William L. Clements Library

Works by African American Authors

Credits

Resource Guide and Bibliography created by Sakina M. Hughes, Ph.D, June 2012

The Clements Library is grateful to Dr. Tiya Miles and the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies for the support which made this Resource Guide and Bibliography possible.

Overview

The collection of African American authored works in the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive (JBLCA) at the William L. Clements Library includes titles on cooking, household management, and etiquette, dating back to the first half of the 19th century and extending to the end of the 20th century. The collection includes the first known book written by an African American and published by a major American publisher, as well as the only known copy of the first known African American authored cookbook. These books are rich in information on several aspects of African American history. They open a window into the authors’ lives and work, showing us, for instance, shifting ideas about how food, etiquette and social functions related to ideas about racial uplift and social betterment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, late twentieth-century activism and Soul Food, and how domestic workers viewed their labor and their particular expertise.

Research Topics of Potential Interest

African American Political Movements

The cookbooks in this collection comment on links between food and political activism in African American history. A dominant theme among these works is the relationships between late twentieth-century activism and the rise of the Soul Food Movement. Several authors in this collection wrote directly about their involvement in the 1960s and 1970s student movements, labor unionism, Civil Rights activism, and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Researchers may explore the ways African Americans understood food to be a part of their socio-political landscape.

Titles of interest in the collection include:

Liza Ashley as told to Carolyn Huber, Thirty Years at the Mansion: Recipes and Recollections
William L. Clements Cookery 1985 As

Bobby Hendricks, Barbeque with Mr. Bobby Que
William L. Clements Cookery 1976 He

Mahalia Jackson, Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul
William L. Clements Cookery 1970 Ja

Mary Jackson and Leila Wishart, The Integrated Cookbook or The Soul of Good Cooking
William L. Clements Cookery 1971 Ja

Bob Jeffries, Soul Food Cook Book
Personal Collection of Jan and Dan Longone

Bobby Seale, Barbeque’n with Bobby
William L. Clements Cookery 1988 Se

Related Secondary Sources

Clayborne Carson, In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s
Hatcher Graduate E 185.61 .C27 1995

Steven Hahn, A Nation Under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South, from Slavery to the Great Migration
Hatcher Graduate E 185.2 .H151 2003

Ibram H. Rogers, The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstruction of Higher Education, 1965-1972

Bobby Seale, Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton
Hatcher Graduate E 185.615 .S49 1991

African American Labor History

Several books in this collection touch on aspects of the work lives of African American chefs, cooks and other domestic servants. Researchers might use these texts to examine how relationships between domestic employees and employers changed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Another prominent theme that researchers may consider is how domestic workers viewed their labor and their particular expertise. Researchers may also explore how African American cooks and domestic servants made decisions to migrate for professional, educational or other reasons.

Titles of interest in the collection include:

Leah Chase and Johnny Rivers, Home Healthy: Family Recipes of Black American Chefs
William L. Clements Cookery 1994 Ch

Rufus Estes, Good Things To Eat as Suggested by Rufus: A Collection of Practical Recipes for Pre paring Meats, Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, etc.
William L. Clements Cookery 1911 Es

A. Fillmore, The Lone Star Cook Book and Meat Special (From the Slaughter Pen to the Dining Room Table)
William L. Clements Cookery 1929 Fi

Abby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc.: in Facsimile with Historical Notes by Karen Hess
William L. Clements Cookery 1995 Fi

Abby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking: Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc.
William L. Clements C 1881 Fi

Franklyn H. Hall, How to Make and Serve 100 Choice Broths and Soups
William L. Clements Cookery 1903 Ha

Bobby Hendricks, Barbeque with Mr. Bobby Que
William L. Clements Cookery 1976 He

Mary Jackson and Leila Wishart, The Integrated Cookbook or The Soul of Good Cooking
William L. Clements Cookery 1971 Ja

Bob Jeffries, Soul Food Cook Book
Personal Collection of Jan and Dan Longone

Robert Roberts, The house servant's directory, or A monitor for private families
William L. Clements Cookery 1827 Ro

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements Cookery 2007 Ru

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements C 1866 Ru

Related Secondary Sources

Elizabeth Clark-Lewis, Living In, Living Out: African American Domestics in Washington, D.C., 1910-1940
Hatcher Graduate HD 6072.2 .U52 W18 C53 1994

Elizabeth L. O'Leary, From Morning to Night: Domestic Service in Maymont House and the Gilded Age South
Hatcher Graduate HD 6072.2 .U52 V8 O43 2003

Rebecca Sharpless, Cooking in Other Women's Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865-1960
Hatcher Graduate HD6072.2.U52 S574 2010

Tera Hunter, To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War
Hatcher Graduate HD 6057.5 .U52 G45 H86 1997

Gender

Many of the books in this collection deal with issues of gender directly or indirectly. Researchers may explore the differing roles and expectations of male and female domestic workers. Researchers may also study the differences in opportunities within households and business establishments that were available to men and women employees. The relationships between male and female employees may also be researched.

Titles of interest in the collection include:

Liza Ashley as told to Carolyn Huber, Thirty Years at the Mansion: Recipes and Recollections
William L. Clements Cookery 1985 As

Leah Chase and Johnny Rivers, Home Healthy: Family Recipes of Black American Chefs
William L. Clements Cookery 1994 Ch

Abby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc.: in Facsimile with Historical Notes by Karen Hess
William L. Clements Cookery 1995 Fi

Abby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking: Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc.
William L. Clements C 1881 Fi

The Gospel Music Workshop of America, Chattanooga Chapter, Musical Cookbook: Gospel Music Workshop of America, Chattanooga Chapter, 1991-1992
William L. Clements Cookery 1991 Mu

Edward S. Green, The National Capital Code of Etiquette
William L. Clements Cookery 1920 Gr

Mahalia Jackson, Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul
William L. Clements Cookery 1970 Ja

Mary Jackson and Leila Wishart, The Integrated Cookbook or The Soul of Good Cooking
William L. Clements Cookery 1971 Ja

Robert Roberts, The house servant's directory, or A monitor for private families
William L. Clements Cookery 1827 Ro

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements Cookery 2007 Ru

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements C 1866 Ru

Related Secondary Sources:

Elizabeth S.D. Engelhardt, A Mess of Greens: Southern Gender and Southern food
Hatcher Graduate GT 2853 .U5 E64 2011

Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin, eds., Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement
Hatcher Graduate E 185.61 .S6151 2001

Susan Tucker, ed., Telling Memories Among Southern Women: domestic Workers and their Employers in the Segregated South
Hatcher Graduate HD 6072.2 .U52 A13 T27 1988

African American Health and Nutrition

This collection of cookbooks reveals changes in African American attitudes toward food. In particular, these books reveal changing ideas about how food reflects culture and the relationship between diet and health. Researchers may study attitudes about food in black communities that have shifted between economic and subsistence needs, cultural awareness, and health concerns. The emphasis on Soul Food cooking also made way for healthful eating as African American chefs raised awareness of the relationship between diet and conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Titles of interest in the collection include:

George Washington Carver, How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption
William L. Clements Cookery 1942 Ca

George Washington Carver, How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table
William L. Clements Cookery 1983 Ca

Leah Chase and Johnny Rivers, Home Healthy: Family Recipes of Black American Chefs
William L. Clements Cookery 1994 Ch

Mahalia Jackson, Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul
William L. Clements Cookery 1970 Ja

Tayana Hardin, Mallory Horne, and Tiya Miles, Food For the Fight: Abolitionist Women’s Recipes, An ECO Girls Recipe Booklet Celebrating Black History Month
William L. Clements Oversize Cookery 2012 Ha

Bobby Seale, Barbeque’n with Bobby
William L. Clements Cookery 1988 Se

Related Secondary Sources:

Herbert C. Covey and Dwight Eisnach, What the Slaves Ate : Recollections of African American Foods and Foodways from the Slave Narratives
Shapiro Undergraduate E443 .C73 2009

National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and Office of Research on Minority Health, Heart-healthy home cooking African American style
HathiTrust Digital Library

African American Immigration

African American cookbooks also deal indirectly with migration, often south to north, but also north to south and interregional movement. These books reveal why certain authors left their homes, often to find work, and how their travel led to different types of employment. The works give insights into what the authors saw as benefits to living in certain regions over others. In some cases failed attempts to travel or to emigrate are described. The works also point to the cultural influence of Soul Food and southern cooking on northern cities.

Titles of interest in the collection include:

Rufus Estes, Good Things To Eat as Suggested by Rufus: A Collection of Practical Recipes for Pre paring Meats, Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, etc.
William L. Clements Cookery 1911 Es

Bob Jeffries, Soul Food Cook Book
Personal Collection of Jan and Dan Longone

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements Cookery 2007 Ru

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements C 1866 Ru

Related Secondary Sources:

Davarian L. Baldwin, Chicago’s New Negroes: Modernity, the Great Migration, and Black Urban Life
Hatcher Graduate F 548.9 .N4 B35 2007

Ira Berlin, The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations
Hatcher Graduate E185 .B473 2010

S.B. Jeffrey, African Americans and the Great Migrations

Edwin S. Redkey, Black Exodus; Black Nationalist and Back-to-Africa Movements
Hatcher Graduate E 448 .R32

Race Relations

Cookbooks in this collection reveal power relations between domestic workers and their employers. Researchers may note how each author dealt with these relationships and how each author defined the ideal servant. A prominent theme among these books is how a servant may best fit into a household. Knowing one’s place, how to show proper deference to those of higher social status and how to exercise responsibility with those of lower status is of great importance.

Researchers may compare and contrast African American authored cookbooks and African American authored books “as told to” white co-authors. Both types of books cover the nineteenth century and twentieth century. Researchers may note attitude shifts among African American authors through common locution, as well. African American authors in the earlier part of the nineteenth century often wrote apologies for the so-called presumption of publishing a book on their own expertise, given their social status. By the turn of the twentieth century, African American authors took a more self-laudatory tone in their writings and emphasized their expertise in the culinary arts.

Other selections in this collection touch on changing racial attitudes. Black and white activists of the Abolitionist movement as well as more modern partnerships in the twentieth and twenty-first century point to interracial collaboration as activism and as social movements.

Titles of interest in the collection include:

Liza Ashley as told to Carolyn Huber, Thirty Years at the Mansion: Recipes and Recollections
William L. Clements Cookery 1985 As

Rufus Estes, Good Things To Eat as Suggested by Rufus: A Collection of Practical Recipes for Pre paring Meats, Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, etc.
William L. Clements Cookery 1911 Es

A. Fillmore, The Lone Star Cook Book and Meat Special (From the Slaughter Pen to the Dining Room Table)
William L. Clements Cookery 1929 Fi

Abby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc.: in Facsimile with Historical Notes by Karen Hess
William L. Clements Cookery 1995 Fi

Abby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking: Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc.
William L. Clements C 1881 Fi

Edward S. Green, The National Capital Code of Etiquette
William L. Clements Cookery 1920 Gr

Mary Jackson and Leila Wishart, The Integrated Cookbook or The Soul of Good Cooking
William L. Clements Cookery 1971 Ja

Angela Shelf Medearis, A Kwanzaa Celebration: Festive Recipes and Homemade Gifts from an African-American Kitchen
William L. Clements Cookery 1995 Me

Robert Roberts, The house servant's directory, or A monitor for private families
William L. Clements Cookery 1827 Ro

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements Cookery 2007 Ru

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements C 1866 Ru

Bobby Seale, Barbeque’n with Bobby
William L. Clements Cookery 1988 Se

Related Secondary Sources:

Gary Gerstle, American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century
Hatcher Graduate E 741 .G4751 2001

Jackson Lears, Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920
Hatcher Graduate E 661 .L43 2009

Joel Williamson, The Crucible of Race: Black/White Relations in the American South Since emancipation
Hatcher Graduate E185.61 .W7381 1984

African American Cultural and Social Relations

Books in this collection touch on African American cultural movements and intra-racial politics. In particular, these books might be used to examine shifting ideas about how food, etiquette and social functions related to ideas about racial uplift and social betterment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Researchers may study how ideas of racial uplift, black nationalism, Civil Rights and Black Power are reflected in the ways people write about food and etiquette.

Titles of interest in the collection include:

George Washington Carver, How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption
William L. Clements Cookery 1942 Ca

George Washington Carver, How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table
William L. Clements Cookery 1983 Ca

Rufus Estes, Good Things To Eat as Suggested by Rufus: A Collection of Practical Recipes for Pre paring Meats, Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, etc.
William L. Clements Cookery 1911 Es

A. Fillmore, The Lone Star Cook Book and Meat Special (From the Slaughter Pen to the Dining Room Table)
William L. Clements Cookery 1929 Fi

The Gospel Music Workshop of America, Chattanooga Chapter, Musical Cookbook: Gospel Music Workshop of America, Chattanooga Chapter, 1991-1992
William L. Clements Cookery 1991 Mu

Edward S. Green, The National Capital Code of Etiquette
William L. Clements Cookery 1920 Gr

Angela Shelf Medearis, A Kwanzaa Celebration: Festive Recipes and Homemade Gifts from an African-American Kitchen
William L. Clements Cookery 1995 Me

Robert Roberts, The house servant's directory, or A monitor for private families
William L. Clements Cookery 1827 Ro

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements Cookery 2007 Ru

Malinda Russell, A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen
William L. Clements C 1866 Ru

Related Secondary Sources:

Anne L. Bower, ed., African American foodways: explorations of history and culture
Shapiro Undergraduate TX 715 .A2428 2007

Doris Witt, Black Hunger: Food and the Politics of U.S. Identity
Hatcher Graduate E 185.86 .W581 1999

Howard Dodson, Jubilee: the emergence of African-American culture
Hatcher Graduate E 185 .D631 2002

Kevin K. Gaines, Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century
Hatcher Graduate E 185.86 .G351 1996

Jessica B. Harris, High on the Hog: a Culinary Journey from Africa to America
Hatcher Graduate TX715 .H29972 2011

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: the Women's Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920
Hatcher Graduate BX 6447 .H541 1993

Darlene Clark Hine, Hine Sight: Black Women and the Re-Construction of American History
Hatcher Graduate E 185.86 .H671 1994

Frederick Douglass Opie, Hog & Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America
Hatcher Graduate TX 715 .O548 2008

Annotated Bibliography

The House Servant’s Directory

Title: The House Servant’s Directory, Or A Monitor for Private Families: Comprising Hints on the Arrangement and Performance of Servants’ work. With General Rules for Setting Out Tables, and Sideboards in first Order; The Art of Waiting in all its Branches, and Likewise How to Conduct Large and Small Parties with Order; With General Directions for Placing on Table all Kinds of Joints, Fish, Fowl, &c. with Full Instructions for Cleaning Plate, Brass, Steel, Glass, Mahogany; and Likewise All Kinds of Patent and Common Lamps: Observations on Servants’ Behaviour to their Employers; and Upwards of 100 Various and Useful Receipts, Chiefly Compiled for the Use of House Servants; and Identically Made to Suit the Manners and Customs of Families in the United States With Friendly advice to cooks and heads of families and complete directions on how to burn Lehigh Coal

Author: Robert Roberts

Publication info/Edition: Boston, Munroe and Francis, 128 Washington Street New York, Charles S. Francis 189 Broadway, 1827. First edition.

Pages: xiv, 180

Illustrations: None

Binding: Hard cover; dark blue cloth.

Description: This guide is the first known book written by an African American and published by a commercial press in America. This manual offers one of the most detailed discussions on the proper management of a nineteenth-century upper-class New England household. Additionally, it is one of the first books published to help encourage young black men to become professional house servants. Roberts offers specific, practical advice on how to ensure employees’ career advancement.

The House Servant’s Directory provides a variety of information on the work and life of domestic servants, as well as a description of the ideal domestic servant. Roberts focuses on how to run a large home, how to maintain desirable relationships with employers and other servants, and how to build a respectable professional reputation. The book includes recipes for cleaning, beverages, vinegars, fruit preserves and remedies for common ailments. In a section for cooks, Roberts describes the importance of keeping good relations with other servants and proper etiquette to exercise when working with other employees. Additionally, this guide gives some advice to employers on how to treat servants. This work provides a glimpse into the lives of northern-based domestic servants, the resources at their disposal, and their social status. A dominant theme throughout the work is the importance of knowing one’s own place within the household.

Author Biography: Robert Roberts was an African American domestic servant who lived from about 1780 to 1860. He worked at the country estate of Christopher Gore (1758-1827), a United States Senator and governor of Massachusetts, from 1825-1827 and wrote this book during that period.

What may be studied/subjects: Nineteenth-Century social relations in New England; African American labor; American cooking; New England cooking; etiquette; domestic servants; race

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: None

A Domestic Cookbook

Title: A Domestic Cookbook: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen by Malinda Russell

Author: Malinda Russell

Publication info/Edition: Paw Paw, Mich. : The Author, 1866.

Pages: 39

Illustrations: None

Binding: Soft cover; marbled paper cover with black spine; stitched; upper cover titled in black.

Description: Malinda Russell’s A Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchenis the first known African American authored cookbook. The Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive of African American Cookbooks has the distinction and honor of possessing the only known copy of this central work in African American publishing history.

This work begins with an autobiographical section entitled “A Short History of the Author,” in which Russell described her life as a free woman of color. Russell describes challenges she faced in young adulthood and how she came to live in Michigan. In another section entitled “Rules and Regulations of the Kitchen,” Russell sheds further light on her life and career and included an advertisement of her washhouse business.

The remainder of the book is comprised of recipes. The recipes include main dishes and side dishes, vegetables, desserts, beverages, and breads. While most of the recipes are foods, Russell also includes household tips and medicinal recipes. Some of the medicinal items include recipes for hair oils, hair cream, and cures for toothaches, rheumatism, and corns.

Author Biography: Malinda Russell was born and raised in Washington and Green Counties in eastern Tennessee. Her mother was born free after her grandmother was set free by a Mr. Noddie of Virginia. At nineteen, Russell set off for Liberia. However, one of her fellow travelers stole her money and she was forced to stay in Virginia. In Virginia, Russell worked as a cook and a traveling nurse for ladies. She also kept a washhouse and advertised in a local newspaper. While in Virginia, Russell married Anderson Vaughan, who lived for four years thereafter. After her husband’s death, Russell returned to Tennessee and kept a boarding house for three years, followed by a pastry shop for six years. By 1864, Russell had once again saved a considerable amount of money, but it was stolen. The group that stole her money threatened to kill her and she decided to move to Michigan. At the time of writing A Domestic Cook Book, Russell was still a widow and had a son with a physical disability. Russell wrote that she hoped the cookbook would benefit the public. However, she also hoped that her earnings from the book would help her to raise money and, in her words, “to go home to try to reclaim at least a part of my property.”

What may be studied/subjects: American Cooking; African American Cooking; European-American Cooking; Nineteenth-Century Food; Free women of Color in the nineteenth century; African American women; household remedies; domestic servants.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: Russell wrote that she learned skills from Fanny Steward, a colored cook from Virginia. Russell also wrote that she cooks "after the plan of the 'Virginia Housewife'" The reference is probably to Mary Randolph's The Virginia house-wife, or Methodical cook.

What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking

Title: What Mrs. Fisher knows about old southern cooking, soups, pickles, preserves, etc.

Author: Abby Fisher

Publication info/Edition: San Francisco: Women’s Co-operative Printing Office, 1881

Pages: 72.

Illustrations: None.

Binding: Hard cover, brown cloth; upper cover titled in gold.

Description: This work is an important piece of African American and California publishing history, and was considered the earliest black-authored cookbook until the discovery of Malinda Russell’s Domestic Cook Book (q.v.). Many of the recipes originate in the southern plantation kitchen. Mrs. Fisher was illiterate and she enlisted the help of several named benefactors to transcribe and publish the book.

The detailed table of contents includes recipes for breakfast breads, meats, croquettes, sauces, soups, pickles, pies and other desserts. One to five recipes are listed on each page. Recipes include one to three paragraphs of preparation instructions.

Author Biography: Mrs. Fisher was an ex-slave who could neither read nor write. She was born in South Carolina and moved to San Francisco where she established a successful business in pickle and preserves manufacturing. Fisher gained culinary fame by winning medals and diplomas at several California fairs, including two medals in San Francisco in 1880 for “best pickles and sauces and best assortment of jellies and preserves.”

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; Southern Cooking; African American cooking; Antebellum recipes; freedmen and slavery; California; soups and gumbos; desserts and breads; jellies and jams; pickles; sauces; preserving fruits; class and race in post-bellum California.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: The author said that she was encouraged to publish a book of her recipes by her friends and colleagues. Additionally, the work was awarded two medals at the San Francisco Mechanics Institute Fair in 1880 for “Best Pickles and Sauces” and the “Best Assortment of Jellies and Preserves.” Mrs. Fisher was also awarded a Diploma at the Sacramento State Fair in 1879.

How to Make and Serve 100 Choice Broths and Soups

Title: How to Make and Serve 100 Choice Broths and Soups by H. Franklyn Hall

Author: H. Franklyn Hall

Publication info/Edition: Philadelphia: The Author, c1903.

Pages: 79.

Illustrations: None.

Binding: Hard cover; navy cloth; upper cover titled in gold.

Description: This book consists of recipes and preparation suggestions for a wide variety of soups, bouillons, and broths. The majority of the text is recipes in paragraph form. There are one to three recipes per page and each recipe is between one and three paragraphs in length.

Author Biography: At the time of printing, Franklyn H. Hall was Chef of the Boothby Hotel Co. and Casino in Willow Grove Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His other works include 300 Ways to Cook and Serve Shell Fish and The Standard American Culinary Encyclopedia.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; African American chefs; soups and broths

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: None.

Good Things To Eat as Suggested by Rufus

Title: Good Things To Eat as Suggested by Rufus: A Collection of Practical Recipes for Pre paring Meats, Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, etc. by Rufus Estes.

Author: Rufus Estes

Publication info/Edition: Chicago : The Author, 1911.

Pages: 142.

Illustrations: Photo of author and signature.

Binding: Hard cover; gray cloth; upper cover and spine titled in black.

Description: This cookbook begins with an autobiography of its author, Rufus Estes. The autobiographical section is followed by a short section of “Hints to Kitchen Maids” and a table of weights and measurements. Recipes are organized in sections for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Estes suggests types of foods commonly eaten at different meals and describes the order in which to prepare them. The book describes how leftovers from a previous day’s dinner may be used in minced or creamed meats for another meal. The table of contents includes: Soups; Fish; Salads; Poultry; Sandwiches; Gravies and Garnishes; Duck; Lenten Dishes; Vegetables; Breads; Desserts; Preserves; and Relishes. In addition to the recipes, there are blank pages for personal notes and recipes. Some handwritten recipes are in this section. Printed recipes are glued to the front and back covers.

Author Biography: At the time of this book’s publication, Rufus Estes was a chef of the Subsidiary Companies of the United States Steel Corporation in Chicago. Rufus Estes was born in Murray County, Tennessee in 1857. He was given the name of his master, D.J. Estes, who owned his mother’s family. His family consisted of seven boys and two girls and Rufus was youngest. Estes attended one term of school but left school to support his family after two older brothers died in the Civil War and his mother became ill. Initially Estes did odd jobs. In 1867, his mother moved the family to Nashville, Tennessee to live with their grandmother. At 16, Estes found work in a Nashville restaurant and worked there until he was twenty-one. In 1881 Estes found a position in Chicago. From 1883-1897 he worked for the Pullman Company. In that position, Estes served many internationally prominent political and social figures, including President Cleveland, President Harrison, and Princess Eulalie of Spain during her visit to Chicago World’s Fair in 1894. In 1894, Estes set sail from Vancouver, British Colombia with his employers for Japan. From 1897 to 1907 Estes managed the president’s car of the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gould Railroad. Then in 1907, he was hired as the chef of the subsidiary companies of the U.S. Steel Corporation in Chicago. During this time, Estes wrote Good Things To Eat as Suggested by Rufus.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; African American chefs; nineteenth and early twentieth century service culture; social significance of meals and food; railroads; dining care service; slavery.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: None.

The National Capital Code of Etiquette

Title: The National Capital Code of Etiquette by Edward S. Green. ""Dedicated to the Colored Race

Cover Title: The National Capital Code of Etiquette, Dedicated to the Colored Race

Author: Edward S. Green

Publication info/Edition: [Washington, D.C.] : A.N. Jenkins, c1920.

Pages: 198

Illustrations: Black and white photographs of rooms in the White House, social occasions, clothing fashions, table settings, etc.

Binding: Hard cover; green cloth; upper cover titled in white.

Description: This work is an etiquette book aimed at teaching black people of all walks of life across the country the customs of the African American social elite. Subjects include how to dress for various occasions, correct table manners, how to conduct oneself in public, styles for visiting cards, and how to introduce friends and business acquaintances. Green also devotes much of the book to the art of conversation, how to commemorate wedding anniversaries, how to properly conduct social calls and activities, and proper mourning practices.

Green includes several charts and photographs throughout book to illustrate proper attire, place settings and room decorations. Photographs of the author and his wife are also included.

Author Biography: Edward S. Green worked for the United States government for eighteen years. He graduated from college and was a recognized man of letters and literacy among upper class African Americans and diplomatic circles in Washington D. C. and abroad.

What may be studied/subjects: Early twentieth-century social life; African American social life and customs; table manners and etiquette; clothing; race and class relations in the early twentieth century; letter-writing; menus; Middle-class African Americans from the end of Reconstruction to World War I.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: None.

The Lone Star Cook Book and Meat Special

Title: The lone star cook book and meat special : from the slaughter pen to the dining room table, A. Fillmore.

Author: A. Fillmore, Chef

Publication info/Edition: Nashville, Tenn. : Printed by National Baptist Publishing Board, c1929.

Pages: 99.

Illustrations: Diagrams for cutting meat and black and white photographs of kitchen staff, author, and author's wife.

Binding: Hard cover; black cloth; upper cover titled in gold.

Description: In this books’ preface, the author wrote that his motive was to pass on his thirty years of practical experience to housewives, cooks, and those expecting to become cooks. His main goal is to “make cooking a larger success for the young colored man.” This book includes the "Bill of Fare" at the Café Lubbock restaurant, a method to prepare meats, main dishes and side dishes. The recipes are generally one paragraph, with one to five recipes per page. The author includes descriptions on how to kill and skin animals for meat and on how to prepare animals for various recipes.

There are several illustrations throughout the book. One photo depicts Chef Fillmore with staff in his Lubbock, Texas kitchen. Another photograph shows his wife, Mrs. A. Fillmore, the head pantry woman at Hotel Lubbock and “one of the leading cateresses of the city of Dallas.” A third photograph shows the chef with the white managers of the Hotel Lubbock. This book also includes autobiographical information on the author.

Author Biography: A. Fillmore was born in Cuero, Texas on March 13, 1888 and grew up in Victoria, Texas. As a child, he worked in kitchens with his father, a well-known cook named E. Fillmore, beginning in 1897. Those experiences sparked within him a love for cooking and he went on to work in some of the best hotels and cafes in the state. He worked for dining car services for two railroad companies and traveled abroad for work several times. During his career, Fillmore was a cook in some of the largest hotels, cafes, and railroad companies in the Southwest. At the writing of the book, Fillmore had had thirty years of experience as a chef. Fillmore was chef in the Hilton, a leading hotel in Dallas, Texas.

Fillmore wrote that he was one of the best chefs that he knew of. His self-laudatory statements in the preface are a departure from earlier more modest biographies in African-American authored cookbooks.

What may be studied/subjects: African American chefs; American cooking; African American cooking; meat slaughter and preparation; men in the service industry; race and class relations in the early twentieth century; family businesses; clothing and dress codes of cooks.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: E. Fillmore, the author’s father, influenced the author’s career decisions.

How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it

Title: How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption by George W. Carver.

Author: George Washington Carver

Publication info/Edition: [Tuskegee, Ala.] : Tuskegee Institute, 1942. 8th Edition.
Title page also has: Bulletin no. 31, June 1925.

Pages: 30.

Illustrations: None.

Binding: Soft cover, tan paper; staple bound.

Description: This is Tuskegee scientist George Washington Carver’s most famous practical bulletin for farmers, which he wrote at the Tuskegee Institute Experimental Station in 1925. This copy is a 1942 reprint of the pamphlet. Carver describes the benefits of more widespread and frequent use of peanuts as a superior source of nutrition. The first section of the pamphlet includes a description of nutritional benefits, growing tips, and possible economic benefits of growing peanuts for market. The largest section of this pamphlet contains a variety of peanut-based recipes.

Author Biography: George Washington Carver (January 1864-January 5, 1943) was born into slavery in Missouri and went on to become a renowned scientist, botanist, inventor and educator. Carver earned a master’s degree in agriculture from Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. In 1896 Carver accepted Booker T. Washington’s offer to head the newly established Department of Agriculture and Experiment Station at the Tuskegee Institute. Carver researched alternative crops to cotton such as peanuts, soybeans, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes. He encouraged poor families to grow these alternative crops as food sources as well as source of natural remedies and household products that would improve their quality of life. Carver published forty-four practical guides between 1898 and 1943.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking, African American cooking; peanuts; peanut-based recipes; nineteenth-century and early twentieth century science and technology; agriculture; nutrition, health, and the economy; health and diet; methods of horticulture and farming; The Tuskegee Institute.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: Carver referenced the Tuskegee Institute. He used recipes from various magazines, books, chefs, and personal acquaintances.

Soul Food Cook Book

Title: Title Soul Food Cook Book

Author: Bob Jeffries

Publication info/Edition: Indianapolis, New York, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1969

Pages: xi, 116

Illustrations: None

Binding: Hard cover; dust jacket with photograph of author.

Description: This book is a collection of Soul Food recipes. It includes recipes for a variety of dishes, such as soups, main dishes, meats, side dishes, barbecue meads, breads and preserves. The author also provides menus for meals with their corresponding recipes. Each section begins with paragraph description of the particular kind of food and tips on how and when to serve the dish. The author lists ingredients with descriptive paragraphs on how to prepare each item.

Author Biography: Bob Jeffries started cooking on his father’s farm in Birmingham, Alabama. He left his father’s farm to join the John White Medicine Show. In New York City, he found work cooking during the Great Depression. Eventually, he found work as a butler for one of the city’s millionaires. Jeffries then set up his own business and catered for many celebrities, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Joan Crawford. At the publishing of this book, Jeffries worked for Daly’s Dandelion as head chef and was preparing to establish his own soul food restaurant in New York City.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; Soul Food; African American chefs; African American social movements; history of African American cooking since slavery; chefs and celebrities; meats; side dishes; vegetables; preserves; desserts

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: This collection includes recipes that author gathered from family, most notably from his grandmother.

Personal Collection of Jan and Dan Longone

Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul

Title: Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul by Mahalia Jackson

Author: Mahalia Jackson

Publication info/Edition: Nashville: Aurora Publishers, c1970.

Pages: xv, 174

Illustrations: Color and black and white photographs of Jackson in her kitchen.

Binding: Hard cover; green cloth; spine titled in gold. Black and green pictorial dust jacket.

Description: In an introduction to Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul, Jackson describes the Soul movement and suggests that this book contributes to Soul Culture by providing traditional recipes from African American cultures and history. The unifying attribute of Soul Food—no matter the region of origin— is that it reflects the courage, action, and fervor of black people throughout history.

This book includes recipes on how to prepare meats and main dishes, appetizers, side dishes and desserts. Ingredients and portions listed with a paragraph of explanation under the listed items. Included are recipes from Africa, the Caribbean, and the southern United States. A section entitled "Kitchen and Household Hints" provides suggestions on gravies, tenderizing meat, what to do with leftovers, cleaning tips, removing odors, and removing mildew among other information.

Author Biography: Mahalia Jackson was born in New Orleans in 1911. She lived on a street between railroad tracks and the Mississippi River Levee. Her mother died when she was five years old and Jackson and her brother lived with their aunt Mahalia Paul thereafter. The family’s regular church attendance inspired Jackson’s entrance to and success in the Gospel Music industry. The family’s cooking habits, home garden and proximity to the bounty of the Mississippi River influenced Jackson’s love of cooking. Jackson’s powerful contralto voice enabled her to achieved international fame through her Gospel Music career. She recorded dozens of records and was known as “The Queen of Gospel.” Jackson was also involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Jackson died in 1972.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; Soul Food and Southern cooking; 1960s era social activism; race relations; diet in the African American community; changing health concerns of the 1960s; soups and stews; vegetables and side dishes; breads; sauces; pickles and relishes; desserts; home economics.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: ckson stated that her Aunt Mahalia Paul both inspired her to cook and taught her many recipes. Jackson wrote that many friends contributed recipes for her book. Jackson names several individuals who aided in the preparation of the book.

The Integrated Cookbook or The Soul of Good Cooking

Title: The Integrated Cookbook or The Soul of Good Cooking by Mary Jackson and Lelia Wishart.

Author: Mary Jackson and Lelia Wishart.

Publication info/Edition: Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company Inc., 1971

Pages: 135.

Illustrations: None

Binding: Soft cover; green paper; upper cover titled in black and white..

Description: In The Integrated Cookbook or The Soul of Good Cooking’s introduction, the authors describe how social change in the 1960s helped to shape their decision to write a book and influenced the selection of recipes they included. They distinguish Soul Food from Southern cooking through its origins in the kitchens of black slaves.

Contents include helpful household hints, and recipes for main dishes, side dishes, desserts, and breads. A section on international-inspired foods from China, Hungary, Italy, Jewish traditions, Poland, Mexico, and Puerto Rico are also included. Sample menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner are also included. A nutrition chart for popular Soul Food dishes is included. A section on eating while away from home lists Soul Food restaurants in Boston, Massachusetts, New York City, Newark and Trenton, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware. Some original recipes by George Washington Carver are also included.

Author Biographies: Mary Jackson was born and raised on a farm outside Durham, North Carolina. She shared in the family’s rigorous farm schedule harvesting tobacco and cotton. After graduating high school in 1940 she moved to Trenton, New Jersey where she worked for an explosives plant. She met her co-author, Leila Wishart, while she was employed at the Westinghouse Company and was active in labor union organizing.

Leila Wishart grew up on a vegetable farm in Long Island, New York. She supplemented family farm income by working in a factory where she met people from varied racial and ethnic backgrounds and became involved in labor union organizing. Both women were trade unionists and political activists and worked on the election campaign of Robert Kennedy.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; regional cooking; international cooking; Soul Food; home economics; the Civil Rights Movement and race relations in the twentieth century; interracial collaboration; labor unionism

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: The authors acknowledge the contributions of Erma Gerlach, a dietician, and Jennye W. Stubbenfield, a nutritionist. Additionally, the authors name friends and relatives who contributed to the book, including Jackson’s family and friends across the South. The authors found some recipes in the Schomburg Collection in the Harlem branch of the New York City Library.

Barbeque with Mr. Bobby Que

Title: Barbeque with Mr. Bobby Que

Author: Bobby Hendricks

Publication info/Edition: Memphis, Tenn.: Wimmer Bros. Books, c1976.

Pages: iv, 105

Illustrations: Black and white photographs of author and Rufus Thomas, illustrations of barbequing and related activities.

Binding: Soft cover; white comb binding; red paper boards with photograph of food.

Description: This book describes the author’s family traditions of barbecuing (or, as he refers to it, barbeque), his career and personal path to becoming a cook, and how to slaughter, prepare and barbeque meats. R. Erik Parton wrote the author’s biography in the opening section of the book. The recipes are interspersed with personal anecdotes, cultural references, and memories of growing up in Texas. Hendricks includes how to select and create a grilling pit, how to select the best types of firewood, and how to select the best cuts of meat. Hendricks also details the kinds of equipment to use, how to cut and wash meats, and how to carry out a successful barbeque party.

Author Biography: Bobby Hendricks grew up in rural Conroe, Texas. He was 34 at the time of the book’s publication. Hendricks was the oldest of four sons of a Baptist preacher and a professional cook. Hendricks began a singing career when he was fifteen years old. He went to Los Angeles to further his career in gospel music. He worked the Los Angeles nightclub circuit and sang back up for Bobby Bland and Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry among others. In 1971, Hendricks was shot as he stood outside the Showcase Night Club. He never fully recovered from the shooting and left the music industry. Hendricks claimed to have lost many jobs due to employers’ intolerance of his disability. During this period, Hendricks decided to pursue cooking as a career. He spent four years developing a barbeque sauce recipe, and another three years to develop a cooking bowl for charcoaling. Hendricks made appearances on several television and radio programs with his recipes and barbeque methods.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; barbeque and outdoor cooking; meats; desserts; side dishes; African Americans in Texas; African American culture in the twentieth century; Juneteenth; slaughtering animals; standards of etiquette.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: Hendricks’ grandfather and other family members from whom he received the barbeque tradition inspired him to grill meats. Rufus Thomas of the “Funky Chicken” company also encouraged him to publish his methods and recipes.

How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it

Title: How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways to Prepare it for the Table by George W. Carver.

Author: George Washington Carver

Publication info/Edition: Reprinted for Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, George Washington Carver National Monument, by Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1983.
Bulletin / Tuskegee Institute, Experiment Station ; no. 36, April 1918
Reprint. Originally published: Tuskegee Institute, Ala. : Experimental Station, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, 1936.

Pages: 35

Illustrations: None

Binding: Soft cover; white paper; staple bound; upper cover printed in black.

Description: This is one of Carver’s forty-four practical bulletins aimed at helping and educating farming families. It gives technical and practical advice on the benefits of the tomato plant. It describes how to grow the plant, select soils and fertilizers for it, harvest it, and how to remedy various ailments of the plant. Additionally, the bulletin describes how to use it in recipes, for medicinal purposes and for other household and farming purposes. Carver presents recipes after a ten-page introduction. Each page contains between one and five one-paragraph recipes.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; Tomatoes; canning and preserving; 19th-20th century farming methods; family farming methods; fabric dyes; fertilizers; farming culture; plant diseases and remedies; African American scientists.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: The bulletin is dedicated to Mrs. Adella Hunt Logan, “who was tireless in her efforts to help the farmer and his family, and who saw in the tomato a panacea for many of his ills; and who contributed more data of real value along this line than anyone else with whom I have come in contact, I affectionately dedicate this bulletin.” Carter also wrote in this bulletin, “I have used freely the work of many of the very best culinary experts, rearranging in some instances to suit our particular conditions. From every source taken, I wish to give my sincere thanks.”

Thirty Years at the Mansion

Title: Thirty Years at the Mansion: Recipes and Recollections Liza Ashley as told to Carolyn Huber

Author: Liza Ashley

Publication info/Edition: Little Rock : August House, 1985.

Pages: 176

Illustrations: Color and black and white photographs of authors and of Arkansas Governors and their families.

Binding: Hard cover; tan cloth. Gray dust jacket with photograph of Governor's Mansion.

Description: This cookbook begins with a foreword by Carolyn Huber and an introduction by the Governor and Mrs. Bill Clinton, the inhabitants of the Arkansas governor’s mansion at the time of publication. The book is organized by terms of governors who occupied the mansion for whom Liza Ashley cooked during her tenure there. Each chapter contains one to three pages of Ashley’s reminiscences of a governor, photographs of his family, and Ashley’s commentary on life during the governor’s term. Ashley then lists the governor’s favorite recipes and provides cooking instructions. There are color and black and white photographs of Ashley with several governors, their families, and other celebrities and political figures. In addition to listing favorite recipes, Ashley also lists her most famous recipes for Holidays and other special occasions.

Ashley included reminiscences and favorite recipes of:
Governor Francis Cherry (1953-1954)
Governor Orval Faubus (1955-1966)
Governor Winthrop Rockefeller (1967-1970)
Governor Dale Bumpers (1971-1974)
Governor David Pryor (1975-1978)
Governor Bill Clinton (1979-1980)
Governor Frank White (1981-1982)
Governor Bill Clinton (1983-time of the book’s publication)

Author Biography: By 1985, after working for seven Arkansas governors, Liza Ashley held the longest tenure of any cook at any governor’s mansion in the United States. Ashley was born on Oldham Plantation in Pettus, Arkansas on October 11, 1917. Ashley attended school at a one-room schoolhouse for about three months of each year and did farm work during the remaining months. Her grandmother cooked for the Oldham family and kept hours from six in the morning until after dinner. Ashley began cooking for the Oldham family when she was fifteen. She was responsible for all the housework—including cooking, cleaning, and laundry—until the Oldham family eventually hired more help.

In 1942 Ashley left the Oldhams despite their opposition and warnings that she would never be successful off the plantation. However, Ashley found work at an arsenal plant in Jacksonville, Arkansas and later in domestic service in Little Rock. After World War II, Ashley returned to cooking and cleaning for families in Little Rock’s fashionable Pulaski Heights area. In 1952, she returned to Little Rock and took a domestic service job as a maid in the Governor’s Mansion under the Governor Francis Cherry, the second to occupy the mansion. At that time, Henry Scribner, an African American man, was the mansion’s cook. Ashley worked under the cook’s wife and head housekeeper, Georgia Scribner. When Mrs. Scribner resigned, Ashley was promoted to the position. In 1955 when Orval Faubus became governor, Mrs. Faubus fired Chef Scribner and hired Ashley because she wanted a female cook. As of 1985, she was active in Canaan Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock. At the time of printing of this book, Ashley was married to Fred Ashley, had one son, and two grandchildren.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; Southern cooking; Arkansas cooking; race and class in the early twentieth century; governors of Arkansas; social movements; the Civil Rights Era; lives of domestic workers.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: None.

Barbeque’n with Bobby

Title: Barbeque'n with Bobby by Bobby Seale.

Cover Title: Barbeque’n with Bobby: Righteous, Down-Home Barbeque Recipes

Author: Bobby Seale

Publication info/Edition: Berkeley, Ca.: Ten Speed Press, 1988

Pages: 142.

Illustrations: Illustrations of barbeque and cooking pot.

Binding: Hard cover; imitation leather; spine titled in gold. Yellow and orange dust jacket with photograph of author.

Description: This book opens with a short autobiography by Bobby Seale that covers his involvement in the 1960s student movement, the Black Panther Party, and the Chicago Eight Conspiracy trial. The book includes recipes for sauces, marinades, meats, salads, and low sodium and sugarless dishes. Additionally, Seale gives suggestions on ways to build a barbeque fire and the best types of supplies to use.

Author Biography: Bobby Seale was born in Dallas, Texas and is an activist and educator. During the 1960s, he was a part of the new left student protest movement. His various careers have included stand-up comedian, actor, jazz drummer and carpenter. For four years, Seale worked in the United States air force where he trained as a mechanic. Upon leaving the air force, Seale worked in the aerospace industry in California and attended Merritt College as an engineer design major. Inspired by the advent of Civil Rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, Seale switched his focus to the social sciences and co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966. During the eight years that Seale was chairman of the Black Panther Party, he initiated community-based service programs such as breakfasts for school children. He reached international notoriety during the Chicago 8 Conspiracy trial of 1969-1970. Seale earned a doctorate degree and currently lectures and works with non-profit social justice programs.

Bobby Seale has published other books including, Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (Random House 1970), The Trial of Bobby Seale, (Praim Books, 1970), and A Lonely Rage: The Autobiography of Bobby Seale (Times Books 1978).

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; Texas cooking; Barbeque recipes and techniques; the life of Bobby Seale; student activism; Civil Rights History; the Black Power Movement; the Black Panther Party for Self Defense; The Chicago 8 Conspiracy Trial; Social Movements.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: Seale wrote that his family and other activists influenced him to write the book. He names several influences. Among them was Jerry Rubin, who encouraged him to write the book while they were in prison together during the Chicago 8 Conspiracy Trial. Seale also thanked Abby Hoffman, Tom Hayden, John Forones, Renie Davis, Lee Weiner, Dave Dillinger, and Molefi Asante.

Musical Cookbook: Gospel Music Workshop of America

Title: Musical Cookbook: Gospel Music Workshop of America, Chattanooga Chapter, 1991-1992

Author: The Gospel Music Workshop of America, Chattanooga Chapter

Publication info/Edition: Collierville, Tenn.: Fundcraft Publishing Company, [1991]

Pages: E, 126, F, [16]

Illustrations: SeBlack and white photographs of members, color photographs of food.

Binding: Soft cover; red comb binding; yellow paper boards; upper cover titled in black.

Description: This cookbook includes recipes from several members of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. Each recipe is attributed to an individual author. Recipes range from regional dishes from across the United States to international-inspired dishes. Recipes are listed with ingredients and preparation instructions. Space in each section allows for personal recipes and notes. Recipes for appetizers, soups, salads, meats, vegetables, breads and desserts are included.

This work also includes several pages of advertisements, an index, a glossary of cooking terminology, a calorie counter, a summary of herbs and seeds, a beef chart, a table for cooking vegetables, a table for cooking in large quantities, and a motivational section with hints for a balanced life. This book also gives a history of the Gospel Music Workshop of America and the particular activities of the association’s Chattanooga Chapter.

Author Biography: The recipes in this book are attributed to various people associated with the Chattanooga chapter of the Gospel Music Workshop of America. The authors donated the proceeds of the book sales to Bethel Bible Village, a nondenominational Christian home for children “orphaned by crime” or with parents in prison.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; religious groups; women’s religious groups; Gospel Music; Reverend James Cleveland; charity cookbooks; appetizers, relishes and pickles; soups, salads, and sauces; meats and main dishes; diabetic recipes; home economics.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: None.

Down Home Healthy

Title: Down Home Healthy: Family Recipes of Black American Chefs, Leah Chase and Johnny Rivers

Author: Leah Chase and Johnny Rivers

Publication info/Edition: Bethesda, Md.: National Cancer Institute, 1994.
National Institute of Health Publication No. 94-3408

Pages: 44.

Illustrations: Color photographs of authors and food, and color illustrations.

Binding: Soft cover; spiral bound; tan paper boards printed in color.

Description: Down Home Healthy is at once a cookbook and primer on low-fat and low-sodium alternatives to traditional recipes. The book is organized by menus and courses. Each menu includes main course, side dishes, and desserts. Each recipe also includes nutrition information on calories, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, dietary fiber, carbohydrates, and protein. The book also includes information on how to create a healthy and balanced long-term diet. A section on fiber defines what it is, why it is important, and where to find it in foods. The authors include a substitution chart for using low fat instead of high-fat items in recipes. This book also includes a list of free or low-cost publications from the American Cancer Society, American Dietetic Association, American Heart Association, National Cancer Institute, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The book also concludes with a National Cancer Institute survey.

Author Biographies: Leah Chase was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1923, and grew up in a small town across the lake called Madisonville. She was the eldest of eleven children and learned kitchen skills by watching her mother and sisters cook family meals. Much of the family’s diet consisted of vegetables form their garden. When she was eighteen, Chase waited tables in a New Orleans restaurant in the French Quarter. During this period, Chase decided that she wanted to run her own restaurant. At the time of publication of this book, Chase’s restaurant, Dooky Chase’s, is famous for its creative cuisine and legendary Creole gumbo. Chase brings together recipes from French, Spanish, American Indian, and African cultures. She is also active in her community promoting good dietary practices and providing food for local homeless shelters and housing units.

Johnny Rivers was born 1948 and grew up in Orlando, Florida. He did pre-med at Emory College, but later became interested in the culinary arts. Rivers had worked in kitchens since he was thirteen and found that he was good at doing things with food and fascinated by chefs’ tools and dress. Rivers traveled to Europe and across the United States learning and gaining experience. In 1970, he returned to Florida and worked for Walt Disney World Resorts. His position as Executive Chef with Walt Disney brought him international fame and many culinary awards. At the publishing of Down Home Healthy, Rivers lectured and conducted seminars around the country. He supports young chefs and is especially concerned with the poor diet of much of the African American community. He wrote: “We grew up through a culture eating a lot of pork and a lot of cheaper cuts of meat. But now we’re coming up on the year 2000 and we don’t have any more excuses not to eat right. Black folks need to get serious about their diets and we can do that and have fun with it, too.”

What may be studied/subjects: American Cooking; Southern cooking; Louisiana cooking; Florida cooking; African American chefs; low-fat cooking; National Institutes of Health; National Cancer Institute; U. S. Department of Health and Human Services

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: The authors cite as influences the diverse landscape of New Orleans, Louisiana, Southern cooking, and health concerns among Americans as their motivation to write this book.

A Kwanzaa Celebration

Title: A Kwanzaa Celebration: Festive Recipes and Homemade Gifts from an African-American Kitchen, Angela Shelf Medearis

Author: Angela Shelf Medearis

Publication info/Edition: New York, N.Y. : Dutton, c1995.
First printing December 1995

Pages: xiv, 194

Illustrations: Illustrations include graphics of Kwanzaa symbols associated with each aspect of Kwanzaa.

Binding: Hard cover; red and yellow paper. Green and black dust jacket.

Description: This work is both a book of recipes and a primer on the Kwanzaa holiday. Shelf Medaris describes the historical roots and cultural importance of Kwanzaa. She introduces each of the seven principals of Kwanzaa, or Nguso Saba, and describes dishes that are related to or represent each principal.

Each chapter begins with a quote about a principal of Kwanzaa and ways that individuals and communities may celebrate that principal. Recipes are generally listed one per page, with ingredients and preparation instructions. Recipes are derived from African American and African traditions. Recipes are also prefaced with a short paragraph on how this particular food relates to Kwanzaa and African American history and culture. The book concludes with a Kwanzaa/Swahili pronunciation guide and glossary.

Author Biography: Angela Shelf Medearis is an award-winning author of books for children and adults on African-American subjects. She has written biographies of Louis Armstrong and Coretta Scott King. She has also written The African American Kitchen: Cooking from Our Heritage. At the time of publication of this work, Shelf Medearis lived in Austin, Texas.

What may be studied/subjects: American cooking; African American cooking; African American holidays; Kwanzaa and Kwanzaa celebrations; African American culture and history; the 1960s Watts riots; home economics; home entertaining; black nationalism.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: None.

What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking

Title: What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, etc.: in Facsimile with Historical Notes by Karen Hess.

Author: Abby Fisher

Publication info/Edition: Bedford, Mass. : Applewood Books, c1995.

Pages: 94

Illustrations: None

Binding: Soft cover; light blue paper; upper cover and spine titled in gold.

Hess has included an Afterword titled "What We Know About Mrs. Abby Fisher and Her Cooking" which discusses Fisher's life and culinary background, African American women cooks in the south, and the recipes for various kinds of dishes found in the book.

What may be studied/subjects: erican cooking; Southern Cooking; African American cooking; Antebellum recipes; freedmen and slavery; California; soups and gumbos; desserts and breads; jellies and jams; pickles; sauces; preserving fruits; class and race in post-bellum California.

Hess dedicates this edition to Lucille Grant and Anna Pinckeny, "African American cooks of Charleston, who have kept faith with their mothers and grandmothers before them."

A Domestic Cook Book

Title: A Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen by Malinda Russell, an Experienced Cook, Paw Paw, Michigan, 1866: A Facsimile of the First Known Cookbook by an African American

Author: Malinda Russell
Introduction by Janice Bluestein Longone

Publication info/Edition: Ann Arbor, MI: William L. Clements Library, c2007

Pages: xiv, 39, index

Illustrations: None.

Binding: Soft cover; brown paper; staple bound

Description: This facsimile copy of the first known cookbook authored by an African American person was published in 2007 by the William L. Clements Library. It contains an introduction by Janice Bluestein Longone entitled, “Malinda Russell—An Indomitable Woman—An American Story,” a complete facsimile of the original text, acknowledgements and an index. In addition to a biography based on Russell’s own writing, the Longone introduction provides researchers with several significant subsections. “The Genesis of A Domestic Cook Book,” provides researchers with biographical information and gives an overview of the types of recipes contained in Russell’s work. In “Discovering Malinda Russell” Longone describes the discovery of both the book and its significance in American history. In “Malinda Russell in the Context of 19th Century Black Culinary Literature,” Longone places Russell’s work and life among the other three earliest known African American culinary authors, Robert Roberts, Tunis Campbell and Abby Fisher.

What may be studied/subjects: Malinda Russell was born and raised in Washington and Green Counties in eastern Tennessee. Her mother was born free after her grandmother was set free by a Mr. Noddie of Virginia. At nineteen, Russell set off for Liberia. However, one of her fellow travelers stole her money and she was forced to stay in Virginia. In Virginia, Russell worked as a cook and a traveling nurse for ladies. She also kept a washhouse and advertised in a local newspaper. While in Virginia, Russell married Anderson Vaughan, who lived for four years thereafter. After her husband’s death, Russell returned to Tennessee and kept a boarding house for three years, followed by a pastry shop for six years. By 1864, Russell had once again saved a considerable amount of money, but it was stolen. The group that stole her money threatened to kill her and she decided to move to Michigan. At the time of writing A Domestic Cook Book, Russell was still a widow and had a son with a physical disability. Russell wrote that she hoped the cookbook would benefit the public. However, she also hoped that her earnings from the book would help her to raise money and, in her words, “to go home to try to reclaim at least a part of my property.”

Food For the Fight

Title: Food For the Fight: Abolitionist Women’s Recipes, An ECO Girls Recipe Booklet Celebrating Black History Month

Author: Tayana Hardin, Mallory Horne, and Tiya Miles

Publication info/Edition: Ann Arbor, Mich.: ECO Girls, 2012

Pages: 27.

Illustrations: Color and black and white photographs.

Binding: Soft cover; beige paper; staple bound.

Description: This work is a collection of recipes authored by African American and European American women of the Abolitionist movement. The recipes were collected, tested and commented on by members of the Ann Arbor-based group, ECO Girls. Dr. Tiya Miles, scholar of African American and American Indian History and Gender Studies, wrote the preface in which she describes the ECO Girls organization and their project aims in collecting and testing Abolitionist women’s recipes. The preface sets forth the project’s goal to center healthy, organic food at the local level in order to support sustainability and resilience of communities in an increasingly unpredictable environmental context affected by global climate change. The work’s introduction describes and celebrates the collaborative work of African American and European American women in the Abolitionist movement, their importance to the movement, and their relationship to the Underground Railroad.

Each section of the book opens with a short biography and illustration of an Abolitionist woman and then lists one of her recipes. Each section ends with “Tested in the Eco Girls Kitchen,” in which members of the ECO Girls group review the recipe and suggest baking tips. The Abolitionist women in this book include Mary Merrick Brooks, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, Lydia Maria Child, Angelina Emily Grimke, Laura Smith Haviland, Lucretia Mott and Harriet Tubman. Jacqueline Jacobson, culinary curator at the William L. Clements Library, wrote the Afterword. The book also includes a glossary of terms, recommendations for further reading, notes and image credits.

Author Biographies: At the publication of Food For the Fight, Tayana Hardin was a member of the ECO Girls core organizing team. She is a doctoral student in twentieth-century African American Women’s literature and performance at the University of Michigan.

Mallory Horn is a member of the ECO Girls organizing team and has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and master’s degree in curriculum development from the University of Michigan. Her parents nurtured a love of the outdoors.

Tiya Miles is Chair of Department of Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan. She is the founding director of ECO Girls. Her research focuses on nineteenth century women, African American and American Indian women’s history.

Ariela Steif is a graphic designer and web developer. She has a bachelor’s degree in the history of art from the University of Michigan. She is the designer and Webmaster of ECO Girls website.

What may be studied/subjects: ECO Girls; American cooking; environmental sustainability and food production; nineteenth-century free-produce movement, slavery and slave culture; the Abolitionist movement; nineteenth-century women’s history; integration; dame schools; Quakers; the suffrage movement; women’s rights movement.

Influences or references to other cooks, writers, figures: The authors name several individuals and organizations that aided in the research and production of the book.