Elsasser, Marie

Ausführliches Kochbuch für die einfache und feine jüdische Küche : unter Berücksichtigung aller rituellen Vorschriften in 3759 Rezepten; [Cover title: Kochbuch für die einfache und feine jüdische Küche; spine title: Israelitisches Kochbuch].

Frankfurt a. M. Verlag von J. Kauffmann, 1901.

Thick octavo (23 x 16 cm.), vi, 926, [2],16 pages. Index. Advertisements. FIRST EDITION of this important German- Jewish cookbook. In their excellent survey of historic German-Jewish cooking, Gabrielle and Sonya Gropman state that Elsasser's is "a book for Jewish housewives, and holds important secrets of the German-Jewish kitchen, such as a section of acceptable fat substitutions in a land of pork and lard." (The German-Jewish Cookbook: Recipes and History of a Cuisine). There are at least two distinct binding designs for this first edition: one with the image of the chef at stove stirring a pot, and with the cover title noted here; the second binding design depicts an upper middle-class woman holding a duck or goose on a platter surrounded by a flourish of botanical decorative forms, with the title as it appears on the title page. We have been unable to determine priority if any. A very close to fine copy, in grayish-green publisher's decorated cloth (and in addition to the note above regarding the alternate binding design, we have seen this design in multiple cloth colors: red and brown as well as in this gray-green). [OCLC locates nine copies, just five in the US; Bitting page 143 (recording the 1905 and 1911 editions); not in Cagle].

Price: $750.00