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Black Heritage Cookbooks to Celebrate National Cookbook Month and Beyond

Black Heritage Cookbooks to Celebrate National Cookbook Month and Beyond

October is National Cookbook Month. Throughout the year, you can read about cookbook releases right here at Black Southern Belle. But there are cookbooks that can be found in your own family and community heritage that provide inspiration and pride. Here are five ways to explore your heritage with cookbooks. 

Church cookbooks

Author Toni Tiption Martin’s book, The Jemima Code, is an encyclopedic exploration of Black cookbooks throughout American history. Church cookbooks are a huge part of our food history. If you have a church cookbook in your possession, hold onto it tightly. It’s worth more than gold. Why? It contains information about the people in the church community that produced it, the people who gave recipes, and it also tells you how foods were prepared in your region. Public libraries and local historical societies sometimes have a few in their possession. 

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Sorority and women’s club cookbooks

Like church cookbooks, sorority and club cookbooks were published for fundraising. In the case of sororities, chapters curated recipes and information from members. Organizations like The Links, Jack and Jill, 100 Black Women did the same. One of the most famous series is The National Council of Negro Women’s collection of cookbooks. Occasions to Savor

Our Meals, Menus, & Remembrances is a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. produced book (2004). The Elk Grove Alumnae chapter published Crimson and Cream Cooks while the Gamma Kappa Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority published Cooking with the Pink and Green AKA Palate Pleasers, and Zeta Phi Beta’s Gamma Zeta chapter in Charleston has recently published its The Finer Women Legacy Cookbook. Don’t forget to look for BGLO fraternity cookbooks as well as professional organizations’ cookbooks too. 

HBCU cookbooks 

Zella Palmer’s Recipes and Remembrances of Fair Dillard is an inspiration to seek out other cookbooks published by and about HBCUs. Perhaps your local alumni chapter published a cookbook or a club at your university created one as a fundraiser. Author Carolyn Quick Tillery has built a career out of showcasing the recipes of a few HBCUs: Tuskegee, Howard and Hampton. An exciting way to use these recipes is tailgating parties or gatherings for a few alumni friends at home. 

Family reunion cookbooks

Is it at all possible that your family produced its own cookbook? Many Black family reunions have done so over the years as a way to preserve recipes and memories of the cooks. The National Council of Negro Women have two to inspire the creation of a family reunion cookbook: Black Family Reunion Cookbook and Black Family Dinner Quilt Cookbook : Health Conscious Recipes & Food Memories. As the holidays approach, if you have one, use it to send gifts or add to a family dinner. 

And last but not least…

Black magazine cookbooks

Somewhere in a shoebox or old photo album are recipes torn out of old issues of Ebony and Essence magazines. Our foremothers knew those were some of the best ever and it would not be surprising if some of those dishes ended up on your dinner tables. Thankfully, we can still find them for purchase online in various forms and editions. Buy one if even for the sake of nostalgia and to add to your collection. 

Bring a few people into your heritage celebration and buy some of these books to give as Christmas gifts. Throw in a cookbook holder for the kitchen counter while you are at it. And remember the gift you are giving represents our beautiful heritage past, present and future. 

SHOP OUR FAVORITE COOKBOOKS

Delphine Denise and the Mardi Gras Prize
The ‘Baby Dolls’: Breaking the Race and Gender Barriers of the New Orleans Mardi Gras Tradition
Gullah Spirituals – by Eric Sean Crawford (Paperback)
Homecoming
America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities: A Narrative History, 1837-2009
Gullah Spirit: The Art of Jonathan Green
Brown Sugar Kitchen Cookbook
Juneteenth Paper Dolls:
Black Girl Baking: Wholesome Recipes Inspired by a Soulful Upbringing
In Pursuit of Flavor: The Beloved Classic Cookbook from the Acclaimed Author of The Taste of Country Cooking
Little People Big Dreams Maya Angelou Book
GULLAH CUISINE: BY LAND AND BY SEA
GULLAH HOME COOKING THE DAUFUSKIE WAY: SMOKIN’ JOE BUTTER BEANS, OL’ ‘FUSKIE FRIED CRAB RICE, STICKY-BUSH BLACKBERRY DUMPLING, AND OTHER SEA ISLAND FAVORITES (PAPERBACK)
MAMA DOONK’S GULLAH RECIPES (PAPERBACK)
GULLAH IMAGES: THE ART OF JONATHAN GREEN
GROWING UP GULLAH IN THE LOWCOUNTRY (PAPERBACK)
AFRICAN AMERICAN LIFE IN THE GEORGIA LOWCOUNTRY: THE ATLANTIC WORLD AND THE GULLAH GEECHEE (RACE IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1700–1900 SER.)
G IS FOR GULLAH
BLACK BORDER : GULLAH STORIES OF THE CAROLINA COAST
GULLAH NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (HARDCOVER)
TALKING TO THE DEAD : RELIGION, MUSIC, AND LIVED MEMORY AMONG GULLAH/GEECHEE WOMEN
GULLAH CULTURE IN AMERICA (PAPERBACK)
GULLAH DAYS: HILTON HEAD ISLANDERS BEFORE THE BRIDGE 1861-1956
THE JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE: MAKING GULLAH: A HISTORY OF SAPELO ISLANDERS, RACE, AND THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION (PAPERBACK)

Robin Caldwell

Robin Caldwell is the blogger behind freshandfriedhard.com and academic researcher focusing on Black history, heritage and culture. Public historian primarily in Black American historical foodways: antebellum and regional.

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Robin Caldwell

Robin Caldwell is the blogger behind freshandfriedhard.com and academic researcher focusing on Black history, heritage and culture. Public historian primarily in Black American historical foodways: antebellum and regional.

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Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

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