Almeda Lambert
American cookbook writer and businessperson (1863–1921)

Almeda Lambert
Title page of Guide for Nut Cookery, 1899
Born
Almeda Maria West

(1863-09-09)September 9, 1863
Marquette County, Wisconsin, U.S.
DiedMarch 13, 1921(1921-03-13) (aged 57)
National City, California, U.S.
Resting placeMount Hope Cemetery, San Diego
Occupations
  • Cookbook writer
  • businessperson
Notable workGuide for Nut Cookery (1899)
Spouse
Joseph Lambert
​
(m. 1890)​
Children1

Almeda Lambert[a] (born Almeda Maria West; September 9, 1863 – March 13, 1921) was an American cookbook writer and businessperson. A Seventh-day Adventist, she authored Guide for Nut Cookery: Together with a Brief History of Nuts and Their Food Values (1899), a vegetarian cookbook described in later accounts as an early American work devoted to cooking with nuts and credited with around 1,000 nut-based recipes. Sources have also credited the book with some of the earliest published recipes for dairy-free ice cream, non-dairy eggnog, and boiled peanuts. Lambert married Joseph Lambert of Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1890. Together they co-founded the Lambert Nut Food Co. and a related Lambert Good Food Co., firms that produced peanut butter crackers and other nut products and sold nut-processing machinery, and that have been associated with the early commercial production of peanut butter in the United States.

Biography

Early life and family

Lambert was born Almeda Maria West in Marquette County, Wisconsin, on September 9, 1863.[3][4][5]

In 1890, she married Joseph Lambert of Battle Creek, Michigan, a former machinist who, by the mid-1890s, had invented a grinder for making peanut butter.[6] The couple had one daughter and later separated or divorced.[3][7]

Guide for Nut Cookery

Advertisement for Guide for Nut Cookery, 1899

Lambert, a Seventh-day Adventist, published a Guide for Nut Cookery: Together with a Brief History of Nuts and Their Food Values in 1899.[8] In the introduction, she wrote:[9]

It is the object of the author to place before the public a book treating upon the use of nuts as shortening, seasoning, etc., to be used in every way in which milk, cream, butter or lard can be used, and fully take their place.

Contents and recipes

Described as the first book in America focused exclusively on cooking with nuts, the book contains around 1,000 nut-based recipes, many of which had not been previously published.[10][11]

The recipes include pecan butter, nut milk, rolls, sausages, gravy, pea-and-pecan puree, pie crust, and mince pie. Lambert also provided instructions for preparing meat substitutes, such as "Nutora" and "Nutmeato", made from nut butters and cornstarch. These products were used to create mock dishes, including turkey legs, roast turkey, lobster, goose, cutlets, and trout. She described using sticks of macaroni as turkey leg bones and potato slices as the fins and tail of the trout. The book included photographs illustrating these preparations..[12]

Sources have credited Guide for Nut Cookery with the first known recipes for dairy-free ice cream, using nut milks and butters in place of cow's milk and cream.[13] It has also been cited as the first recorded source for a non-dairy eggnog recipe and for boiled peanuts.[14][15]

Reception

An 1899 review in Food, Home and Garden described the book as a detailed, illustrated work on vegetarian cookery, with an emphasis on using nuts as substitutes for meat and dairy. The reviewer noted the number of recipes and the discussion of combining nuts, grains, fruits, and vegetables, and commented on the book's price of $1.25.[16]

Legacy

In later accounts, the book has been described as documenting nut-based cookery among American vegetarians in the late 19th century, and as contributing to the wider use of nut cookery in American cooking. Subsequent vegetarian cookbooks, including the second edition of Ella Eaton Kellogg's Science in the Kitchen and E. G. Fulton's Vegetarian Cook Book: Substitutes for Flesh Foods, also promoted nut-based dishes to vegetarian and general audiences.[11]

Business ventures

Advertisement for the Lambert Nut Mill, 1900

Alongside her husband Joseph, Lambert was involved in the early commercial production of peanut butter in the United States. She co-founded two companies. She co-founded the Lambert Nut Food Co., incorporated in 1900, which produced peanut butter crackers, nut products, and nut-processing machinery. In 1901, the company was renamed the Lambert Good Food Co.[17]

A separate company, the Lambert Good Food Co., was incorporated in 1901 and sold similar products. The business moved its factory to Marshall, Michigan, in 1902 and was dissolved in 1930.[17]

Death

Lambert died aged 57 on March 13, 1921, at Paradise Valley Sanitarium in National City, California, where she had been undergoing treatment in preparation for an operation.[18][19] According to a contemporary report, the procedure revealed tubercular problems in her intestines and was not completed. Lambert had lived in Escondido for about 20 years.[19]

Her funeral was held on March 15 in San Diego, and she was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery.[5][19]

Publications

  • Guide for Nut Cookery: Together with a Brief History of Nuts and Their Food Values. Battle Creek, Michigan: Joseph Lambert & Company. 1899.

Notes

  1. ^ Her first name is sometimes recorded as Almeeta.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ Zalben, Lee (October 1, 2005). The Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook. Quirk Books. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-59474-056-5.
  2. ^ "Who Should We Thank for Peanut Butter?". Clubs of America. December 31, 2013. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  3. ^ a b Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko (March 11, 2015). Origin and Early History of Peanut Butter (1884-2015): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-928914-72-3.
  4. ^ "West, Almeda Maria". Marriage Index Record. Wisconsin Historical Society. January 1, 2012. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Mt. Hope Burial Registry 1868–1909" (PDF). City of San Diego. p. 124. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
  6. ^ Griffith, Linda; Griffith, Fred (2003). Nuts: Recipes from Around the World That Feature Nature's Perfect Ingredient. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-312-26624-0 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko (January 6, 2014). History of Seventh-day Adventist Work with Soyfoods, Vegetarianism, Meat Alternatives, Wheat Gluten, Dietary Fiber and Peanut Butter (1863-2013): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-928914-64-8.
  8. ^ Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko (October 1, 2013). "History of Soy Ice Cream and Other Non-Dairy Frozen Desserts (1899-2013)". SoyInfo Center. ISBN 978-1-928914-59-4. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  9. ^ McDonald, Amy (October 17, 2014). "Rubenstein Library Test Kitchen: Ice Cream No. 3 (1899)". The Devil's Tale. Duke University Libraries. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  10. ^ Smith, Andrew F. "A History of Food and Drink: Peanut Butter". Oxford Reference. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Smith, Andrew F. (October 28, 2013). "Nuts". Food and Drink in American History: A "Full Course" Encyclopedia. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 979-8-216-08547-8.
  12. ^ Smith, Andrew F. (February 21, 2012). "The Pecan: A Culinary History" (PDF). National Pecan Shellers Association. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  13. ^ "The Inventive 'Queens of Ices'". invention.si.edu. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  14. ^ "A History of Eggnog". Memoirs From Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen. December 21, 2024. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  15. ^ "A Southern Delicacy with a Rich History: The Story of Boiled Peanuts". Beltram of the Carolinas. Retrieved March 31, 2025.
  16. ^ "Guide to Nut Cookery". Food, Home and Garden: 3. December 1899 – via HathiTrust.
  17. ^ a b Shurtleff, William; Aoyagi, Akiko (December 18, 2014). History of Meat Alternatives (965 CE to 2014): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook. Soyinfo Center. p. 922. ISBN 978-1-928914-71-6.
  18. ^ "Almeda Lambert". California Death Index. FamilySearch. Retrieved April 5, 2025.
  19. ^ a b c "Mrs. Almeda Lambert Dies at the Sanitarium". Weekly Times-Advocate. March 18, 1921. p. 6. Retrieved March 25, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  • Guide for Nut Cookery (web version)
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