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Cooking By the Book: African American Cuisine

Cookbooks offer a remarkable window into the lives and the worlds of those who created them.

African American Table

African American Recipes

David Lupton ... had a deep conviction that cookbooks compiled by individuals in America of African heritage needed to be identified and preserved.  Culinary texts yield far more than recipes when closely scrutinized.  They are written from the point of view of an individual or a community and, as such, have much to say about ethnic identity, family and community life, social history, the roles of women and men, values, religion, and economics, as well as the more obvious fields of diet and nutrition, use of agricultural products, the food supply, and general food history - U of Alabama web for David Walker Lupton Cookbook Collection.  Viewed February 2016.

The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama’s Renowned Tuskegee Institute, by Carolyn Quick Tillery.  Secaucus, N.J.: Carol Publishing Group, c1996.  210 pages  (F) TX715 .T568 1996. 
"The recipes and traditions of Tuskegee are a joyful celebration of hope triumphant.  In those lean hungry early years when Tuskegee was little more than a dream, food was central to survival.  'Festivals' or 'suppers', held to raise money, were an integral part of every celebration.  Town people, both black and white, gave a cake, a chicken, bread, or pies that could be sold at the festival."  Introduction.

The Cooking Gene : a Journey through African-American Culinary History in the Old South, by Michael W. Twitty.  New York:  Harper Collins, 2017.    443 pages.  (F) E185.89.F66 T95 2017.
"A memoir of Southern cuisine and food culture that traces the paths of the author’s ancestors (black and white) through the crucible of slavery to show its effects on our food today"- Catalog record.
 

Grandbaby Cakes: Modern Recipes, Vintage Charm, Soulful Memories, by Jocelyn Delk Adams.  Chicago: Surrey Books, [2015].  224 pages  (F)  TX771 .A327 2015.
Contents: Pound cakes -- Layer cakes -- Sheet cakes -- Baby cakes -- Celebration cakes -- Seasons and holidays.
“Cookbook featuring 50 vintage cakes with modern twists and memoir tracing the roots of the author’s family recipes.  Cakes make a charming gift, a great addition to a potluck, or a traditional way to mark a milestone. Known for putting fresh twists on old favorites, Adams shares her family’s generations-old love of baking along with easygoing advice and heartwarming memories."  Catalog record.

The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, by the  National Council of Negro Women; originally compiled and edited by Sue Bailey Thurman.  Boston: Beacon Press, c2000.  166 pages  (RECAP) TX715 .H72323 2000.  Also electronic ed.
For most of her 93 years, Sue Bailey Thurman was a remarkably able and active leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.  In 1958 she published the Historical Cookbook of the American Negro through the National Council of Negro Women.  It is a cookbook - but was also a covert vehicle to publish a critical body of information on the history and culture of professional women who were African American - and not just the domestic worker stereotype widely used to categorize all Black women at the time.

The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks, by Toni Tipton-Martin. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.  246 pages.  (F) TX715 .T598 2015.
Contents:  The collection: African American cookbooks, 1827-2011 -- 19th century cookbooks: cookbooks break a stereotype -- 1900-1925, surviving mammyism -- 1926-1950, the servant problem: dual messages -- 1951-1960, lifting as we climb: tea cakes, finger sandwiches, community service, and civil rights -- 1961-1970, soul food: mama’s cooking leaves home for the city -- 1971-1980, simple pleasures and the soul food revival -- 1981-1990, mammy’s makeover: the ever useful life -- 1991-2011, the hope of Jemima.

My Life on a Plate: Recipes from Around the World, by Kelis with Carolynn Carreno.  London: Kyke Books, 2015. 176 pages  (F) TX725 A1 K37 2015.
Contents: Party starters -- Soups and stews -- Sides and salads -- Main dishes -- Sweet treats.
"My Life on a Plate tells Kelis’ personal story through the food she creates. Her style has been molded by her culture, her travels, and all the people she met along the way. This book is a collection of her favorite recipes. It features a mix of foods from her Puerto Rican heritage, such as Pernil (Puerto Rican Pork Shoulder), Arroz con Gandules, and Shrimp Alcapurias along with dishes she created after discovering them on her travels around the world such as Malay Curry Chicken and Swedish Meatballs.  She is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef." Catalog record.

New Soul Food Cookbook:  healthier recipes for traditional favorites, by Wilbert Jones.  Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Group, c1996.  125 pages, illustrated.  (F)  TX715 .J823 1996.
“The down home pleasures of soul food no longer have to be off-limits because of excess fat, cholesterol, sugar and salt. The New Soul Food Cookbook offers a new look at tradition African American cuisine and provides contemporary version of 99 recipes--all with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and prepared with leaner meats, egg whites, less (or no) oil, nonfat dairy products, less sodium and fewer calories.”   (Inside front jacket.)

A Real Southern Cook in Her Savannah Kitchen, by Dora Charles; with Fran McCullough. Boston:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. 271 pages.  (Dixon) TX715.2.S68 C487 2015.  Also electronic ed.
Contents: Morning food -- Some things you have to know how to make to be a good Southern cook -- Quick, some bread for the table! -- What’s for dinner? -- Stews -- The catch -- Sunday picnics and church suppers -- When company’s calling -- All sides, all the time -- A little something sweet.  Catalog record.

Sweetie Pie’s Cookbook: Soulful Southern Recipes, from my Family to Yours, by Robbie Montgomery, with Ramin Ganeshram.  New York:  Harper Collins, 2015.  211 pages  (F) TX715 .2 .S68 M64 2015.
Contents: Opening acts -- Main melody. Fish ; Poultry ; Pork ; Beef -- Backup singers. Beans & greens ; Vegetables ; Starches ; Bread & rolls -- The big finish. Pies,Cakes ; Cookies and candy -- Extra tracks -- Miss Robbie’s recipe playlists -- Do the Sweetie Pie.
"The beloved owner of the wildly popular Sweetie Pie’s restaurant, and star of the OWN reality television show Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s shares recipes for her renowned soul food and the lessons she’s learned on the path to success."  Catalog record.

The Up South Cookbook: Chasing Dixie in a Brooklyn Kitchen, by Nicole A. Taylor.  Woodstock VT:  Countryman Press, [2015].  (F) TX715 .2 .S68 T3925 2015. 
Contents:  Up South Pantry -- Grits and Rice -- Pleas and Things -- Greens and More -- Yard Bird and Fish -- Red and White Meat -- Bread and Biscuits -- Cakes and Pies -- Fruits and Nuts -- Chow Chow and Garnishes -- Whitelikker and Sweet Tea -- Up South Resources.
  "Southern cooking meets the Brooklyn foodie scene, keeping charm (and grits) intact.”  Catalog record.

Vertamae Cooks Again:   More Recipes from the Americas' Family Kitchen, by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor.  San Francisco: Bay Books, 1999.  159 pages.  (F) TX715 .S6368 1999.
"Companion to the public television series America's Family Kitchen."  Catalog record. 

Vertamae Cooks in the Americas' Family Kitchen, by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor.  San Francisco:  KQED Books, 1996.  192 pages  (F) TX715 .S6377 1996
"Storyteller, poet, and culinary anthropologist Vertamae Grosvenor displays the pleasures of Afro-Atlantic cooking in this soulful companion to the  PBS series The Americas’ Family Kitchen. Here, as in the series, she shows how African tastes and traditions have influenced the various cuisines of America, acquiring new flavors and ingredients along the way in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. More than a hundred recipes, spiced with Vertamae’s anecdotes, humor, and historical insights. The recipes range from the surprising to the happily familiar, from zesty Bahian shrimp creole to the simple pleasures of sweet potato pie. And everything from Hoppin’ John to Sunshine Soup to Low Country Red Rice has a story."  Catalog record.

Zora Neale Hurston on Florida Food: Recipes, Remedies and Simple Pleasures, by Fred Opie.  Charleston SC: American Palate, a division of The History Press, 2015. 139 pages  (F) TX715 .O549 2015.
Contents:  A Hunk of Corn Bread -- Some Love Collards/Some Love Kale -- Folk Medicine Recipes -- Five Helpin’s of Chicken -- I’ll Meet You at the Barbecue.                
"Eatonville, Florida Native Zora Neale Hurston’s early twentieth-century ethnographic research and writing emphasizes the essentials of food in Florida through simple dishes and recipes. It considers food prepared for everyday meals as well as special occasions and looks at what shaped people’s eating traditions in early twentieth-century Florida. Hurston did for Florida what William Faulkner did for Mississippi -- provided insight into a state’s history and culture through various styles of writing. Her collected food stories, folklore and remedies, and the related recipes food professor Fred Opie pairs with them, are essential reading for those who love to cook and eat. (back cover) -- "It investigates African, American, European and Asian influences in order to understand what they contributed to Florida’s culinary traditions." Intro, 1st paragraph), quoted in Catalog record.