This is the first uniquely American Cookbook. Earlier colonial cookbooks were simply American publications of English cookbooks. Amelia Simmons described herself as an orphan and was apparently illiterate. She disowned some of the content of this cookbook in later editions as added by her unidentified scribe. The cookbook was widely plagiarized and pirated which serves as a further testimony to its importance. The scholarly introduction to this Dover edition, by Mary Tolford Wilson (written circa 1959) notes the importance of Simmon's work as the first publication of the American colonial invention of baking soda (pearl ash) and several uniquely American recipes such as those for Indian (corn) bread, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.

The facsimile text is somewhat difficult to read due to the age of the original and the archaic use of f for s; In addition, modern readers will find it difficult to impossible to follow the recipes due to the archaic ingredients and(to us)vague oven setting descriptions. If one is interested in actually preparing some of Simmons recipes the following alternate edition will be more usefull: American Cookery 1796 (hard cover) This edition (also in paperback) has an easy to read modern text and added illustrations not present in the original.

For those interested in the history of cooking this is an historical gem, especially as a facsimile and with the Wilson essay as an introduction. Text and page images of this original edition (without the introduction) are also available at the Michigan State University Digital Library "Feeding America" site.