The Story of the 1881 Cumberland Valley Cook and General Recipe Book

<p>In 1875 J.B. Morrow editor of the Newville Pennsylvania<em> Star and Enterprise</em> got the idea for a cookbook. He would solicit readers of his newspaper for their recipes and give a free copy of the proposed <em>Newville Cook and General Recipe Book</em> to the contributors. He got swamped. Readers sent him over 700 recipes!</p><p><br></p><p>Half a year into the effort Morrow realized it wasn't going to be a quick project. It took until nearly the end of 1876 to finish printing the <em>Cumberland Valley Cook Book</em>. It was renamed somewhere along the line probably indicating the expanded scope. The volume was a hit and three years later Morrow published a second edition with 200 additional recipes.</p><p><br></p><p>The recipes mostly were familiar American dishes of the day largely desserts. However among them were two recipes for something brand new in that day: shoo-fly pie (one was really a cake). They are the oldest documented recipes for the dish preceding by at least 10 years the previous record.</p><p><br></p><p>After the second edition came out things got strange.</p><p><br></p><p>The only existing copy of Morrow's cookbook is a THIRD edition. <em>The Cumberland Valley Cookbook and General Recipe Book by the Ladies of the Cumberland Valley Pennsylvania</em> was PUBLISHED IN TOPEKA KANSAS IN 1881. And Morrow's name is not on it.</p>