In a way, this is the type of cooking the proto-celebrity chef Pierre Blot tried to introduce to New York City a hundred years before. And while he did attract sizable interest and had a good run with his French cooking classes, his success was rather short lived. If television had been available during Blot's lifetime, it would have undoubtedly enhanced his celebrity status even more. One could picture him broadcasting his epicurean techniques from his cozy bistro-like Academy. But the invention of television would have to wait almost another century; and once it came on the scene, New York area chefs took advantage. In 1946, James Beard was featured on television's first cooking show on NBC, and after that continued as a vital force on television and radio. He opened the James Beard Cooking School in New York in 1955. Starting in 1947, Dione Lucas juggled a television program, restaurant, and cooking school.72
But it was another French cooking expert who really roused the public's interest in making gourmet food—Julia Child. Recreational cooking in America truly began to take off soon after the famous cookbook Child co-wrote with her colleagues Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, Mastering the Art of French Cooking was published in 1961. Child (an American citizen) charmed the country with her thorough knowledge of French cookery techniques, acquired from the renowned Cordon Bleu cooking school in France. The television programs she began to host a few years later (starting with The French Chef, which premiered in 1962) increased her exposure even more. With her singsong voice and chatty style, she awakened a whole generation of women to the fact that gourmet cooking could be interesting and fun. By the end of the 1960s, there were fifteen cooking schools in New York City; today there are hundreds of recreational cooking schools or programs in the United States.73
Unlike the often reluctant well-to-do young ladies who attended Mrs. Goodfellow's school, the students taking these recreational culinary programs are genuinely interested in cooking. Cooking as a hobby and creative outlet was unheard of in Goodfellow's time, but many twentieth-century innovations helped drive the appeal—from globalization trends to labor-saving kitchen appliances and utensils. Classes are still informational, but in a different way. Mrs. Goodfellow was giving her students the cooking skills they would need to succeed in their upper-class married lives. Her curriculum was targeted to their lifestyle and probably didn't vary much from year to year. But with recreational cooking, a variety of topics can be explored—regional cooking, nutritional and health aspects, specific baking or cooking techniques, and the list goes on. And classes aren't limited to an exclusive group. Those with little or no cooking background might be in the same class as experienced cooks, as long as they share an interest in the specific theme being covered.
Once the public started picking up on the idea of cooking for fun, other types of culinary education began to crop up, including in-home instruction, cooking class parties, programs for children, and the increasingly popular cooking classes available through supermarkets, specialty food, and department stores. Culinary tourism is another emerging offshoot for those who wish to immerse themselves in a specific regional cuisine while on vacation. And celebrity chefs can be seen on every available media outlet demonstrating and promoting their latest concoctions.74 These types of learning are usually rather abbreviated—designed to scratch the surface and introduce interested cooks to one or two particular culinary topics as well as to provide entertainment. So again, the format differs from the series of lessons Mrs. Goodfellow and the other early cooking schools offered, where each class built on the previous one.
Although cooking schools have experienced such diverse changes and growth since Mrs. Goodfellow's time, the same important principles that she preached have remained through the years. Many people welcomed the new technologies that made cooking and baking easier such as quick-rising agents, cook stoves, and eventually processed foods such as boxed, canned, and frozen goods, but some still held tight to the notion Mrs. Goodfellow constantly emphasized to her students—using quality, fresh ingredients to create a wholesome and superior product.
James Beard was one of the best communicators of this concept. Well-known for unpretentious, hearty, and natural good cooking, Beard dedicated his remarkable food bible of American specialty dishes, James Beard's American Cookery (1972), to his “favorite great ladies of the American kitchen.” On his list are seven celebrated women who helped shape cooking in the United States, with Eliza Leslie at the top. The other luminaries are: Mrs. T. J. Crowen, author of Every Lady's Book (1845); Philadelphia Cooking School founder Sarah Tyson Rorer; Boston Cooking-School's Fannie Merritt Farmer; Irma Rombauer, author of The Joy of Cooking (1931); Helen Evans Brown, food writer and consultant; and June Platt, food writer and designer.75
Although Mrs. Goodfellow is not listed in this elite group, Beard refers to her and her school in the book. His views on cookery were strikingly similar to Goodfellow and her protégé, Eliza Leslie. Like Goodfellow, he preached the merits of simplicity through his recipes and classes. And although his cookbooks were published over a century after Miss Leslie, they are comparable to hers—practical, basic teaching manuals. By highlighting simple, unfussy cooking methods, he was able to emphasize the benefits of these early American cooking concepts, showing the public that taste doesn't have to be artificial. As pointed out by Betty Fussell in Masters of American Cookery, Beard expressed disappointment over the disappearance of many American regional foods, but he did “more than anybody to stalk the wild traditions of our past and honor earlier giants.”76
Although Beard was probably the best known cooking expert in recent years to thoroughly explore and revitalize the concept of home cooking, many others also have rediscovered its delights. As a result, the idea that Mrs. Goodfellow so adamantly preached continues to spark interest. A number of cookbooks today focus on simple, wholesome cooking with natural ingredients, such as American Home Cooking by the husband-and-wife team of Bill and Cheryl Alters Jamison, which celebrates the modest yet hearty “comfort food” that Americans turned to since the first settlers arrived and that is having a renaissance.77 And in Baking in America: Traditional and Contemporary Favorites from the Past Two Hundred Years, baking expert Greg Patent carefully studies and tests classic baking recipes from old American cookbooks, including several attributed to Goodfellow and Leslie. By making the necessary conversions to contemporary ingredients and methods, he gives present-day cooks a chance to make and enjoy many traditional baked goods that have been largely forgotten.
Mrs. Goodfellow and other cooks from her time often planned their menus according to what they knew would be fresh, frequenting open-air markets which provided a wealth of local, seasonal produce. James Beard also saw this benefit, and we can thank him in part for the revival of the farmer's markets in towns and cities across America today.78 Many, many people are now “buying fresh, buying local,” perhaps influenced by the early culinary greats. For others, it makes sense for any number of reasons. To cookbook writer Diana Kennedy, “eating well means supporting local farms…It's good for the environment, it's good for communities and culture, it's good for your health.”79
Trends in cooking are always changing. However, as food writer Mark Bittman notes in his foreword to the 2007 re-issue of Beard on Food: The Best Recipes and Kitchen Wisdom from the Dean of American Cooking, “Beard's approach remains invaluable to real people cooking real food.”80 So does Mrs. Goodfellow's, as her insistence on wholesome, fresh ingredients is echoed on many cooking programs on television. Yet as much as she represented her time, in her influence on her students and later cooking teachers, Mrs. Goodfellow was also well ahead of it.
Epilogue: The End of the Day
Philadelphia, 64 Dock Street
Wednesday, September 20, 1815
7 P.M.
Mrs. Goodfellow retrieved the last slice of apple pudding, the rest of the Spanish buns, and the remaining two Queen cakes from the shelf behind the counter and carefully placed them in a basket lined with a clean towel. She then scooped u
p the half dozen or so jumbles that were left and transferred them to a small tin, which she nestled in the basket next to the other items. These leftover treats would be shared among her family and servants.
While her servant Mary was busy sweeping the floor, Mrs. Goodfellow dipped a soft flannel cloth in a bowl of warm soapy water and began to wipe down the shelves and counter. She then rinsed off the surfaces with plain water and dried them with a linen cloth. When they were both finished their cleaning tasks, Mrs. Goodfellow lit a candle and then carefully closed the shutters in the front of her pastry shop, making sure they were secure for the night. She then shut the heavy front door and locked it. It was now quite dark inside the shop so they were both grateful for the candle's soft glow.
Mary held the candle while Mrs. Goodfellow emptied the money from the cash box and put it inside the pocket she wore around her neck. Grasping the basket in one hand and the cleaning bowl and cloths in the other, she followed Mary down the steps to the kitchen, where Hannah was busy washing up the dishes and kitchen utensils.
Mrs. Goodfellow put the bowl and cloths on the table and asked Mary to get out the ingredients she would need to prepare some tins of Spanish buns for the morning. She then went back upstairs where her husband, son, and daughter were sitting near the fireplace reading. Taking the pocket from around her neck, she handed the day's earnings from the pastry shop to her husband William to count and then offered each of them one of the leftover baked goods. Robert and Sarah thanked their mother, both eagerly choosing a colorful Queen cake. William decided on the slice of apple pudding. She kissed each of her children good-night and took the rest of the bakery items back down to the kitchen.
Placing the basket on the end of the table, Mrs. Goodfellow told Mary that she and the other servants could help themselves to the remaining pastries when they were done. Hannah had finished the dishes and was busy gathering wood for the oven so it would be ready in the morning.
Mrs. Goodfellow then headed over to the work table and proceeded to finish mixing the Spanish buns so they could rise overnight. Mary was grating a nutmeg and had already set out a bowl of eggs, a jar of yeast, a demijohn of rosewater, small paper sacks of cinnamon and mace, and a wooden box containing the remaining sugar that Hannah had pounded to a fine consistency earlier. Mrs. Goodfellow went to the cooling shelf to retrieve a soup plate of butter and milk that she had set near the fire to soften and then moved to cool once it had melted. Working quickly, she broke each of four eggs one at a time into a dish, checking for freshness, and beat them very light. She then added the milk and butter combination; when it was well blended, she poured the frothy yellow mixture into a broad pan of flour Mary had just sifted. To this she added two wine glasses of strong yeast, a tablespoon of rosewater flavoring, the grated nutmeg, and a large teaspoon each of powdered mace and cinnamon. She started adding some sugar a little at a time while stirring the mixture very hard with a knife—she knew if she added the sugar too quickly, the buns would become heavy. Then she gradually sprinkled a little more flour and stirred the dough well. Finally she buttered a square pan and added the dough, covering it with a cloth and setting it on a stool near the fire to rise.
Once Mrs. Goodfellow and Mary were done, Hannah began to wash the dishes and baking implements while Mary carefully wiped down the work surfaces with a clean cloth and Mrs. Goodfellow put the ingredients away, making sure they were in place for the morning. She checked the kitchen dresser and larder to see if any supplies were needed and that the scales had been put away properly.
While she was doing these final checks, Mary briskly swept the floor and Hannah carefully began closing the cellar windows in order to prevent rats and mice from coming in overnight. Once the windows were shut tightly, she went over to the fireplace and removed a few long sticks that were on the fire and carried them out into the yard, pouring water on them to extinguish them completely. She then used the fireplace tongs to pick up a few wood chunks and hot coals and placed them in the very back of the oven, shoveling ashes over them until they were totally buried. This would keep the fire smoldering until the morning, when Mary would uncover it and add the kindling to get it going quickly.
Finally, they all neatly hung up their aprons and Mary and Hannah said good night. Mary lit a candle and they both thanked Mrs. Goodfellow for the basket of baked goods which they carried with them up to the servants' quarters. Mrs. Goodfellow also took a candle and made her way back upstairs. Sarah and Robert were already in bed, but William was still sitting near the fire, smoking a pipe. He had already counted the shop money and locked it away in a desk drawer. She asked him for the figure, and then walked over to the desk and carefully entered it into the correct spot in her ledger. They spoke briefly about the day's happenings, and then, exhausted, she told him she was heading up to bed. She needed to be rested, as very early the next morning the baking process would begin all over again.
Recipes
The following recipes are those that we can confidently attribute to Mrs. Goodfellow's Cooking School. The recipes are taken from primary sources and were developed for eighteenth- or nineteenth-century ingredients and kitchens. Present-day ingredients and cooking techniques could produce varying results.
Listed below is a guide to “Weights and Measures” taken from Eliza Leslie's first book, Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats. It can be presumed that these are similar to what Mrs. Goodfellow taught in her classes.
As all families are not provided with scales and weights, referring to the ingredients generally used in cakes and pastry, we subjoin a list of weights and measures.
WEIGHT AND MEASURE
LIQUID MEASURE
Sixteen large table-spoonfuls are half a pint.
Eight large table-spoonfuls are one gill.
Four large table-spoonfuls are half a gill.
———
A common-sized tumbler holds half a pint.
A common-sized wine-glass holds half a gill.
Allowing for accidental differences in the quality, freshness, dryness, and moisture of the articles, we believe this comparison, between weight and measure, to be as nearly correct as possible.
Bread, Hot Cakes, and Cereals
BARRINGTON RUSK
(From Mrs. Goodfellow's Cooking School, Philadelphia, Pa.)
1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk, 1 cup of yeast, 1 cup of flour. Mix overnight. In the morning add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of butter, creamed light, two eggs, reserving the white of one, beaten to a stiff froth with 1/2 cup of sugar and spread over the top of the rusk. Bake in a quick oven.
(Source: Colonial Receipt Book. Recipe from a Pupil, Mrs. Thos. Painter, Sunbury, Pa.)
POTATO BISCUIT
(From Mrs. Goodfellow's Cooking School, Philadelphia, Pa.)
Boil mealy potatoes very soft, pare and mash them to four good-sized potatoes. Put a piece of butter the size of an egg and a teaspoonful of salt. When the butter has melted put 1/2 pint of cold milk. If the milk cools the potatoes put in 1/4 of a pint of yeast and flour to make them of the right consistency. Set them in a warm place. When risen mold them with the hands. Let them remain ten or fifteen minutes before baking.
(Source: Colonial Receipt Book. Recipe from a Pupil, Mrs. Thos. Painter, Sunbury, Pa.)
GOODFELLOW'S BUNS
A pound and quarter flour, 3/4 white sugar, 1/2 butter, 6 eggs. Half a nutmeg-wine glass of brandy, handful currants. Half pint new milk, half tea cup yeast.
(Source: Receipt Book for Cooking 1811–1824, Hannah Marshall Haines, American Philosophical Society)
GOODFELLOW'S SPANISH BUNNS
Mix 6 oz. butter in cup of cream or rich milk 1/2 pound of sugar. Beat 6 eggs, 3/4 lb flour mix the flour and eggs in alternatively. 1 teaspoonful of cream of tartar two-thirds full of soda put the soda in a cup the acid on it dissolve with rose water a little nutmeg.
(Source: Doc. 391, Mrs. Fred Patterson recipe book, Winterthur Library)
GOODFELLOW'S SPANISH B
UNS
3/4 lb. flour, 6 oz. butter, cut up fine in it, 4 eggs beaten well, 1 tea-spoonful of mixed nutmeg, mace and cinnamon, 3 wine-glasses baker's or brewer's yeast, 3 wine-glasses milk; mix it with a knife; add the sugar. Place it in the tins, and let it rise 2 to 3 hours; then sprinkle 2 oz. cleaned currants over the batter, pressing them lightly below the surface. Bake in a slow oven; when done, ice or sprinkle sugar over, and cut in squares.
(Source: Nicholson, What I Know; or Hints on the Daily Duties of a Housekeeper, 55)
SPANISH BUNS
(Mrs. Goodfellow)
4 eggs, 3/4 of a lb of Flour, 1/2 a lb of Sugar, 2 1/2 wine glasses of rich milk, 6 oz of fresh Butter, 1 tablespoonful of Rose-water, 1 grated nutmeg, 1 large tea-spoonful of powdered mace and cinnamon. Sift 1/2 a lb of flour into a broad pan and put a 1/4 of a lb separately into a deep plate and set it aside. Put the milk into a soup plate, cut up the butter and set it near the fire to warm. When the butter is soft stir it all through the milk and set it away to cool. Beat the eggs very light and mix the milk and butter with them all at once, then pour all into the pan of flour. Put in the flavoring add the yeast, stir the whole very hard with a knife add the sugar gradually, because if it be not stirred in slowly a little at a time the Buns will be heavy. Then by degrees sprinkle in the remainder of the flour and stir it well; butter a square pan and put in the mixture cover it with a cloth and set it to rise for perhaps 5 hours when it has risen very high and is covered with bubbles bake it in a moderate oven about a quarter of an hour or one this quantity will make 12 or 15 buns; if you choose to bake them separately in small square tins adding to the batter 1/2 lb of chopped raisins or currants floured and stirred in at the last. Stir your yeast well before using and pour off the beer and their part from the top; if not good do not attempt to use it as they will not be light. Buns may be made in a plainer way with 1/2 lb of Flour (a quarter set aside to sprinkle in at the last), 3 eggs, 1/2 a lb powdered sugar, 3 wine glasses of milk, 1 1/2 of yeast, 1 large teaspoonful of cinnamon, 1/4 lb of butter cut up and warmed in the milk and mixed as above.
Mrs. Goodfellow Page 19