The New Settlement Cook Book

The New Settlement Cook Book was first published in 1901 by Lizzie Black Kander, a Milwaukee social reformer. It was created as a fundraising project for The Settlement, a community house serving the local immigrant population. Kander, who taught cooking and homemaking classes at the facility, compiled the recipes to help immigrant women assimilate and manage their households while documenting the culinary traditions they brought with them from Europe.

The book’s design is deeply rooted in the practical necessity of the early 20th-century American kitchen. Kander emphasized clear, reliable instructions that could be executed by home cooks with varying levels of literacy and access to ingredients. Its enduring popularity—often updated through numerous editions—is attributed to this grounded approach, blending traditional Jewish recipes with broader American domestic standards, eventually becoming a staple of kitchen literature that bridged the gap between old-world heritage and new-world life.