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The Compleat Housewife

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A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes .

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99-591: The Compleat Housewife; or, Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion is a cookery book written by Eliza Smith and first published in London in 1727. It became popular, running through 18 editions in fifty years. It was the first cookery book to be published in the Thirteen Colonies of America: it was printed in Williamsburg, Virginia , in 1742. It contained the first published recipe for " katchup ", and appears to be

198-465: A bed and reaching sexual maturity within a year. Oysters are filter feeders , drawing water in over their gills through the beating of cilia . Suspended plankton and non-food particles are trapped in the mucus of a gill, and from there are transported to the mouth, where they are eaten, digested, and expelled as feces or pseudofeces that fall to the bottom and remain out of the water column. Oysters feed most actively at temperatures ranging from

297-476: A book of magic spells , or The Anarchist Cookbook , a set of instructions on destruction and living outside the law. O'Reilly Media publishes a series of books about computer programming named the Cookbook series , and each of these books contain hundreds of ready to use, cut and paste examples to solve a specific problem in a single programming language . Oyster All other members of: Oyster

396-551: A counter-narrative of historical events or sustain a community through difficult times. The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro , published in 1958 by the National Council of Negro Women , includes recipes that illuminate histories of Black resistance, including " Nat Turner Crackling Bread." The 1976 People's Philadelphia Cookbook , published by grassroots organization The People's Fund, includes recipes from members of

495-442: A distinct family, the feathered oysters ( Pteriidae ). Both cultured pearls and natural pearls can be extracted from pearl oysters, though other molluscs, such as the freshwater mussels , also yield pearls of commercial value. The largest pearl-bearing oyster is the marine Pinctada maxima , which is roughly the size of a dinner plate. Not all individual oysters produce pearls. In nature, pearl oysters produce pearls by covering

594-419: A minute invasive object with nacre . Over the years, the irritating object is covered with enough layers of nacre to become a pearl. The many different types, colours and shapes of pearls depend on the natural pigment of the nacre, and the shape of the original irritant. Pearl farmers can culture a pearl by placing a nucleus, usually a piece of polished mussel shell, inside the oyster. In three to seven years,

693-1335: A poem called "The Compleat Housewife, 1727", with the gloss "the first popular cookbook published in Great Britain". The poem begins: Learning to thigh a pigeon or tame a crab was now within any woman's grasp, even a maid could be taught to carve. Cookery book Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first course, main course, dessert), by main ingredient, by cooking technique, alphabetically, by region or country, and so on. They may include illustrations of finished dishes and preparation steps; discussions of cooking techniques, advice on kitchen equipment, ingredients, tips, and substitutions; historical and cultural notes; and so on. Cookbooks may be written by individual authors, who may be chefs, cooking teachers, or other food writers; they may be written by collectives; or they may be anonymous. They may be addressed to home cooks, to professional restaurant cooks, to institutional cooks, or to more specialized audiences. Some cookbooks are didactic, with detailed recipes addressed to beginners or people learning to cook particular dishes or cuisines; others are simple aide-memoires, which may document

792-532: A popular treat celebrated in oyster festivals in many cities and towns. It was once assumed that oysters were only safe to eat in months with the letter 'r' in their English and French names. This myth is based in truth, in that in the Northern Hemisphere, oysters are much more likely to spoil in the warmer months of May, June, July, and August. In recent years , pathogens such as Vibrio parahaemolyticus have caused outbreaks in several harvesting areas of

891-483: A resting state, even when they are permanently submersed. Their behaviour follows very strict circatidal and circadian rhythms according to the relative moon and sun positions. During neap tides, they exhibit much longer closing periods than during the spring tide. Some tropical oysters, such as the mangrove oyster in the family Ostreidae , grow best on mangrove roots. Low tide can expose them, making them easy to collect. The largest oyster-producing body of water in

990-449: A result of global change are also negatively impacting oysters around the world, with many impacts affecting molecular, physiological, and behavioral processes in species including Magallana gigas. Recycled oyster shells can help restore oyster reefs to provide marine life habitat that reduces flooding, and protects shorelines from storms. Shell-recycling non-profits retrieve shells from restaurants, wash and dry them, and set them in

1089-501: A similar title, John Nott's The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary: or, the Accomplish’d Housewife’s Companion (1723), which declared he had added an introduction because fashion had made it as odd for a book to be printed without one as for a man to be seen "in church without a neck cloth or a lady without a hoop-petticoat." The following refer to the 9th edition, 1739. Smith offers no general advice, either at

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1188-564: A site where pollution was affecting beach tourism. Currently, for the installation cost of $ 3000, roughly 4.8 million liters of water are being filtered daily. In New Jersey, however, the Department of Environmental Protection refused to allow oysters as a filtering system in Sandy Hook Bay and the Raritan Bay, citing worries that commercial shellfish growers would be at risk and that members of

1287-431: A well-established cook with a long-running TV show or popular restaurant, become part of extended series of books that can be released over the course of many years. Popular chef-authors throughout history include people such as Delia Smith , Julia Child , James Beard , Nigella Lawson , Edouard de Pomiane , Jeff Smith , Emeril Lagasse , Claudia Roden , Madhur Jaffrey , Katsuyo Kobayashi , and possibly even Apicius ,

1386-521: A woman in East Asia. After a long interval, the first recipe books to be compiled in Europe since Late Antiquity started to appear in the late thirteenth century. About a hundred are known to have survived, some fragmentary, from the age before printing. The earliest genuinely medieval recipes have been found in a Danish manuscript dating from around 1300, which in turn are copies of older texts that date back to

1485-495: Is De re coquinaria , written in Latin . An early version was first compiled sometime in the 1st century and has often been attributed to the Roman gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius , though this has been cast in doubt by modern research. An Apicius came to designate a book of recipes. The current text appears to have been compiled in the late 4th or early 5th century; the first print edition

1584-519: Is Hu Sihui 's " Yinshan Zhengyao " (Important Principles of Food and Drink), believed to be from 1330. Hu Sihui, Buyantu Khan 's dietitian and therapist, recorded a Chinese-inflected Central Asian cuisine as eaten by the Yuan court; his recipes were adapted from foods eaten all over the Mongol Empire . Eumsik dimibang , written around 1670, is the oldest Korean cookbook and the first cookbook written by

1683-495: Is believed to be the last-built Connecticut oyster sloop, completed in 1948. Oysters can also be collected by divers . In any case, when the oysters are collected, they are sorted to eliminate dead animals, bycatch (unwanted catch), and debris. Then they are taken to market, where they are either canned or sold live. Oysters have been cultured since at least the days of the Roman Empire . The Pacific oyster ( Magallana gigas )

1782-498: Is copying commercial recipes where the original is a trade secret ). Community cookbooks (also known as compiled, regional, charitable, and fund-raising cookbooks) are a unique genre of culinary literature. Community cookbooks focus on home cooking, often documenting regional, ethnic, family, and societal traditions, as well as local history. Sondra Gotlieb , for example, wrote her cookbooks on Canadian food culture by visiting people and homes by region. She gathered recipes, observed

1881-436: Is dominated by the larger Pacific oyster and Rock oyster species which are farmed year-round. Oysters are harvested by simply gathering them from their beds. In very shallow waters, they can be gathered by hand or with small rakes . In somewhat deeper water, long-handled rakes or oyster tongs are used to reach the beds. Patent tongs can be lowered on a line to reach beds that are too deep to reach directly. In all cases,

1980-518: Is enjoined "as long as it lasts, accompany not with your husband." The book was first published in 1727 and ran through 18 editions by 1773. The first four editions were published under the byline "E— S—", but Smith did reveal she was a woman "constantly employed in fashionable and noble Families ... for the Space of thirty Years and upwards". The fifth edition of 1732 gave the author's name as "E. Smith". The bibliographer William Carew Hazlitt recorded that

2079-746: Is estimated that one acre (0.40 ha) can produce nearly 750,000 oysters, which could filter between 57,000 to 150,000 m (2.0–5.3 million cu ft) of water daily. Also see nutrient pollution for an extended explanation of nutrient remediation . As an ecosystem engineer , oysters provide supporting ecosystem services , along with provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Oysters influence nutrient cycling , water filtration , habitat structure, biodiversity , and food web dynamics. Oyster reef habitats have been recognized as green infrastructure for shoreline protection. Assimilation of nitrogen and phosphorus into shellfish tissues provides an opportunity to remove these nutrients from

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2178-585: Is from 1483. It records a mix of ancient Greek and Roman cuisine, but with few details on preparation and cooking. An abbreviated epitome entitled Apici Excerpta a Vinidario , a "pocket Apicius" by Vinidarius , "an illustrious man", was made in the Carolingian era. In spite of its late date it represents the last manifestation of the cuisine of Antiquity. The earliest cookbooks known in Arabic are those of al-Warraq (an early 10th-century compendium of recipes from

2277-530: Is held in September. In fact, in Victorian England, it was quite common for people to go to the pub and enjoy their favorite beer with some oysters. They quickly realized that the "rich, sweet, malty stouts" were great with the "briny, creamy oyster". Then brewers found that oyster shells naturally clarify a beer and they started putting crushed oyster shells into their brews. The first known brewery to start this

2376-518: Is presently the most widely grown bivalve around the world. Two methods are commonly used, release and bagging. In both cases, oysters are cultivated onshore to the size of spat, when they can attach themselves to a substrate. They may be allowed to mature further to form "seed oysters". In either case, they are then placed in the water to mature. The release technique involves distributing the spat throughout existing oyster beds, allowing them to mature naturally to be collected like wild oysters. Bagging has

2475-409: Is technically possible for an oyster to fertilize its own eggs. The gonads surround the digestive organs, and are made up of sex cells, branching tubules, and connective tissue. Once her millions of eggs are fertilized, the female discharges them into the water. The larvae develop in about six hours and exist suspended in the water column as veliger larvae for two to three weeks before settling on

2574-444: Is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified , and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not all oysters, are in the superfamily Ostreoidea . Some species of oyster are commonly consumed and are regarded as a delicacy in some localities. Some types of pearl oysters are harvested for

2673-709: The Black Panther Party , The United Farm Workers , and the Gay Activist Alliance of Philadelphia. For In Memory's Kitchen , written in the 1940s by Jewish women interned at the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia, women drew on their memories to contribute recipes. Cookbooks can also document the food of a specific chef (particularly in conjunction with a cooking show ) or restaurant. Many of these books, particularly those written by or for

2772-638: The Compleat Housewife , commenting that "the highly curious contents of E. Smith ... may be securely taken to exhibit the state of knowledge in England upon this subject in the last quarter of the seventeenth and the first quarter of the eighteenth [century]". Christine Mitchell, reviewing the Chawton House reprint in 2010 for the Jane Austen Society of North America, wrote that Eliza Smith's book "met

2871-772: The Culinary Institute of America , such books go at least back to medieval times, represented then by works such as Taillevent 's Viandier and Chiquart d'Amiço's Du fait de cuisine . Single-subject books, usually dealing with a specific ingredient, technique, class of dishes or target group (e.g. for kids), are quite common as well. Jack Monroe for example features low budget recipes . Some imprints such as Chronicle Books have specialized in this sort of book, with books on dishes like curries , pizza , and simplified ethnic food . Popular subjects for narrow-subject books on technique include grilling / barbecue , baking , outdoor cooking , and even recipe cloning (Recipe cloning

2970-470: The Philippines , a local thorny oyster species known as Tikod amo is a favorite seafood source in the southern part of the country. Because of its good flavor, it commands high prices. Oysters breathe primarily via gills . In addition to their gills, oysters can exchange gases across their mantles , which are lined with many small, thin-walled blood vessels . A small, three-chambered heart , lying under

3069-671: The United States is the Chesapeake Bay , although these beds have decreased in number due to overfishing and pollution. Other large oyster farming areas in the US include the bays and estuaries along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from Apalachicola, Florida , in the east to Galveston, Texas , in the west. Large beds of edible oysters are also found in Japan and Australia. In 2005, China accounted for 80% of

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3168-1010: The Virginia Cookery Book was published by Mary Stuart Smith . In 1896 the American cook Fannie Farmer (1857–1915) published The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book which contained some 1,849 recipes. Cookbooks that serve as basic kitchen references (sometimes known as "kitchen bibles") began to appear in the early modern period . They provided not just recipes but overall instruction for both kitchen technique and household management. Such books were written primarily for housewives and occasionally domestic servants as opposed to professional cooks, and at times books such as The Joy of Cooking ( USA ), La bonne cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange ( France ), The Art of Cookery ( UK , USA), Il cucchiaio d'argento ( Italy ), and A Gift to Young Housewives ( Russia ) have served as references of record for national cuisines. Cookbooks also tell stories of

3267-469: The adductor muscle , pumps colorless blood to all parts of the body. At the same time, two kidneys , located on the underside of the muscle, remove waste products from the blood. Their nervous system includes two pairs of nerve cords and three pairs of ganglia . There is no evidence that oysters have a brain. While some oysters have two sexes ( European oyster and Olympia oyster ), their reproductive organs contain both eggs and sperm. Because of this, it

3366-575: The eastern oyster ( Crassostrea virginica ) was introduced to California waters in 1875, while the Pacific oyster was introduced there in 1929. Proposals for further such introductions remain controversial. The Pacific oyster prospered in Pendrell Sound , where the surface water is typically warm enough for spawning in the summer. Over the following years, spat spread out sporadically and populated adjacent areas. Eventually, possibly following adaptation to

3465-592: The pearl produced within the mantle . Others, such as the translucent Windowpane oysters , are harvested for their shells. The word oyster comes from Old French oistre , and first appeared in English during the 14th century. The French derived from the Latin ostrea , the feminine form of ostreum , which is the latinisation of the Ancient Greek ὄστρεον ( ostreon ) 'oyster'. Compare ὀστέον ( osteon ) 'bone'. True oysters are members of

3564-515: The tides . He was so famous for this, the Romans used to say he could breed oysters on the roof of his house. In the early 19th century, oysters were cheap and mainly eaten by the working class . Throughout the 19th century, oyster beds in New York Harbor became the largest source of oysters worldwide. On any day in the late 19th century, six million oysters could be found on barges tied up along

3663-597: The 1880s, was an early writer on the subject, and has recently been called "one of the most well-known cookbook collectors in the world". Much of her collection eventually went to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress . Held alongside hers are the thousands of gastronomic volumes donated by food chemist Katherine Bitting ; their collections were evaluated in tandem in Two Loaf-Givers , by one of

3762-459: The 7th edition included "near fifty Receipts being communicated just before the author's death". The Compleat Housewife was the first cookery book to be published in America, when William Parks , an ambitious and enterprising printer (originally from Shropshire ) printed it in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1742. His version of The Compleat Housewife , a "cookery book of ambitious scope", was based on

3861-494: The 9th and 10th centuries) and al-Baghdadi (13th century). Manasollasa from India contains recipes of vegetarian and non-vegetarian cuisines . While the text is not the first among Indian books to describe fermented foods, it contains a range of cuisines based on fermentation of cereals and flours. Chinese recipe books are known from the Tang dynasty , but most were lost. One of the earliest surviving Chinese-language cookbooks

3960-496: The Battalia Pye. Recipes are provided for home-made medicines and remedies such as "To promote Breeding" for women wanting to become pregnant . The recipe calls for a spoonful of "stinking orrice" syrup to be taken night and morning, and for "good ale" to be boiled with "the piths of 3 ox-backs, half a handful of clary, a handful of nep (or cat-bos)", dates, raisins, and nutmegs. The woman drinking this mixture "at your going to-bed"

4059-431: The English language". Modern Cookery long survived her, remaining in print until 1914 and available more recently in facsimile reprint. Acton's work was an important influence on Isabella Beeton , who published Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management in 24 monthly parts between 1857 and 1861. The book was a guide to running a Victorian household, with advice on fashion, child care , animal husbandry , poisons,

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4158-470: The LOC's curators; a digital version is available. The term cookbook is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to any book containing a straightforward set of already tried and tested " recipes " or instructions for a specific field or activity, presented in detail so that the users who are not necessarily expert in the field can produce workable results. Examples include a set of circuit designs in electronics ,

4257-515: The United Kingdom, the town of Whitstable is noted for oyster farming from beds on the Kentish Flats that have been used since Roman times. The borough of Colchester holds an annual Oyster Feast each October, at which "Colchester Natives" (the native oyster, Ostrea edulis ) are consumed. The United Kingdom hosts several other annual oyster festivals; for example, Woburn Oyster Festival

4356-566: The Venetian mid-14th century Libro per Cuoco , with its 135 recipes alphabetically arranged. The printed De honesta voluptate et valetudine ("On honourable pleasure"), first published in 1475, is one of the first cookbooks based on Renaissance ideals, and, though it is as much a series of moral essays as a cookbook, has been described as "the anthology that closed the book on medieval Italian cooking". Medieval English cookbooks include The Forme of Cury and Utilis Coquinario , both written in

4455-435: The beds by the early 20th century. Oysters' popularity has put ever-increasing demands on wild oyster stocks. This scarcity increased prices, converting them from their original role as working-class food to their current status as an expensive delicacy. In Britain, the native species ( European flat oyster ) has five years to mature and is protected by the people during their May-to-August spawning season. The current market

4554-545: The book also describes home remedies, the housewife having to function as " chef, doctor, pharmacist, exterminator, chemist, laundress, and all-around handy-woman." Reflecting that the recipes would "probably never" be used today, and the medicines are useless, the book remains invaluable for researchers, gives readers a glimpse into the world of Jane Austen and her contemporaries, and richly documents eighteenth-century English life. Patrick Spedding, in Script & Print , notes that

4653-402: The book was very popular in the eighteenth century, with 20 London editions in fifty years. However, he roundly criticises the 1983 Arlon House facsimile reprint of the 16th edition for deliberately omitting recipes including "To promote Breeding", suggesting this was because the publisher was concerned they might be harmful. The historian Sandra Sherman comments that The Compleat Housewife "is

4752-519: The book's popularity in the colonies was probably increased by the publication of an American edition. She concludes that The quantities and ingredients render many of the recipes unsuitable to the modern kitchen, but these old cookbooks are increasing in value and interest to libraries, bibliophiles, and collectors, who find in them a truly revealing and fascinating glimpse of the past. In the Spring 2006 issue of Prairie Schooner , Sarah Kennedy published

4851-409: The capacity to dramatically alter nitrogen levels in estuaries. In the U.S., Delaware is the only East Coast state without aquaculture, but making aquaculture a state-controlled industry of leasing water by the acre for commercial harvesting of shellfish is being considered. Supporters of Delaware's legislation to allow oyster aquaculture cite revenue, job creation, and nutrient cycling benefits. It

4950-534: The city's waterfront. They were naturally quite popular in New York City , and helped initiate the city's restaurant trade. New York's oystermen became skilled cultivators of their beds, which provided employment for hundreds of workers and nutritious food for thousands. Eventually, rising demand exhausted many of the beds. To increase production, they introduced foreign species, which brought disease; effluent and increasing sedimentation from erosion destroyed most of

5049-494: The composition of a dish or even precise measurements, but not detailed techniques. Not all cultures left written records of their culinary practices, but some examples have survived, notably three Akkadian tablets from Ancient Mesopotamia, dating to about 1700 BC, large fragments from Archestratus , the Latin Apicius and some texts from the Tang dynasty . The earliest collection of recipes that has survived in Europe

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5148-549: The cultivator putting spat in racks or bags and keeping them above the bottom. Harvesting involves simply lifting the bags or rack to the surface and removing the mature oysters. The latter method prevents losses to some predators, but is more expensive. The Pacific oyster has been grown in the outflow of mariculture ponds. When fish or prawns are grown in ponds, it takes typically 10 kg (22 lb) of feed to produce 1 kg ( 2 + 1 ⁄ 4  lb) of product ( dry-dry basis). The other 9 kg (20 lb) goes into

5247-404: The custom for fashion-sake and not through any necessity. The subject being both common and universal, needs no argument to introduce it, and being so necessary for the gratification of the appetite, stands in need of no encomiums to allure persons to the practice of it; since there are but a few nowadays who love not good eating and drinking The passage was lightly adapted from an earlier book with

5346-415: The earliest source for bread and butter pudding . The book includes recipes not only for foods but for wines, cordial-waters, medicines and salves. The title page describes The Compleat Housewife as a collection of several hundred of the most approved receipts, in cookery, pastry, confectionery, preserving, pickles, cakes, creams, jellies, made wines, cordials. And also bills of fare for every month of

5445-450: The early 13th century or perhaps earlier. Low and High German manuscripts are among the most numerous. Among them is Daz buch von guter spise ("The Book of Good Food") written c. 1350 in Würzberg and Kuchenmeysterey ("Kitchen Mastery"), the first printed German cookbook from 1485. Two French collections are probably the most famous: Le Viandier ("The Provisioner") was compiled in

5544-444: The eastern United States during the summer months, lending further credence to this belief. Oysters can be eaten on the half shell, raw, smoked , boiled , baked , fried , roasted , stewed , canned , pickled , steamed , or broiled , or used in a variety of drinks. Eating can be as simple as opening the shell and eating the contents, including juice. Butter and salt are often added. Poached oysters can be served on toast with

5643-489: The emergence of cookery writing in its modern form. In 1796, the first known American cookbook titled, American Cookery , written by Amelia Simmons, was published in Hartford, Connecticut . Until then, the cookbooks printed and used in the Thirteen Colonies were British. The first modern cookery writer and compiler of recipes for the home was Eliza Acton . Her pioneering cookbook, Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845),

5742-791: The family Ostreidae . This family includes the edible oysters, which mainly belong to the genera Ostrea , Crassostrea , Magallana , and Saccostrea . Examples include the European flat oyster , eastern oyster , Olympia oyster , Pacific oyster , and the Sydney rock oyster . Ostreidae evolved in the Early Triassic epoch : The genus Liostrea grew on the shells of living ammonoids . Almost all shell-bearing mollusks can secrete pearls, yet most are not very valuable. Pearls can form in both saltwater and freshwater environments. Pearl oysters are not closely related to true oysters, being members of

5841-494: The fifth London edition of 1732, altered to suit American taste, and without recipes "the ingredients or materials for which are not to be had in this country." Copies of the 1742 edition have become very rare, but "happily, one copy has returned to the city of its origin", and is in the Library of Colonial Williamsburg, Incorporated. In 1893, the bibliographer William Carew Hazlitt allocated 54 pages of his history of cookery books to

5940-441: The first female-authored blockbuster." The bibliographer Genevieve Yost comments that "E. Smith's popularity in eighteenth century England was challenged perhaps most seriously by Hannah Glasse , who admittedly is better remembered today", adding at once that Glasse is recalled mainly for the controversy over whether she actually existed, and for the recipe that people supposed started with "First catch your hare." Yost suggests that

6039-410: The foodways, observed the people and their traditions of each region by being in their own homes. Gotlieb did this so that she could put together a comprehensive cookbook based on the communities and individuals that make up Canada. Gooseberry Patch has been publishing community-style cookbooks since 1992 and built their brand on this community. Community cookbooks have sometimes been created to offer

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6138-508: The fourteenth century. The Forme of Cury is a cookbook authored by the chefs of Richard II . Utilis Coquinario is a similar cookbook though written by an unknown author. Another English manuscript (1390s) includes the earliest recorded recipe for ravioli, even though ravioli did not originate in England. With the advent of the printing press in the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous books were written on how to manage households and prepare food. In Holland and England competition grew between

6237-412: The global oyster harvest. In Europe, France remained the industry leader. Common oyster predators include crabs , seabirds , starfish , and humans . Some oysters contain crabs, known as oyster crabs . Bivalves , including oysters, are effective filter feeders and can have large effects on the water columns in which they occur. As filter feeders, oysters remove plankton and organic particles from

6336-444: The growing need for a text to assist women with their task of maintaining a household." She quotes Elizabeth Wallace's introduction as saying that it gives modern readers reason to appreciate having a refrigerator and a global food system that brings us out-of-season produce. Yet, she observes, the English housewife had many varieties of vegetables, 30 kinds of seafood and 35 kinds of poultry (including hares and rabbits). She notes that

6435-419: The high 60s to the high 70s (20–26 °C). Under ideal laboratory conditions, an oyster can filter up to 190 L (50 US gal) of water per day. Under average conditions, mature oysters filter 11–45 L (3–12 U.S. gal). Chesapeake Bay 's once-flourishing oyster population historically filtered excess nutrients from the estuary's entire water volume every three to four days. As of 2008 it

6534-589: The late 14th century by Guillaume Tirel , master chef for two French kings; and Le Menagier de Paris ("The Householder of Paris"), a household book written by an anonymous middle class Parisian in the 1390s. Du fait de cuisine is another Medieval French cookbook, written in 1420. From Southern Europe there is the 14th century Valencian manuscript Llibre de Sent Soví (1324), the Catalan Llibre de totes maneres de potatges de menjar ("The book of all recipes of dishes") and several Italian collections, notably

6633-521: The late 1880s, when the bay's population was in the billions, and watermen harvested about 910,000 m (25 million imp bsh) annually. The 2009 harvest was less than 7,300 m (200,000 imp bsh). Researchers claim the keys to the project were: The "oyster-tecture" movement promotes the use of oyster reefs for water purification and wave attenuation. An oyster-tecture project has been implemented at Withers Estuary, Withers Swash, South Carolina, by Neil Chambers-led volunteers, at

6732-524: The local conditions, the Pacific oyster spread up and down the coast and now is the basis of the North American west coast oyster industry. Pendrell Sound is now a reserve that supplies spat for cultivation. Near the mouth of the Great Wicomico River in the Chesapeake Bay , five-year-old artificial reefs now harbor more than 180 million native Crassostrea virginica . That is far lower than in

6831-666: The loss of half of California's Olympia oysters . Oyster reefs occupy a small fraction of their distribution prior to mass harvesting during the last three centuries. In October 2017, it was reported that underwater noise pollution can affect oysters as they close their shells when exposed to low frequencies of sounds in experimental conditions. Oysters rely on hearing waves and currents to regulate their circadian rhythms , and perception of weather events—such as rain —may induce spawning . Cargo ships , pile drivers , and explosions conducted underwater produce low frequencies that may be detected by oysters. Environmental stressors as

6930-403: The main ingredient of the dishes, Japanese cookbooks usually group them by cooking techniques (e.g., fried foods, steamed foods, and grilled foods). Both styles of cookbook have additional recipe groupings such as soups or sweets . International and ethnic cookbooks fall into two categories: the kitchen references of other cultures, translated into other languages; and books translating

7029-430: The management of servants , science, religion, and industrialism. Despite its title, most of the text consisted of recipes, such that another popular name for the volume is Mrs Beeton's Cookbook . Most of the recipes were illustrated with coloured engravings, and it was the first book to show recipes in a format that is still used today. Many of the recipes were plagiarised from earlier writers, including Acton. In 1885

7128-425: The next two or three years and develop greater energy reserves, they spawn as females by releasing eggs . Bay oysters usually spawn from the end of June until mid-August. An increase in water temperature prompts a few oysters to spawn. This triggers spawning in the rest, clouding the water with millions of eggs and sperm. A single female oyster can produce up to 100 million eggs annually. The eggs become fertilized in

7227-465: The noble families as to who could prepare the most lavish banquet. By the 1660s, cookery had progressed to an art form and good cooks were in demand. Many of them published their own books detailing their recipes in competition with their rivals. Many of these books have now been translated and are available online. By the 19th century, the Victorian preoccupation for domestic respectability brought about

7326-489: The oyster can produce a perfect pearl. Since the beginning of the 20th century, when several researchers discovered how to produce artificial pearls, the cultured pearl market has far outgrown the natural pearl market. A number of bivalve molluscs (other than true oysters and pearl oysters) also have common names that include the word "oyster", usually because they either taste like or look somewhat like true oysters, or because they yield noticeable pearls. Examples include: In

7425-463: The pond and after mineralization, provides food for phytoplankton, which in turn feeds the oyster. To prevent spawning, sterile oysters are now cultured by crossbreeding tetraploid and diploid oysters. The resulting triploid oyster cannot propagate, which prevents introduced oysters from spreading into unwanted habitats. In many areas, non-native oysters have been introduced in attempts to prop up failing harvests of native varieties. For example,

7524-430: The public might disregard warnings and consume tainted oysters. New Jersey Baykeepers responded by changing their strategy for utilizing oysters to clean up the waterway, by collaborating with Naval Weapons Station Earle. The Navy station is under 24/7 security and therefore eliminates any poaching and associated human health risk. Oyster-tecture projects have been proposed to protect coastal cities, such as New York, from

7623-410: The pye. A Lear. However, a few frequently-used components of dishes are described, such as "A Lear for Savoury Pyes" and "A Ragoo for made Dishes". The "Lear" is a thickened sauce made with claret , gravy, "oyster liquor", anchovies, herbs, onion and butter. The "Ragoo" contains similar ingredients, with the addition of sliced meats and mushrooms; the recipe ends with "use it when called for", such as in

7722-499: The recipe for "A Battalia Pye " does not mention pastry at all, though it is called for with the instruction to "close the pye": A Battalia Pye Take four small chickens, four squab pigeons, four sucking rabbets ; cut them in pieces, season them with savoury spice, and lay 'em in the pye, with four sweetbreads sliced, and as many sheep's tongues , two shiver'd palates, two pair of lamb-stones , twenty or thirty coxcombs , with savoury balls and oysters . Lay on butter, and close

7821-494: The recipes of another culture into the languages, techniques, and ingredients of a new audience. The latter style often doubles as a sort of culinary travelogue, giving background and context to a recipe that the first type of book would assume its audience is already familiar with. Popular Puerto Rican cookbook, Cocina Criolla, written by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli, includes recipes that are typically of traditional Puerto Rican cuisine such as mofongo and pasteles . Valldejuli's cookbook

7920-503: The semi-pseudonymous author of the Roman cookbook De re coquinaria , who shared a name with at least one other famous food figure of the ancient world. Famous cookbooks from the past, in chronological order, include: Several libraries have extensive collections of cookbooks. Some individuals are notable for their collections of cookbooks, or their scholarly interest therein. Elizabeth Robins Pennell , an American critic in London from

8019-684: The start of the book or at the start of chapters; each chapter consists entirely of recipes. There are no lists of ingredients, these simply being mentioned as needed in the recipes. Most recipes do not mention either oven temperature or cooking time, though for example "To candy Orange Flowers" instructs "set your glasses in a stove with a moderate heat", and "To Stew a Rump of Beef" states "this requires six or seven hours stewing." The recipes are predominantly English, but dishes include French and other foreign names, and imported ingredients, such as spices . Recipes are described tersely, and do not generally spell out basic techniques such as how to make pastry;

8118-431: The success of her book. It is possible that she worked at Beaulieu Abbey , Hampshire. She is critical of cookery books written by men who conceal their secrets, preventing readers from using their recipes successfully. The preface contains the following passage: It being grown as fashionable for a book now to appear in public without a preface, as for a lady to appear at a ball without a hoop-petticoat, I shall conform to

8217-569: The sun for up to a year to kill bacteria. Some states encourage shell recycling by offering tax incentives. Jonathan Swift is quoted as having said, "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster". Evidence of oyster consumption goes back into prehistory, evidenced by oyster middens found worldwide. Oysters were an important food source in all coastal areas where they could be found, and oyster fisheries were an important industry where they were plentiful. Overfishing and pressure from diseases and pollution have sharply reduced supplies, but they remain

8316-424: The surface area of a flat bottom 50-fold. An oyster's mature shape often depends on the type of bottom to which it is originally attached, but it always orients itself with its outer, flared shell tilted upward. One valve is cupped and the other is flat. Oysters usually reach maturity in one year. They are protandric ; during their first year, they spawn as males by releasing sperm into the water. As they grow over

8415-529: The task is the same: the oysterman scrapes oysters into a pile, and then scoops them up with the rake or tongs. In some areas, a scallop dredge is used. This is a toothed bar attached to a chain bag. The dredge is towed through an oyster bed by a boat, picking up the oysters in its path. While dredges collect oysters more quickly, they heavily damage the beds, and their use is highly restricted. Until 1965, Maryland limited dredging to sailboats , and even since then motor boats can be used only on certain days of

8514-478: The threat of rising sea levels due to climate change . Additionally Oyster reef restoration has shown to increase the population of oyster beds within the oceans while also conserving the biolife within the oyster reefs. The accidental or intentional introduction of species by humans has the potential to negatively impact native oyster populations. For example, non-native species in Tomales Bay have resulted in

8613-512: The use of working chefs and culinary students and sometimes double as textbooks for culinary schools. Such books deal not only in recipes and techniques, but often service and kitchen workflow matters. Many such books deal in substantially larger quantities than home cookbooks, such as making sauces by the liter or preparing dishes for large numbers of people in a catering setting. While the most famous of such books today are books like Le guide culinaire by Escoffier or The Professional Chef by

8712-503: The water and develop into larvae, which eventually find suitable sites, such as another oyster's shell, on which to settle. Attached oyster larvae are called spat. Spat are oysters less than 25 mm (1 in) long. Many species of bivalves, oysters included, seem to be stimulated to settle near adult conspecifics . Oysters filter large amounts of water to feed and breathe (exchange O 2 and CO 2 with water) but they are not permanently open. They regularly shut their valves to enter

8811-541: The water column. In California's Tomales Bay , native oyster presence is associated with higher species diversity of benthic invertebrates. As the ecological and economic importance of oyster reefs has become more acknowledged, restoration efforts have increased. Middens testify to the prehistoric importance of oysters as food, with some middens in New South Wales , Australia, dated at ten thousand years. They have been cultivated in Japan from at least 2000 BC. In

8910-416: The water column. Multiple studies have shown individual oysters are capable of filtering up to 190 litres (42 imp gal; 50 US gal) of water per day, and thus oyster reefs can significantly improve water quality and clarity. Oysters consume nitrogen-containing compounds ( nitrates and ammonia ), phosphates , plankton, detritus, bacteria, and dissolved organic matter, removing them from

9009-480: The water. What is not used for animal growth is then expelled as solid waste pellets, which eventually decompose into the atmosphere as nitrogen. In Maryland , the Chesapeake Bay Program had implemented a plan to use oysters to reduce the amount of nitrogen compounds entering the Chesapeake Bay by 8,600 t (9,500 short tons) per year by 2010. Several studies have shown that oysters and mussels have

9108-474: The week. These regulations prompted the development of specialized sailboats (the bugeye and later the skipjack ) for dredging. Similar laws were enacted in Connecticut before World War I and lasted until 1969. The laws restricted the harvesting of oysters in state-owned beds to vessels under sail. These laws prompted the construction of the oyster sloop-style vessel to last well into the 20th century. Hope

9207-649: The writers themselves and reflect upon the era in which they are written. They often reveal notions of social, political, environmental or economic contexts. For example, during the era of industrialization, convenience foods were brought into many households and were integrated and present in cookbooks written in this time. Related to this class are instructional cookbooks, which combine recipes with in-depth, step-by-step recipes to teach beginning cooks basic concepts and techniques. In vernacular literature, people may collect traditional recipes in family cookbooks . While western cookbooks usually group recipes for main courses by

9306-415: The year. To which is added, a collection of nearly two hundred family receipts of medicines; viz. drinks, syrups, salves, ointments, and many other things of sovereign and approved efficacy in most distempers, pains, aches, wounds, sores, etc. never before made publick in these parts; fit either for private families, or such publick-spirited gentlewomen as would be beneficent to their poor neighbours. The book

9405-457: Was aimed at the domestic reader rather than the professional cook or chef. This was an immensely influential book, and it established the format for modern writing about cookery. The publication introduced the now-universal practice of listing the ingredients and suggested cooking times with each recipe. It included the first recipe for Brussels sprouts . Contemporary chef Delia Smith is quoted as having called Acton "the best writer of recipes in

9504-679: Was estimated that a complete cycle would take nearly a year. A group of oysters is commonly called a bed or oyster reef . As a keystone species , oysters provide habitat for many marine species. Crassostrea and Saccostrea live mainly in the intertidal zone , while Ostrea is subtidal . The hard surfaces of oyster shells and the nooks between the shells provide places where a host of small animals can live. Hundreds of animals, such as sea anemones , barnacles , and hooked mussels , inhabit oyster reefs . Many of these animals are prey to larger animals, including fish, such as striped bass , black drum and croakers . An oyster reef can increase

9603-625: Was in 1938 at the Hammerton Brewery in London. That is where the oyster stout was first started. The French seaside resort of Cancale in Brittany is noted for its oysters, which also date from Roman times. Sergius Orata of the Roman Republic is considered the first major merchant and cultivator of oysters. Using his considerable knowledge of hydraulics , he built a sophisticated cultivation system, including channels and locks, to control

9702-499: Was not only important to Puerto Ricans, but also very popular in the United States where her original cookbook has since been published in several editions, including English versions. These include The Art of Caribbean Cookery - Doubleday, 1957; Puerto Rican Cookery - Pelican Publishing, 1983; and, Juntos en la Cocina (co-authored with her husband, Luis F. Valldejuli) - Pelican Publishing, 1986. Professional cookbooks are designed for

9801-470: Was the first to publish a recipe for " Katchup "; it included mushrooms , anchovies and horseradish . The title The Compleat Housewife may owe something to Gervase Markham 's 1615 The English Huswife . Little is known of Smith beyond what she writes of herself in the preface. She spent her life working as a cook or housekeeper in wealthy households, and unlike Elizabeth Raffald who left service to run her own shop, continued in that profession despite

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