The Christmas Cook: Three Centuries of American Yuletide Sweets

by William Woys Weaver

Gathers traditional recipes for holiday cakes, cookies, pies, crullers, fritters, gingerbread, ice cream, waffles, tarts, plum puddings, marzipan, candies and meringues

Genres: Christmas, Holiday, Fiction, Cookbooks

267 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Linore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of good historical info and tidbits here, as well as awesome illustrations. Am still reading this one, but so far it's a well-earned five star book, especially since so much of "Christmas Past" is usually centered on England and Germany. This is about desserts of the season as adapted or invented by Americans, and I'm enjoying that. (Also trying some recipes. Tonight we're making "Yule Dollies".) Any history fan would enjoy this, whether they like to bake or not.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A combination of a cookbook and a history of Christmas traditions as well as sweets. Interesting to learn about cooking trends through the centuries. American cooks used to spend a lot of time on elaborate sweets, and used a lot of suet! Looking forward to trying some recipes next Christmas season.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating history of American Christmas through the lens of desserts. Full of old recipes, photos of antique kitchen utensils and replicated dishes created by the author, postcards, and more. I particularly like the parts about the evolution of cookies (including some beautiful molded cookies), and the "Clear Toys" Barley Sugar.

[Shane Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice mixture of history and historical recipes updated for modern ingredients (and to a lesser extent tastes). I took notes throughout and then decided that I'm not even going to attempt any of the recipes this year, but I enjoyed the book anyway.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed this one. It's pretty dense with historical information, in addition to the recipes. Many of the recipes don't appeal to my palate or sensibilities, but it's still an interesting volume.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a cookbook this is kind of *meh* nothing caught my eye to make. But, I look at pictures to see what is interesting to cook, and like my cookbooks to a have a picture for each recipe. That's just personal preference. As a history/informational book, it's very good and interesting. So it gets a 5 star overall. It's a bit different than regular food or history books or food/holiday/history books so it gets stars for that, too. I think it's a must read for Christmas and food lovers. And I'm both!