One Hundred Mushroom Receipts

One Hundred Mushroom Receipts, by Kate Sargeant, reprint of the 1899 book with historical context by Fred Kelso, Hengwrt Publishing Co., Oxford, PA, 2007, 48 p., index, eBook only

This is a reprint of a wonderful little book that is the first known English language cookbook devoted exclusively to mushrooms. It was published in Cleveland, Ohio in 1899. The author, Kate Sargeant, was an amateur cook and naturalist who is not known to have written any other books. The publisher, Charles Orr, was also an amateur.

The next mushroom cookbook did not come along for another 37 years! This was Countess Morphy’s London work Mushroom Recipes, published by Joseph Herbert. In 1941 the George W. Stewart Company of New York published Mushroom Cookery, by Helmut Ripperger. In the foreword to Mushroom Cookery, Ripperger pays homage to Kate:

“Although every general cookery book contains some mushroom recipes, there is not a single book in print in this country dealing solely with mushroom cookery. As a matter of fact, careful research has disclosed but one earlier work, One Hundred Mushroom Receipts by Kate Sargeant, published in Cleveland in 1899. In that book, we find such recipes as Fistulina Hepatica Soup, Baked Tricholoma Gambosus, and Cantharellus Cibarius Stew, to mention but a few. Apparently the cook of those days knew his mushroom…Until comparatively recent times, [mushrooms] were not available on the open market except in the larger cities, and the thing to do was to go out into the fields and pick your own.”

Recipe categories include:

Mushroom Soups, Mushroom Stews, Baked Mushrooms, Fried Mushrooms, Mushroom Sauces, Mushroom Salads, and Miscellaneous Mushroom Dishes

There is an introduction with historical context regarding the author, the publisher, the subject matter, and the hunt for this rare and elusive book.