Cream background with blue title and orange author name. Antique graphic patterns create borders for the text.

Size: 5 x 7
Pages: 432
Illustrations: 1 b&w halftone, 3 b&w line drawings, 1 chart

Southern History
 First Cookbooks of America
 hardcover
 Books
 Cookbooks & Foodways

The Virginia House-wife, updated edition

200th Anniversary Edition

updated edition

Mary Randolph
with commentary by Karen Hess
foreword by Debra Freeman

Paperback

Published:

Hardcover
978-1-64336-551-0
 Published: Mar 18 2025

$27.99

Spiral Bound

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The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of

The 200-year-old cookbook every modern food lover needs

At the turn of the nineteenth century, Mary Randolph—who was among Thomas Jefferson's extended family—and her husband, US Marshall David Meade Randolph, were celebrated for their lavish hospitality. However, in 1802, Mr. Randolph was removed from office, precipitating a financial downturn. By 1808, Mrs. Randolph opened a boardinghouse, where, by all accounts, the food and accommodations were splendid. In the years that followed, she committed her culinary expertise to paper, publishing The Virginia House-wife in 1824. It has come to be regarded as the most influential American cookbook of the nineteenth century.

This unique edition includes a complete facsimile of the original book—with recipes for delicacies such as lobster sauce and pumpkin pudding, and household tips on such things as curing bacon and making lavender water—plus additional recipes from the 1825 and 1828 editions. Historical notes by culinary historian Karen Hess explain Mary Randolph's influence on American culinary history, and a new foreword by Debra Freeman emphasizes contributions of the free and enslaved African American cooks on American cuisine.



Mary Randolph (1762–1828) published The Virginia House-wife in 1824. Karen Hess (1918–2007) was an accomplished culinary historian and author and editor of numerous books, including The Carolina Rice Kitchen (reissued 2022, USC Press). She was once called "the best American cook in Paris" by Newsweek. Debra Freeman is host and creator of the IACP award-winning podcast,Setting the Table; executive producer and host of the documentary series, Finding Edna Lewis; and food editor for Style Weeklyin Richmond, Virginia.

"An incredible snapshot of dining and Southern life before the Civil War."—Debra Freeman, from the foreword

"For those interested in history and cooking, [. . .] one of the earliest cookbooks written by an American about the food of this country."—Southern Living

"To mark the bicentennial of the publication of Mary Randolph's The Virginia Housewife, the University of South Carolina Press has issued a new edition of Karen Hess's authoritative collated text of the first three editions. The founding book of southern cookery (the first to mingle African American, Native, and European dishes), it reflected both the taste of Thomas Jefferson, with whom Randolph had a familial connection, and that of the Virginia public whom Randolph served as a boardinghouse keeper. The first classic of American regional cookery."—David S. Shields, coauthor of The Ark of Taste: Delicious and Distinctive Foods That Define the United States and Taste the State: South Carolina's Signature Foods, Recipes & Their Stories