Correction: Janfield is not the McCrae House museum but is a limestone house on College Avenue on the opposite side of where College Heights Secondary School and Centennial CVI are located. This was the home of John McCrae’s grandparents. Incorrect information was included in the original version of this story.
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Melissa McAfee was no cook when she came to Guelph 12 years ago, but as she started to work with the cookbook collection at the University of Guelph it gave her a window into history and culture.
What looks to be the oldest Guelph cookbook the university has is The Housewife’s Library from 1883. It was published by Hubbard Brothers Publishers in Philadelphia and the same year it was also published in Guelph by World Publishing Company.
In this era printing was expensive to do and there was a lot of copying in the U.S., said McAfee. The Cook Not Mad, was the first cookbook written in English published in Canada but it is an American cookbook, she said. Labour to create cookbooks was done in the U.S. and oftentimes copyright was ignored so the books were published in Canada.
“Somebody has already taken the time to create the recipes. They’re either stealing it or they’re doing it with copyright,” said McAfee.
The Guelph Public Library is hosting an event called History Lives Here: Culinary Milestones at the U of G’s McLaughlin Library on Nov. 21 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. McAfee is an archival and special collections librarian at the U of G and will be presenting about how cookbooks can be used beyond cooking.
The U of G's collection of cookbooks is about 20,000 and the Guelph cookbooks pulled for this article are from the Una Abrahamson collection at the university, which ranges from the 17th to 20th century.
McAfee said cookbooks weren’t seen as primary sources in academia up until about the 1980s. What cookbooks can tell us is a lot about eating habits, culinary practices of people, religion and historical periods. The Housewife’s Library is a domestic manual aimed to describe how women should run their households.
There are books a community needs like the Bible, almanacs and cookbooks. “It's a book, a manual, that people need, but that doesn't mean it's not important. I think it's important because it's real,” said McAfee. Knowing The Housewife’s Library was published in Philadelphia she thinks it could have been created with an American perspective in mind and not a Canadian one.
She’s probably right since there are recipes in it under the jellies, jams, and preserves section for preserved quinces, pineapple, pears and watermelon preserves. Some of the fruits would be difficult to grow here so getting to preserve them wouldn’t be possible.
Of the collection, Driver thinks The King’s Daughter's Cook Book and Domestic Helps by Guelph Circle of King’s Daughters, likely has the most Guelph identity tied to it out of the other Guelph cookbooks. The reason being is because it's a community cookbook and was made by the Guelph community as a fundraiser to help “charity, missions, general hospital, Elliott Home, and wherever the call is made, in our own city or elsewhere,” read the preface of the book.
In Driver's book she detailed there is a copy of the book which is inscribed in black ink 'Agnes Taylor Gow from Janet McCrae / / "Janefield" Christmas 1908.' Another inscription, this time in ball point pen is "Julie Pope." Janet was Guelph's John McCrae's mom and Janefield was his grandparents' house on College Avenue.
The recipes in the book were tested and the community contributed to it. What McAfee found interesting from the book were the advertisements. There were advertisements for The Bell Piano, Robert Stewart Limited and other Guelph companies.
The only noticeable used part of the book was the pie section with pie filling recipes for custard, cream, and lemon pies. Names S. Naismith, Miss Jessie T. Hill and Mrs. K. Maclean were credited to the recipes. “If you see a cookbook in pristine condition, you have to wonder, did they ever cook from it,” said McAfee.
“I think what is interesting, besides the instructions for doing cooking and other things is just indications or sort of a guidepost to how people were spending their time during that period of time, especially women,” said McAfee.
Looking through Guelph community cookbooks can show how ingredients and cooking practices change overtime. Today a community cookbook could have recipes people can make in a microwave.
Now that McAfee is into cooking she makes poached salmon in a microwave.
