The Cornucopia: Being a Kitchen Entertainment and Cookbook

The Cornucopia, published to wide acclaim in 1973, is an exquisitely annotated collection of five centuries of European and American culture as seen through the eyes of both the chef and the gourmet. Drawing on more than 150 sources, beginning with The Forme of Cury (1390), through to the 1890s and some of the most beautiful examples of culinary Victoriana, this richly good-humored book tumbles out a virtual treasury of food lore, commentary and opinion, custom and attitude, and more than three hundred delectable recipes, given in their original format.

From a 1598 recipe for "four and twenty blackbirds baked into a pie," to an exquisite 1653 Izaak Walton recipe for stuffed pike, to an 1898 formula for a drink improbably named "the Bosom Caresser" (sherry, brandy, sugar, an egg yolk, and a pinch of cayenne pepper), this unique volume is all the food lover could ask for.

Judith Herman and Marguerite Shalett Herman, the daughter-mother team that compiled this volume, tested more than a thousand recipes and gathered thousands of pieces of food lore from texts in the Huntington Library's rare book collections.