Cookbooks reveal much about a country's heritage, what people eat and how they live. Our social lives, both formal and informal, often revolve around food-related activities. During America's early days, when food choices were limited, cooking techniques weren't codified into printed recipe books.
The first truly American cookbook, Amelia Simmons' "American Cookery," published in 1796, included native foods such as cornmeal, cranberries and squash. Early 19th-century cookbooks focused on the foods served in white households in the South or in Northern cities. By the mid-19th century, cookbooks became more common, with hundreds of recipe or "receipt" books published each year. But very few of these books acknowledged the work and culinary creativity of African American cooks.
Toni Tipton-Martin, a culinary journalist and one of the founders of the Southern Foodways Alliance, spent years researching in the top culinary collections of university libraries as well as amassing a collection of cookbooks numbering in the hundreds by African American authors. She has used these books to tell the stories of cooks who toiled in anonymity and to "rescue Aunt Jemima from the image-makers," who used the stereotype to sell products.
Tipton-Martin divides her book, "The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks," into eight chronological sections, each with an opening discussion followed by a page or two of comment on relevant cookbooks and their histories. She provides details for 150 cookbooks. Although the focus is on women, she includes several important books authored by African American men such as Robert Roberts' 1827 "The House Servant's Directory," which covers everything from making cleaning products and setting an elegant table to shopping tips and managing cooks.
Southern cooking is justly famed for its variety and distinction, and much of this fame can be attributed to the contributions of black women. Throughout the years of slavery, black women who worked in the kitchens of white families adapted their own African and Caribbean traditions and techniques to European recipes. Later in segregated societies across the country, they used their skills at home and in restaurants and other food-related businesses. "The Dooky Chase Cookbook" and "The Buster Holmes Restaurant Cookbook" represent the work of professionals.
A section on "soul food" explains this style of cooking developed when black cooks who moved north and west adapted their country cooking to what was available locally. Always popular with diners, soul food symbolizes black dignity, pride and tradition. Among the varied titles in this section are "Mahalia Jackson Cooks Soul," "The African Heritage Cookbook" and "My Mother Cooked My Way Through Harvard with These Creole Recipes."
The book contains wonderful photographs and illustrations, from the simple typeset covers of early cookbooks to the sophisticated and colorful designs of 20th-century covers. It also contains two essays by eminent culinary historians John Egerton and Barbara Haber. And yes, there is a good number of recipes, some unique to the time, like peanut patties, and others still tempting today.
With this book, Tipton-Martin has made a major contribution not only to African American history but also to America's cultural heritage. It's a fine achievement.
Madeline Matson is reference and adult programming librarian at Missouri River Regional Library. She is the author of "Food in Missouri: A Cultural Stew."