[Mezzaluna]

I wonder when the first "peasant" recipes were acutually published? I recall my grandmother looking at me like I was lame-brained when I asked for her recipe for challah, kasha varnishkes, etc. You learned this kind of food from watching it being made, not from a book, as Pete said. I know The Forward , a New York newspaper in Yiddish for immigrant Jews, published recipes of homestyle foods because people were cut off from their families and wanted a taste of home.

Anyone know when the earliest "peasant style cuisine" cookbooks were published? Was there a link to political and economic events?