The English and Australian Cookery Book is considered to be the first Australian cookbook. Published in London in 1864, the full title of the first edition reads: The English and Australian Cookery Book: Cookery for the Many, as well as the Upper Ten Thousand - by an Australian Aristologist. The author, who listed himself only by the initials "E.A." in the introduction, was a Tasmanian named Edward Abbott.

Abbott was the son of a Canadian-born military officer, posted from New South Wales to Hobart in 1815 to become deputy judge advocate. Abbott junior rose from the position of clerk in his father's office to become a key player in the colony as wealthy grazier, coroner and parliamentarian.

He lost much of his wealth, and years of his prime, to an epic legal battle with colonial authorities over a rescinded land grant. Eccentric, he is said to have been the first person to try to raise thylacine cubs (now extinct), his writing suggests he was something of an early Australian nationalist. While proselytising the science, art and etiquette of fine dining — or "aristology" as he called it — he had a quick temper and at one time assaulted the premier of the day with his umbrella, apparently in a rage related to his ongoing legal wrangle with the government.

Shortly before his death in 1869, Abbott sent his will to son Frederick, one of his four children, along with an apology of sorts. "I leave but little, I tried to speculate in wheat, flour and oats — but failed owing to the rascality of commission agents," he explained. However Abbott did manage to leave the legacy of his cookbook.

Within its green and gold cover, illustrated with a stylised globe depicting the opposite nature of the seasons between hemispheres, are nearly 300 pages of recipes. The book is also peppered throughout with hundreds of famous quotations, book excerpts, Bible passages, and poems (including a four-page index for such at the end). While many reference Abbott's cookery book as the first Australian cookbook, few had analysed its contents in detail until 2014 when it was more broadly reproduced in celebration of its 150th anniversary. One recipe that gained attention was the original version of Blow My Skull punch, as credited to Lt. Governor Thomas Davey of Tasmania, as well as advice on how to best roast a wombat or emu.

The book has a lengthy and poem dense two page dedication. The primary dedication goes to William Charles Wentworth, who he ascribes as "the first Australian who has done the State service". He lists passages from Wentworth's 1823 poem Australasia, and also states what appears to be a quote from the poem: "Patriots have toil'd, and in their country's cause Bled nobly". He also dedicates the book to the "fair countrywomen of the 'beautiful land'", the "beautiful land" a clear reference to a passage from the poem.

Abbott offers an eight-page introduction. Near its beginning he states: "The following pages will show the British and Colonial mode of rendering the various articles that God has been pleased to give us for our use, nutritious and wholesome, as well as palatable to our tastes. It is a truism, well known, that meat properly cooked is more easily digested. Liebig informs us, 'That among all the arts known to man, there is none which enjoys a juster appreciation, and the products of which are more universally admired, than that which is concerned in the preparation of food'." He later ends the introduction thusly: "I trust, therefore, it may not be inopportune, even in such a work as this, that I may be allowed to apostrophise my country, in the elegant language of Scott-

'Breathes there a man with soul so dead.
 Who never to himself has said,
 This is my own—my native land!'"