For several years now, the culinary world has been omnipresent in our media universe. Special sections of thematic recipes in newspapers and magazines, television shows, specialist channels and videos on social networks – we have never had so much access to such a wide variety of recipes from all over the world.
Despite all these opportunities to learn to cook simple dishes or more exotic dishes, the good old recipe book remains an indispensable component and still a success in bookstores! But when did we first have access to recipe books in Quebec?
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From the Roman Empire to the tables in Quebec
The history of recipe books goes back to the beginnings of writing. We actually have Sumerian or Babylonian recipes written on clay tablets more than 4,000 years ago, recipes on papyri from ancient Egypt and a first gastronomy book from Roman times. This gourmet was called Apicius and is said to have lived at the beginning of the first century AD. His favorite recipes were eventually compiled into a book that is still published today, with current editions adapted to today’s culinary vocabulary and ingredients!
When French-Canadian settlers began settling in New France, they brought with them their French culinary traditions, which they had to adapt to the realities of their new territory. Over time and with the arrival of English, Scottish, Acadian, Irish or Chinese immigrants, the cuisine gradually mixed and influenced the recipes that circulated in writing. It must be said that as the settlers began to develop the colony, the printing press had begun to encourage the spread of recipe books, whereas before they were more likely to be passed down from generation to generation within the same family. Some of our ancestors may have known Guillaume Tirel’s Le Viandier, known as Schwanzvent, which had been in circulation since the 14th century.
“The Meatmaker” by Schwanzvent. Public domain
The first recipe books in Quebec
In addition to familial transmission, it was initially religious communities that wrote down and preserved some of our culinary knowledge without necessarily publishing books. The first cookbook published in Quebec did not come onto the market until 1825. It was called La Cuisine Bourgeoise and was actually a revised edition of a French book originally published in 1739. The very first cooking work written and published in Quebec was published in 1840. It was called “The Canadian Cook” and was a book that taught all the basics of cooking, from appetizers to dessert!
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From then on, the enthusiasm for recipe books began, and at the end of the 19th century, religious communities such as the Ursulines and the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame also began to produce books that contained as many recipes as the cooking techniques. The success of the Handbook of Sustainable Cooking from the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame has been undeniable since its first edition in 1919!
“The Canadian Cook,” the first-ever recipe book written and published in Quebec. Library and Archives of Canada / Public Domain
“The Bourgeois Cook”, Quebec’s first recipe book. Library and Archives of Canada / Public Domain
“Handbook of sustainable cuisine”. Archives of the Congregation of Notre Dame
On the way to a gourmet heritage
Although there is no shortage of recipes these days, there is also a craze for old and traditional recipes that remind us of the tastes of our childhood. The archive centers therefore have various databases with culinary archives and old editions of recipe books. This is particularly true for BAnQ, but also for the Portneuf Regional Archives Center, which is constantly looking for new archives of traditional recipes from the region. You can view and even contribute to this archive here: https://archivesportneuf.org/recette-gourmande/. You will find, among other things, recipes from the handwritten book by Marie-Anna Trottier, who was housekeeper at the Deschambault rectory in the 1940s and 1950s. His recipes include the “Chop-Mouris,” which, as you can imagine, is one of… chop suey!
Portneuf Regional Archive Center