The Little Women Cookbook by Wini Moranville

The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family by Wini Moranville

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Little Women Cookbook: Tempting Recipes from the March Sisters and Their Friends and Family by Wini Moranville, Louisa May Alcott

October 1, 2019
Quarto Publishing
112 pages
Health, cooking, nonfiction
Rating: 5/5

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and Quarto Publishing in exchange for an unbiased review.

This is a must have for all Louisa May Alcott fans! It is vibrantly illustrated and organized into four chapters: breakfast, family gatherings, dinner and desserts. The author also includes some history about Louisa May Alcott and the author's fascination with historic and heirloom recipes.

Food is the kind of love you can see.

It begins with a delightful travel back to the March family and the lessons of generosity learned. Episodes from the story are revisited as they demonstrate how certain foods played an intricate role in their daily lives. The author has done extensive research and where no specific dish was identified she found recipes around 1850-1880 taking into account the March family resources and food popular at that time.

A popular breakfast of Milk-Toast is a reminder of simple times. Of course, the meals changed with the seasons and available crops. It would not be uncommon for one to serve a breakfast of cornbread, fried liver, boiled eggs and fried potatoes. They tended to eat a heartier and more varied breakfast than generally served in America today.

Gatherings with friends and family were not complete without favorite meals over picnics or Sunday roast. Evening suppers were quite light since their hearty meal was at breakfast. Sandwiches and salads were quite popular with rather peculiar ingredients amongst the upper-class including pigeon pie, duck, tongue, blanc-mange, cheese and biscuits. Back in the day, celery was considered a delicacy and displayed proudly in a vessel on the dinner table. An interesting recipe in this book is called Cheese, Butter and Celery Sandwiches. Again, what seems like a humble meal today was deemed a special treat as celery was expensive. Interesting since living in New England at the time, lobsters were plentiful! Salads would often display their flavor a through the greens available than the dressings applied. In addition to milder lettuce, they often had mustard greens, sorrel and watercress.

Family dinners consisted of inexpensive readily available ingredients such as fish and lobster, potatoes, biscuits and pot pies. Some interesting recipes are Creamed Ham on Toast, Hannah's Cottage Pie, Maple Cornmeal Drop Biscuits and Garden Pot Pie.

Sweet treats and desserts are always a favorite. As today, cookies of all sorts used everyday pantry essentials such as flour, sugar, eggs, milk and fruit. You will find a variety of dishes which have been adapted for today's convenience.

I enjoyed this cookbook for its recipes as well as its trip down memory lane.






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