This reproduction of an antique guide will appeal to new cooks with its blend of narrative-style recipes and American ingredients, and actually offers some unusual homespun approaches to cooking, such as the use of
pearlash, a leavening agent that led to baking powder's development.
By 1854, the Buxton Settlement included 480 hectares of cultivated farmland, a profitable farm-supplies store, tobacco farms, a
pearlash factory, two sawmills, large livestock herds, a gristmill, and a brick-making company.
In addition to the substitution of cornmeal for flour in bread and cake recipes, there was the use of pumpkins and crookneck squash in pies, the accompaniment of turkey with cranberry sauce, and the replacement of yeast with
pearlash (a forerunner of baking power) as a leaven in doughs.