herself . “ Do as with as few domestics as possible ; assist with the work yourself ,” she advises . Lea ’ s advice in dealing with servants is to encourage them — leaving time for the women to take care of their own clothes , to read , and to knit . Much of her advice would sound familiar to a contemporary manager ; give workers time for “ rest and recreation ” and they will return “ renewed in health and spirits .”
Likewise , she encourages thrift , not for its own sake , but to a create surplus that can then provide charity . Lea writes “ It may seem at first troublesome to a young housekeeper to take the necessary care to save for the poor … permit me to say , you will be sweetly rewarded for your attention to them .”
After Lea ’ s death in 1858 , the cookbook was unmentioned in her obituary . She had been eclipsed by other writers , not Quakers , who wrote on morality , abolition , and cookery . As Sylvester Graham and others advocated eating grains and vegetables , Lea ’ s heavy farm food would come to be seen as old-fashioned and out of step with scientific cookery .
By advertising her recipes as “ up-to-date ” and “ tested ,” Maria Brooke Watkins ’ s 1897 book was right in step with a more technical approach to cooking , espoused by Fannie Farmer , who regularized recipe measurements , and with the household systems described in Catherine Beecher ’ s Treatise on Domestic Economy .
Her fundraising cookbook was also part of a post-Civil War
Courtesy Internet Archive
tradition of women ’ s fundraising — sometimes church-affiliated — with proceeds going to support veterans ’ hospitals and memorials . As
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