2005_11_04-Art-of-Cookery.jpgMove over, Nigella. Enough with the 30-minute Meals and the Semi-Homemade craze. Some of us like a little nostalgia, ok? Some of us like to do it the long, hard way.

If really old cookbooks are your thing, do we have the resource for you. Cookbooks From the Open Door is an online shop that carries just about every historical cookbook a collector could want.

They stock everything from Marcus Apicius' First Century Cooking and Dining In Imperial Rome to a facsimile of the original (1931) edition of The Joy of Cooking. Here are some other titles to look forward to:

  • First American Cookbook (1796)
  • Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1805)
  • American Frugal Housewife (1833)
  • Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery (1851)
  • What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking (1881)

We may live in the age of the internet, but you can bet Epicurious won't have the recipes for Colonial favorites like spruce beer and Indian slapjacks.

PS. If you are a reader of The Kitchen, give us your opinion. As we prepare to launch The Kitchen seperately this month, Jenny is writing a wine column and we need a hot, cool, hip, edgy, fun name. The column will only be about wine and aim to educate and inspire more wine drinking over the course of a year. Sound good? The tell us what you think the best name is below.