Little Women fans will love this cookbook. Wini Moranville presents passages from the book and creates similar recipes for you to enjoy. The authors describe recipes from the time period but update them a little bit for a modern audience. It's these bits of history that makes it truly unique. There are even menus for particular days such as picnics or tea events so you can create your own.
This is a cue, fun, and yummy book for any Little Women fan.

For one hundred and fifty years readers have identified with the March sisters. Louisa May Alcott drew from her family members and life, making Little Women a beloved story with relatable characters.

Set during the Civil War, with Mr. March at war far from home, the March sisters and their mother struggle to obtain their basic needs. Food insecurity impacts their home and the community. The novel begins with the preparation of a Christmas breakfast feast which the girls valiantly donate to an immigrant family. The women content themselves with a meal of bread and milk. The book ends with a meal as well, a picnic supper.

Wini Moranville, "writer, cookbook author, and lover of historic and heirloom recipes," was asked to write The Little Women Cook Book in conjunction with the 2019 Little Women movie.

With charming illustrations and quotations from the novel, it is a delight. I enjoyed revisiting the novel through the lens of communal meals. Well-chosen quotations from Little Women keep our attention on the inspiration source for the recipes.

Wini researched American cookbooks from the mid 19th c. Some foods from the novel, like the pickled limes traded between schoolgirls, would not appeal today, so Wini gives us "Pickled Lime" Sugar Cookies.

Milk-Toast was a simple meal of warm milk poured over buttered toasted bread, perhaps seasoned with salt or sugar and cinnamon. I recall my grandfather, born in 1905, enjoying it as a dessert from his country childhood.

From the passage, "The omelet was scorched, and the biscuits speckled with saleratus", Wini gives two recipes, omelets and Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits, and a history of baking powder.

Other recipes from the past include:

"Meg was already covering the buckwheats..."~Buckwheat Pancakes

"It was too bad to laugh at the poor little jelly pots."~ Meg's Currant Jelly Sauce

"We'll have lettuce and make a salad."~ Jo's Lettuce Salad

"...and Amy made lemonade..."~Amy's Lemonade

Also appearing are Mr. Bhaer's Chocolate drops; Bonbons and mottoes, candies wrapped in papers printed with riddles and sayings; Jo's Gingerbread; the apple turnovers from the picnic; and Meg's Plum Pudding.

Where the novel is silent on specifics, Wini turns to recipes popular during the time period.

Newlywed Meg uses a popular cookbook, The Young Housekeeper's Friend. Indian meal--cornmeal--was popularly used in many dishes. Wini offers us Indian Meal Griddle Cakes, with a version with blueberries that caught my attention.

Meg also has Mrs. Corneliu's Receipt Book and Wini shares Meg's Macaroni and Cheese from that book. It is very like the recipe I have used all my life.

The recipes are tempting!

I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review

I am so excited to be receiving this for review. I love Little Women. I remember reading it a couple of times when I was a little girl. This cookbook brightens my day and my moms.

4 1/2

I am a minor Little Women fan. While I don’t go out of my way to absorb everything Little Women , if it jumps in front of me, I do tend to read or watch it. So, obviously, when given the opportunity to read and review Wini Moranville’s The Little Women Cookbook I enthusiastically accepted.

Mind you, I didn’t really expect much more than a novelty, but The Little Women Cookbook proves to be more than that. It’s like taking a tour of 1800’s cooking, how things were accomplished, what ingredients were used, and what foods were eaten.

I always presumed that macaroni and cheese was a recent recipe. Nope. It’s included in this cookbook as one of the dishes that people would have enjoyed. Amazingly enough, in the original recipe, one would have been instructed to put a shovel (yep, you’ve read that right) into a hot fire to place it across the mac and cheese to brown the top!

Also, since cooks didn’t have convenient gelatin in a box, they had to do it from scratch with cow hooves. (Yep, if you thought the gelatin was vegetarian, it ain’t so.) Fortunately, the author refrains from providing that particular part of the blancmange recipe and substitutes unflavored gelatin.

One of the other interesting things (there are many!) that I learned was that Louisa May Alcott’s father was vegetarian and started a community called Fruitlands, which ultimately didn’t succeed. Knowing how people have reacted (and still do) to vegetarians in the States, I imagine that must have seemed like a crazy thing at the time!

I found the recipes to be interesting and some look yummy judging from the beautiful photographs. While I may review a lot of vegan and vegetarian cookbooks, this is not one of them. There are many meat and fish recipes incorporated as a normal household would have eaten during the time that Little Women take place.

The Little Women Cookbook would make a wonderful gift for the Little Women fan in your life…or maybe even yourself.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great recipes! I loved Little Women growing up. I’m inspired to reread the book now! Perfect timing with the new movie coming out also.

I love this book. It is so lovely.
It was written with little anecdotes about the March Family, with illustrations and recipes.
I felt very sentimental reading it. I haven't tried the recipes yet but plan to.
I also plan to re-read Little Women again.

Moranville provides such a vast collection of recipes inspired by Louisa May Alcott's "The Little Women." Her recipes are straightforward and easy to follow, and the background tidbits are perfect. This cookbook will be an excellent accompaniment for anyone reading "The Little Women" for the first time.

I loved this book.
It's full of yummy recipes, references to the characters and historical time of Little Women.
I appreciated the style of writing and the pictures.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

This was like two books in one in a way. The story of Little Women and a recipe book included. This is a great idea. The author stayed true to the time period which is always good and it was colorfully illustrated. The recipes sound delicious. I want to try to make the gingerbread cake and read/and watch Little Women again. Thanks for such an entertaining book.




I was given this as an ARC from the publisher through netgalley.
The opinion was mine and freely given.
Loved this book

A treasure trove of food and recipes from and suitable for Louisa May Alcott's Little woman.

A perfect gift for any fan of Little Women.or 19th century food historians.

5 Stars - I recommend if you enjoy Little Women and cooking. This would make an excellent gift.

A cookbook with recipes and tibits from the time period of Little Women. Moranville has spent time researching the foods mentioned in the book, and cookbooks written during the time period to share similar recipes to the ones Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy would have made and enjoyed. Some are updated versions for modern cooks, while others are fairly true to their 1800s recipes.

The cover drew me to this cookbook. The illustrations are absolutely darling, and made me want to dive back into the world of the March women. I love that the author of this book did a lot of research related to not only which dishes were mentioned in the book Little Women, but also into recipes from cookbooks written in that time period. While some of the recipes are updated for modern cooks and palates, some are also fairly true to their 1800s versions. I loved learning more about the world during the time of the book through tidbits of history and every day life that were shared in these pages. The excerpts from Little Women containing the particular dishes were also so sweet and brought a lot of nostalgia to the cookbook. I think that flipping through this lovely book will definitely inspire readers to have a boating party picnic or apple orchard picnic of their own. From recipes for apple turnovers, to chicken salads, roasted meats, and vegetable pot pies this book has many tempting recipes. I will definitely be picking up a copy of this for my own shelves after it publishes on 10/1.

Loved this cookbook full of recipe lovely illustrations character mentions.Perfect for any Little Women fans of which I know many & will be surprising them with this book.#netgalley#quartobooks.

I loved this so much, full of gorgeous illustrations, great recipes, quotes from the book, it’s such an attractive and adorable addition to the world of Little Women. I am going to have to buy in hardback now because it was so beautiful (kindle version to be used for recipes as to far too gorgeous to cause me to accidentally soil-which I would) An absolutely beautiful cookbook.

A magnificent book, richly and beautifully illustrated which encapsulates the atmosphere of the original reference book! I LOVED it and highly recommend it! I loved the recipes, the explanations, which are clear and the texts which go with them, the links with the book.
Thank you so much for sharing this book with me!

The Little Women Cookbook by Wini Moranville is delightful. If you are a fan of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, you must give this book a read. Ms. Moranville has done extensive research regarding what the March sisters ate during the famed story. When the book alluded to food, Ms. Moranville research the food of the period through heirloom recipes and included those recipes as well.
Many of the recipes seem to be taste tempting. There are a few that I would personally pass on and a few that are simple and basic that I was surprised that they were included. However that being said it is the recipes of Little Women and such all the recipes are included. There is a sum total of 50 recipes.
Delightful idea and well done. The photos and graphics are clear and colorful.
I would like to thank the Publisher, Author and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The perfect gift for any Little Women fan - throughout the book there are lots of character references which add a lovely touch. The book is full of recipes that are easy to prepare. I like that the recipes are beautifully set out and easy to follow. With recipes for breakfasts, lunches, dinners and desserts there is plenty of choices. I can't wait to try to recreate vanilla butter cookies Jo's Gingerbread.

Sehr liebevoll gestaltetes Buch, nicht nur für Fans der Little Women. Die Zitate und Anekdoten machen das Kochbuch zu einem echten Highlight.
Zum selbst erfreuen und verschenken.

This would make an amazing gift for any fan of the book. It’s a beautiful cookbook full of quotes and illustrations as well as a look at the history of some of the dishes that feature in the book. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to try out some of these dishes but I’m still not going to be sold on blac-mange lol

I thought many of the recipes were clever. The “Vanilla Cookies with Mr. Bhaer’s Chocolate Drops.” were a fun nod to Mr. Bhaer bringing candy to Meg's children. That said, there wasn't a ton of references to food or cooking in the show and lot of recipes are just modernized versions of recipes of the era. I feel like the cookbook was a bit of a stretch, content-wise.

A collection of homely recipes inspired by Little Women, which was written in New England by Louisa May Alcott in 1868.

The author's aim is that we capture the spirit and joy of the food in Little Women. She picks up on clues in the book and refers to recipe books of the period to present modern recipes to either create similar dishes, or ones that she thinks the characters would have enjoyed. An example of the former is Jo's Much Improved Asparagus - with a greatly reduced cooking time. An example of the latter is Orchard Chicken, keying into Jo's love of apples and the Alcott's orchard.

Sections are:
Hannah's Breakfasts
Gatherings with Family and Friends
March Family Dinners and Suppers
Sweet Treats, Desserts, and Drinks

The recipes are well written, and the whole thing is rather fun. In fact the whole book has a certain charm.

The book is American of course but there are metric conversions. Some of the ingredients are American though, e.g. saltine crackers, and the author references corned beef with a spice pack, here in the UK we'd need brisket and the unspecified spices.

Importantly for some, there are good photos of some, though not all, of the finished dishes.

Period recipe books are referenced in the text though there's no bibliography.