfellow's influence and Leslie's writing combine to create a comprehensive cookery manual—complete with specific, straightforward instructions and suggestions, discussions about the significance of fresh ingredients, and details of proper technique.42 Leslie stresses that “accuracy in proportioning the ingredients is indispensable to success in cookery”; and therefore recommends that scales and weights and a set of tin measures (from a gallon to half a gill) are extremely important. She warns her readers that cooking, especially cake baking, can be difficult, perhaps even disastrous, without proper tools. A failed cake was both a disappointment and an expensive waste43—no doubt topics she had heard Mrs. Goodfellow lecture about in her classes.
For her fellow Philadelphia readers, Leslie even mentions where to purchase all the utensils necessary for cake and pastry-making (and the other branches of cooking)—Gideon Cox's household store located at 335 Market Street. “Everything of the sort will be found there in great variety, of good quality, and at reasonable price,” she says. She also gives a few examples of where to find specific ingredients in the city's famous markets, including rennet (for making curds and whey), unskinned calves' feet (for jelly), and cream cheese.44
When she produced a revised version of this book in 1851 entitled Miss Leslie's Complete Cookery: Directions for Cookery, in Its Various Branches, she targeted a range of household incomes with her recipes, stressing the same guidelines for good wholesome ingredients that Mrs. Goodfellow preached. “By judicious management, and by taking due care that nothing is wasted or thrown away which might be used to advantage, one family will live ‘excellently well,’ at no greater cost in the end than another family is expending on a table that never has a good thing upon it,” she remarks in the opening.45
Leslie learned from Goodfellow how to find the middle ground between frugality and excess in meal preparation—a balanced approach her cookbooks conveyed through the way she presented her recipes. In Miss Leslie's New Receipts for Cooking, she explains that many of the dishes “are designed for elegant tables, and an equal proportion for families who live well, but moderately.” Expanding upon this concept of appealing to a wide audience, she includes a chapter for young readers in which she lists specific menus for various meal types, situations, and family sizes, specifying what items best enhance each other and are in season at the same time.46 Although designed to assist newlyweds with household management, these helpful tips were undoubtedly a good reference for seasoned housekeepers as well.
By the mid-nineteenth century Leslie's cookbooks had become a leading source of cooking advice and information for American women from all levels of society. These “manuals” were standard fixtures not only i
n the established communities on the East Coast; but they also traveled westward along with pioneers. As Barbara M. Walker notes in The Little House Cookbook—Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories, Eliza Leslie's Directions for Cookery was one of the most popular cookbooks among these frontier women, who lived an often isolated and nomadic existence. The author even surmises that if Laura Ingalls Wilder had a copy, Leslie's guidance would have probably helped her in her newlywed years.47 Although pioneer women learned many cooking techniques directly from their mothers after they married, they often moved to farms and settlements miles away. Without telephones, they did not have quick access to the maternal advice they may have craved. Cookbooks with detailed instructions and suggestions such as Leslie's would have helped fill this void.
Leslie's cookbooks were also indispensable for women from the middle and upper levels of society who were not lucky enough to attend Mrs. Goodfellow's or similar classes like herself. For example, Mary Todd Lincoln had led a rather indulgent childhood in Lexington, Kentucky, with nannies and cooks. Although some of her contemporaries did learn culinary and domestic arts so they could later direct their servants on how to properly perform these tasks, it appears that Mary did not. Therefore, she had no cookery or housekeeping training when she married Abraham Lincoln. Money was tight at first for the Lincolns, and Mary got by with household assistance from relatives and limited domestic hired help. Eventually, however, Miss Leslie came to her aid.
The Lincolns had been married four years when one of them purchased a copy of Directions for Cookery from the John Irwin & Company store in Springfield, Illinois, for eighty-seven cents, as well as Leslie's The House Book: or, a Manual of Domestic Economy for Town and Country.48 From Leslie, Mary learned to make some of her favorite dishes from her Kentucky upbringing, including waffles, batter cakes, egg cornbread, and buckwheat cakes. She also became adept at preserving fruit, making cheese, roasting coffee, and baking bread, pies, and cakes. She developed a special skill for making white cake (a classic layer type with hints of vanilla and almond flavors), which she sometimes served with fresh strawberries, but never frosted. It ended up being one of Abe's favorites and she made it often for him, causing him to comment, “Mary's white cake is the best I've ever eaten.”49
Mrs. Goodfellow Page 12