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January 1, 1812

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Joseph Brotherton replaces the late Cowherd as minister and preaches the values of vegetarianism. His wife publishes the first cookcook called Vegetable Cookery dedicated to ovo-lacto vegetarian meals, although they had copious amounts of butter.

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Vegetable Cookery: With an Introduction, Recommending Abstinence from Animal Food and Intoxicating Liquors

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Spreading vegetarianism

What the rift did was formalise Cowherd's views on vegetarianism – to be part of his new church, the congregation were expected to abstain from meat – and plant the seed of a movement that would stretch across the UK and beyond.

Joseph Brotherton, a lay member of the original Christ Church, had been a strong supporter of Cowherd from the start, and took on his cause with gusto. After Cowherd's death, in 1816, it was Brotherton who became the minister at the church and later, after the reform act was passed in 1832, he became Salford's first MP – all the time preaching the values of egalitarianism and vegetarianism.

Brotherton's wife was also influential in spreading the 'no meat' gospel, when in 1812, she published the first cook book devoted to vegetarian meals.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_Cookery


Vegetable Cookery: With an Introduction, Recommending Abstinence from Animal Food and Intoxicating Liquors is the first vegetarian cookbook, authored anonymously by Martha Brotherton (1783–1861) of Salford. It was first published as A New System of Vegetable Cookery in periodical form in 1812.[2] A second book edition appeared in 1821 and a third was published by Horatio Phillips of London in 1829 under its most well known title Vegetable Cookery.[2]

The first edition was published anonymously by a "member of the Bible Christian Church".[2] The fourth edition published in 1833 by Effingham Wilson, contained 1,261 recipes and was also published anonymously "by a lady".[2] Martha's husband Joseph Brotherton wrote the introduction for the book. Two further editions appeared in 1839 and 1852.[2] The 1852 edition contains a foreword by James Simpson, the first President of the Vegetarian Society.[3]

It was the first published vegetarian cookbook.[2][4] Martha and Joseph Brotherton were leading members of William Cowherd's Bible Christian Church.[4][5]

The recipes are ovo-lacto vegetarian. Many of the recipes involve copious amounts of butter. Historians have noted that "Brotherton's book served as a guide for Americans who began to self-identify as vegetarian in the early decades of the nineteenth century."[6] Kathryn Gleadle has written that the book "was enormously important to the movement, forming the basis of most subsequent works on vegetable cookery."[7]

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