Community Cookbooks

In another thread we're discussing our first cookbooks, but here I'd like to ask about community cookbooks: a spiral-bound collection of recipes from all the Church ladies, or the block association, or that incredibly spirited bowling league. Do you have any and what are their stories? And, the big question... do you ever cook from it?

[Jenise]

Oh gosh! I have two. Will get back to you on these.

[Robin Garr]

We don't really collect them, but Mary edited one for St. Matthew's Episcopal Louisville, and it's pretty good. Both because she does good layout and design work but because most of the contributors were more foodies than stereotypical church ladies and gentlemen.

[Jenise]

The two I have were both gifts. One is something like The Charleston Ladies Social Club or something along that line, a big fat book full of much-loved recipes about bacon fat, or so it seems at first glance. It certainly has a very extreme sense of place, and that's a good thing. I was told when it was given to me (I was travelling there with Bob on business) that it's highly revered in the area and a frequent gift to new arrivals.

The other is from the something-or-other high school in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad. I've made a few of the recipes, though often the ingredients are not things available here or at least recognizable to me by the name they use for it. The instructions are occasionally so rudimentarily cute you want to cry, along the lines of "Fry, and have it". It's apparently famous in the region--I actually read a reference to it in an article in an American magazine about community cookbooks.

Both are great artifacts of cultural anthropology. The few other cookbooks of this type that came into my hands over the years were not, so weren't saved.

How about you, Jeff?

I have one. Published 1989, about 570 pages of recipes. It's from a fraternal organization/insurance company targeted to my parent's religion. Each congregation has a "branch" and one of the branches compiled the book. Gathered recipes from around the U.S. Either I received as a gift from my Mom or I may have found it when cleaning out the parental home after Mom passed away.

And I have used the recipes, just adapt them as I do with all recipes.

Many entries are old and traditional which I sometimes find fun, refreshing, a source of comfort food. There are a few recipes that list Bible versus instead of the ingredient. So you would have to look it up. Those I skip. And, I am not sure if any of the recipes refer to wine in any way. There certainly isn't a suggested wine pairing for each recipe.

I was inspired to ask about Community Cookbooks due to these two really interesting articles:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/joy-of-looking/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/dini ... virus.html

I have two books that fit the mold. One is a nicey-nice hardcover printing of "Food Writers' Favorite Recipes: Soups and Stews". It's a lot like reading through someone's recipe index. Some are from the can-of-tuna-plus-can-of-soup mold and some sound peculiar but some of them actually work!

The other is "Cooking With Pride" compiled by Leatherella O. Parsons (A Legend in Her Spare Time). This is a plastic spiral-bound book created for the International Gay and Lesbian Pride Coordinators, more often known simply as "iggilpick". Leatherella herself adorns the cover, bearded and apron at the ready. The book is a cultural artifact, charming and quirky, and I haven't made a thing from it.

I think about these sorts of books in a historical context. One of my treasured sites for reading food and history at the same time is this collection of 76 historical cookbooks: https://d.lib.msu.edu/fa They are fascinating to me and come in all stripes: proud and smug, humble and careful, staggeringly racist, instructing you in their idea of the old ways!

[Jenise]

I must find that Leatherella book for my brother!

Both good articles, thanks. The Texas one has a paragraph that might remind Pat G. of the book belonging to her parents: "The Baptist ones invariably include a recipe for a happy home (requiring ample cups of love, loyalty, forgiveness, hope, and tenderness, several quarts of faith, and a barrel of laughter). I also see “Scripture Cake,” which can be baked only by those with solid training in reciting the books of the Bible in order and a taste for figs and honey (“4 1/2 cups I Kings 4:22,” “2 Tbsp. I Samuel 14:25,” and so on)."

Not a community cookbook, but something I have been working on and off (mostly off)…

Writing recipes of the dishes I cook and putting them in a book for my two sons.

I like community cookbooks.....they give you a real sense of time and place. We also used a "Best of" Junior League cookbook for years that we called "the Bible".......love the peer pressure in that crowd that won't allow a bad recipe or any cheese whiz