The Woman Suffrage Cookbook was originally published in 1886 as a fundraiser for the women’s movement to pass the nineteenth amendment giving women the right to vote. The book includes recipes from prominent women suffragists at the time. The cookbook includes recipes for almost everything that was popular in the day, and before there were convenience foods. While the recipes may be considered old fashioned, that is actually what is charming about this cookbook. There are recipes for condiments, jellies, jams, and relishes, as well as the expected recipes for meats, poultry, vegetables, and desserts including cakes, pies, cookies, and puddings. There is even a chapter with recipes for invalids. The recipes call for fresh and natural ingredients, so this cookbook may appeal to those who try to cook naturally and healthy. Also included are recipes for soaps, as well as household hints.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t have photographs, but that is to be expected since this cookbook was first published so long ago. The recipes are written in paragraph form, and are short on directions. Anyone who cooks can figure out how to make them, however, and the recipes (at least the ones I tried) do actually turn out. This cookbook resembles a modern day church or community cookbook where the recipes which have been submitted and are most likely not tested by anyone except the submitter whose names are found at the bottom of the recipe.

Anyone who enjoys cooking old fashioned food from cookbooks from the past will certainly enjoy this charming cookbook

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

This is a faithful reproduction of a vintage cookbook first published in 1886, to raise money in support of the women's suffrage movement. While very different from the cookbooks we're used to today, this book is a valuable look at the history of the time, both for women's studies and food history. Women of the time would be taught from an early age the ins and outs of cooking, baking, preserving, and the like, and the "receipts" and cookbooks were able to assume a certain amount of knowledge on the part of the reader, hence the lack of exact measurements we see now. At the end of the recipe section, there is a miscellaneous section, which includes household tips, essays on different subjects (I loved the one written by a woman doctor advocating for not putting pepper in soups; I honestly couldn't agree with her more, as I suffer from GERD, and pepper can wreak havoc on my stomach), a short story, and quotes about suffrage. As a cookbook, this can certainly be useful, though it won't be the first cookbook you'll grab when trying to decide what to make for dinner. As a look into the past, into a different era, it's a great find.

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Quaint 1886 reprint of a vintage cookbook, organized by category.. For serious cookbook collectors or for those who are curious to know about popular fare before the twentieth century began. The names of the recipe's contributor follows the description.

If you're used to recipes that list ingredients neatly in columns, you'll be disappointed. Of course, there are no photos so one can't be quite sure how things are supposed to turn out. Some recipes have the same name (Doughuts, Oatmeal Gems, Tomato Catsup, etc.) so one has to read through the description to figure out how they might be different. Mrs. Fogg's Chopped Pickle anyone? We'll pass.

Oh. My. Goodness. This book is unbelievable! I love it so much!. The recipes are amazing, the bread section is one of my favorites! I want to try all the soups! The desserts sound heavenly. I especially love the recipe for grape jelly. The tips for the home and family are interesting. The information provided is so important even today. This is a book that everyone needs to read to see how important history is for women.

It was good but not very good. I loved the cover. I wish there was more in the book. Read and I have put it away not missing it. Sorry...

4☆ A Wonderful Historical Cookbook, that's Factual, Educational and Inspiring.

The Woman Suffrage Cookbook is a cookbook like nothing I have ever read before.
It certainly takes the reader on a piece of well written cooking history.

The recipes are very unique and some I have heard of, but others I have not. Which is what makes Historical cookbooks so fascinating.

Each recipe has a short description of instructions with the ingredients added as you go.
In modern day cooking books, they would have a list of ingredients followed by a method. However these recipes have them both combined. Which is a little confusing as you have to read the whole recipe to decipher what ingredients you need.

As the recipes are written a long time ago, the weight is mainly measured in Cups, Pints, dozens, spoons and quarts.
Some if the ingredients I'm not 100% you can get them still, however there is no doubt you should be able to get an alternative.

After each recipe is the name of who submitted the recipe, which I think is a lovely touch as they get some recognition for their creativity and input.
At the back of the book it also shows where each of the people came from around the world which was fascinating as the suffragettes touched so many all around the world!

I know this may be irrelevant and they probably couldn't have done so easily, but I would of loved to have seen a picture of some of the finished recipes. Especially as I'm fascinated to see what they might of looked like.

The Woman Suffrage Cookbook is Factual, Educational, Historical and I loved the little section at the end with the hints and tips for caring for people, to cleaning tips, medical tips and the Opinions on Women's Suffrage.
My final verdict is, although I wouldn't necessarily use this book to cook with as some of the recipes are not easy. 
I do however think this is a treasured cookbook and would make a wonderful present. It definitely has given me some inspiration.


Thank you to Netgalley and Dover Publications for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Flipping through the Woman Suffrage Cookbook is like peering into the kitchens of the past. Would I use this as an actual cookbook? Probably not. Do I love it anyway? Absolutely. My favorite chapter is Salads, Pickles, Etc. for the many catsup recipes alone. There is also great advice in the Cooking For, and Care of Invalids chapter on avoiding the use of coffee, opium, or tobacco. I love my modern kitchen but appreciate these historical recipes and the women who contributed to the suffrage .movement.

The recipes in this book aren't like modern recipes, with lots of detail. Each recipe is only a few sentences long. But this book is still such a charming piece of history. I loved it.

A reprinting of the old suffragette classic; nice to revisit this type of thing in the new era of feminism!

The Woman Suffrage Cookbook is like a little piece of history, considering it was originally created as a fundraiser for the suffragist movement. It's an interesting book for those who are into historical cookbooks as well as women's history. Some of the recipes were pretty neat too, even if they were really short and didn't always have that much instructions.

I started my cookbook collection more than 40 years ago when I needed a recipe and no one could provide it...of course, this was before the age of Google. My favorites have always been the collections put together by various groups to raise funds for one project or another. Churches, schools, extended families, each group included the recipes most used and requested by their groups and usually the history of the individual and the contributions of whole. This book was first assembled as a fund raiser for women's rights. The contributors are women of well known accomplishments of the time. It's a snap shot of the women's care of their families and a view of how they felt in the context of the era. A very unique cookbook but also an excellent page in women's history in the US.

This is a typical historic cookbook, filled with very short recipes ("receipts") lacking in the detail of modern recipes. Each recipe is a sentence or two long, sometimes up to a paragraph, of basic instructions like mix a pint of milk with butter the size of a walnut, a teaspoon of cream of tartar and flour enough to roll the dough, cut it and bake it in a quick oven. Recipes are provided for breads, meats, fish, desserts, etc. and an end section has health information. Some of that is surprisingly smart and some is horrifying. The very end has quotes from famous folks of the day about why women should be given the vote.

This cookbook was used as a fundraiser for the suffragist movement and women from around the country contributed recipes. It is very much like those church cookbooks our mothers and grandmothers purchased, where 15 different women gave their recipes for corn bread ("Indian bread" in this book, with Indian meal meaning corn meal), with very few differences between recipes. It is a fun read for those who haven't read historic cookbooks and because of the focus on women's rights. There are some old cookbooks that I actually cook from but there weren't any recipes in this one that really spoke to me. Read it for the interesting peek into the past rather than culinary inspiration.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

This is a copy of the original book published in 1886. As such it is an interesting read, but you won't find many useful recipes for today's home.

Instead, you will find a delightful time capsule of cooking advice, home care (such as laundry and cleaning) advice, and many health "recipes" and recommendations.

Some of my favorite recipes were "Salad Dressing" using milk, eggs, and vinegar, "Plums to Eat with Meat" which called for cooking for a day or longer, "To Cook Terrapin" (turtle) which also explained how hard it was to catch the turtle to begin with, and "Shaker Pickles" which were surprising (you'll have to see it for yourself).

Overall a fun little read, and good for someone interested in history.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I have just recently seen the movie "Suffragette" and also read and reviewed "No Man's Land" for Netgalley, so I was very happy to be allowed to read and review this cookbook by Netgalley and the publisher. This cookbook is a reproduction of a cookbook published in 1886 and I found it very interesting. I am not an experienced or great cook so I could not try out any of the recipes but I found them interesting just the same.
This cookbook is not set up like today's cookbooks. It does not begin with an ingredients list then clear instructions on how to create the dish. Each recipe is presented in a jumble with few instructions not all being clear. Also, the measurements themselves are open to interpretation. How much is half a teacup full really? While reading this cookbook I learned what a gem pan was and other cooking terms no longer used.
The recipes in this cookbook are sent in by women and a couple of men from all over this country. The purpose of this book was to raise money for the cause of women's suffrage. I was surprised by the number of female doctors who sent in recipes for this cookbook. This cookbook also had a section on what to feed invalides and how to stay healthy. Advice that is still pertinent today. Get plenty of fresh air and exercise, not too much food and sugar to paraphrase. There were also quotes from famous Americans and others in support of women's suffrage like Lincoln, Plato, Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe to name a few. Lastly are the ads which I enjoy at the back of the book selling a type of stove or a wedding caterer. All in all a very interesting and enjoyable read into the past.