The 1866 Cookbook

The New York Times just reported on the discovery of an 1866 cookbook for free blacks in Michigan. Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen, written by Malinda Russel, is the earliest known cookbook by an African-American woman.

A 19th-Century Ghost Awakens to Redefine ‘Soul’ [New York Times]


Mrs. Russell, who had operated a pastry shop in Tennessee, provided mostly dessert recipes, but they were for puff pastry and delicate rose cake, not sweet potato pie. Her savory recipes included dishes like an elegant catfish fricassee and sweet onion custard — not a mention of lard-fried chicken legs, beaten biscuits or slow-cooked greens. Here was a black cook who was already two generations removed from the plantation kitchen by the time Lincoln died.

The New York Times just reported on the discovery of an 1866 cookbook for free blacks in Michigan. Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen, written by Malinda Russel, is the earliest known cookbook by an African-American woman.

A 19th-Century Ghost Awakens to Redefine ‘Soul’ [New York Times]

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The 1866 Cookbook