Thoughts of Fall and Comfort Cooking: A New Found Appreciation of African American Cookbooks

September has gone and October has arrived.  With its arrival, like many people, it’s a time when I begin to change my home décor both inside and outside.  I also begin to restock my pantry with items for my fall/winter cooking.   I love the smell of the warm crook pot filled with chili, stews, soups and other tasty entries.

A nostalgic thought of cooking comes to mind.  While speaking with one of my daughters recently, we starting talking about cooking and some of our favorite comfort foods.  We both agreed that homemade chicken and dumplings was one of our favs.  When I first decided to make the dish some years ago, I tried remembering how my mother and grandmother had cooked it.  I could remember some of the steps, but not all. Thus, I turned to one of my favorite cook books; The Ebony Cookbook. 

As I started researching to learn more about the Ebony Cookbook, I discovered that it was first published with the title, “A Date with a Dish” in 1948 by Freda McKnight.  It reappeared as the “Ebony Cookbook: A Date with a Dish in 1962. 

I also learned that the first known cook book released by a free African American woman was done so by Malinda Russell in 1866.  The title of the book is, “Domestic Cook Book”.  Imagine that! Culinary historian Jan Langone rediscovered it in 2000.

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In 1911, Rufus Estes published his cookbook.  Estes is believed to be the first African-American chef to publish his recipes. Rufus was born in 1857 in Tennessee. 

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Former slave Abby Fisher’s cookbook; “ What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking” was written in 1881 while she was running a business in San Francisco after the Civil War. It is dubbed at the early cookbook by a African American author.  

African America Cookbook Collections:

The David Walker Lupton Collection at the University of Alabama is said to the be largest known collection of African American Cookbooks in the US.  The collection contains roughly 500 publication.  It’s one of the largest collections of known African American cookbooks in the US.

Another one of the largest black cookbook collections in the U.S. contains over 300 title.  It belongs to journalist Toni Tipton-Martin, whose new book The Jemima Code is a historical survey of black cookbooks and their role in black cultural preservation. 

With this new found knowledge; I saw my cookbooks in a different light.  My small collection represents cookbooks from celebrities, organizations and churches.

Here’s my list with actual photos of the cookbooks:

The Ebony Cookbook A Date with a Dish by Freda McKnight – 1973

B. Smith’s Entertaining and Cooking for friends by B. Smith

The Oprah Magazine Cookbook - Intro by Oprah

Ideas for Entertaining from the African American Kitchen by Angela Shelf Medlars

The Soul of Cooking Traditional African American Recipes – Preserved by Disciples of Cannan Baptist Church New York, New York

Recipes to Sing About – Gospel Sounds of Joy St. James AME Church, Pittsburgh PA

Cora Raiford’s Cookbook by grand-daughter Carmella Raiford

Afro-Vegan Cookbook by Bryant Terry

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