Baker's Guide: Or, The Art of Baking Designed for Practical Bakers and Pastry Cooks

This volume in the American Antiquarian Cookbook Collection, published in 1870 in Boston, is by a “practical” baker with twenty-seven years of experience in the baking business, and he shares his secrets for making all categories of baked goods for the benefit of professionals and private bakers alike. John Weild states in his preface that he is writing for professional bakers, those who work in hotels, eating houses, and saloons, in order to expand their capabilities from one branch to another, and he claims that his book is the first of its kind for a professional audience. His goal is to help loaf-bread bakers become proficient in cake-making and vice versa. In particular, his recipes are clearly written to achieve his goal of making the book the standard authority for all cake makers, including ladies who bake for their families. Contents include over 200 recipes for loaf-bread baking, cakes, pastry, jellies, ice cream and water ices, pies, crackers, and puddings. This edition of The Baker’s Guide was reproduced by permission from the volume in the collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1812 by Isaiah Thomas, a Revolutionary War patriot and successful printer and publisher, the society is a research library documenting the lives of Americans from the colonial era through 1876. The society collects, preserves, and makes available as complete a record as possible of the printed materials from the early American experience. The cookbook collection comprises approximately 1,100 volumes.