Definition of "cookery"

together with excellent directions for cookery, as also for preserving, conserving, candying, &c.

1475, Kenelm Digby, The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. Opened, subtitle

I've got a bit of cookery that will astonish him — my marinated pheasants' poults a la braise imperiale.

1839, John Espy Lovell, “Fish out of water”, in Rhetorical Dialogues, page 335

She directed the servants, inspected both the cookery and arrangements of the table, held council with an old steward...

1800, Charlotte Yonge, The Little Duke, page 3

...and would not be just dead weight, as on the trail it could conveniently be filled with the cookery and other odds and ends...

1934, Gray Owl, Pilgrims of the Wild, page 101

Mr. Weller produced upon the little dining-table, a roast leg of mutton and an enormous meat-pie, with sundry dishes of vegetables, and pots of porter, which stood upon the chairs or the sofa bedstead, or where they could, everybody felt disposed to do justice to the meal, notwithstanding that the meat had been purchased, and dressed, and the pie made, and baked, at the prison cookery hard by.

1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837