Manuscript Location

UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library

Place of Origin

United States ➔ California

Date of Composition

1860-1880

Description

The author of the "Lillie Hitchcock Coit Recipe Book" was a legend in her time. In her introduction to a printed edition of the book published by the Bancroft Library, Carol Hart Field tells us that Lillie Hitchcock was born in 1843 at West Point, where her father was an army doctor, and came to San Francisco with her parents in 1851. At the age of seven she was rescued from a fire in which two companions perished. Thereafter she developed a passionate attachment to the city's Volunteer Fire Department, rushing out of her house (to the consternation of her parents) whenever she heard an alarm bell clang to aid the men of the Knickerbocker Engine Number 5. At twenty she was made an honorary member of the company--the only woman so honored--and forever after wore the small gold pin she was given and had the monogram LHC5 embroidered on all her clothes and linens.

Lillie's fascination with firefighting prefigured a highly unconventional life as a society hostess who also wore men's trousers, smoked cigars, drank bourbon, and played poker late into the night. After marrying Howard Coit in 1868 (against the strenuous objections of her parents), she settled with him at a 160-acre ranch in the Napa Valley, where she entertained some of the day's most prominent Californians. As a hostess, she was particularly noted for the quality of her conversation, one contemporary newspaper account opining that "she has a certain recklessness of phraseology very fascinating in her, but impossible in any other woman." After separating from her husband in 1876, Lillie continued on at the ranch until 1890, when she moved to the elegant Palace Hotel in San Francisco. In 1904 a deranged relative attempted to kill her, causing her to flee the country and live abroad for the next twenty years until the madman had died. She returned to San Francisco a few years before her death in 1929, whereupon she left a handsome legacy to San Francisco, which the city fathers used "to build the cylindrical tower on Telegraph Hill that bears her name."

Lillie Hitchcock Coit compiled her cookbook in the 1870s, but as a lifelong gourmand--she arranged a nine-course French restaurant dinner for her husband's 34th birthday in 1872--she likely began collecting the recipes much earlier. The dishes that Coit wrote down comprise a fascinating eclectic mix. Some are old American favorites, such as codfish and potatoes, fried chicken, cornbread, and Maryland beaten biscuits. Others are fancy and French, the sort of fare that was popular in the day and that was served in many of the fine San Francisco restaurants that Coit frequented. Finally, there are Mexican recipes too: Casuelo of Chicken, Mole (with turkey), and Chicken with Chile. The mole calls for a pound of dried chiles, an ounce of cinnamon, half an ounce of black pepper, and twenty cloves--a racy stew that seems in keeping with the adventurous woman who cooked it.