Treasure trove of old books about food and cooking.

I'm fascinated with old cookbooks.  Anything prior to 1970 is bound to be interesting; the older, the better.  The website Feeding America is a goldmine of really old American cookbooks dating from the 18th to early 20th centuries.  Each book in the collection -- there are more than 70 -- is viewable in a full-color PDF format, or text (transcribed verbatim from the originals).   We can thank Michigan State University Library and the MSU Museum for partnering together to make this site possible.

If you're at all partial to encycolpedic works, check out Thomas Farrington De Voe's The Market Assistant (1867, New York, Hurd & Houghton), subtitled, "Containing a Brief Description of Every Article of Human Food Sold in the Public Markets of the Cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn." The author, Mr. De Voe, was a butcher by trade, and goes into great depth on the topic of meats.  Happily, he avoids a textbook/scientific approach, favoring a mix of stories (the Roman discovery of the "beefsteak"), anecdotes, useful food wisdom and personal opinions ("...I have placed the Splayed Heiffer first -- from four to seven years old -- as generally affording the best and choicest beef.")

Also of interest, and along the same lines is Artemas Ward's The Grocer's Encyclopedia (1911, New York), which is chock full of illustrations, many of them color lithography.