author

Lydia Maria Gurney

Best remembered for preserving old-fashioned American home cooking, this early 20th-century writer gathered recipes and household know-how that feel warm, practical, and deeply rooted in family memory. Her work offers a vivid glimpse of everyday kitchen life before modern convenience foods changed the rhythm of cooking.

1 Audiobook

Things Mother Used to Make A Collection of Old Time Recipes, Some Nearly One Hundred Years Old and Never Published Before

Things Mother Used to Make A Collection of Old Time Recipes, Some Nearly One Hundred Years Old and Never Published Before

by Lydia Maria Gurney

About the author

Lydia Maria Gurney was an American writer known for Things Mother Used to Make, a collection of old-time recipes and household guidance first published in the early 1910s. The book presents itself as a record of traditional cooking and domestic practice, with recipes said to reach back nearly a century.

Available records found during this search suggest she was Lydia Maria Howland Gurney and lived from 1847 to 1931. Her writing has lasted because it does more than list ingredients: it preserves the habits, tastes, and resourcefulness of an earlier American kitchen.

Today, her work is mainly remembered by readers interested in culinary history, historic housekeeping, and the everyday details of family life. Things Mother Used to Make remains the clearest window into her voice—practical, nostalgic, and focused on passing useful knowledge along.