Oh my goodness, I think I could be in heaven in your cookbook library. What a treasure trove! I can look through books like this for ages.
I agree with you about forgotten cuisines being preserved in community cookbooks. Native American cuisine is one example. Online searches suggest things like "Navajo fry bread" but that was actually food they were forced to make once they had been relegated to the reservations and had to somehow make do with government supplied provisions. It's hard to find information about the recipes each of the tribes actually made, much less instructions for how to recreate those foods.
Thank you! It’s definitely a passion project, I’ve been collecting cookbooks for over ten years now, but there have definitely been seasons where I accumulate them at a faster pace, haha.
And absolutely! Native American cuisine is a good example. I think most foodie people are familiar with Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen) and his work around indigenous foods. Another awesome resource is the Decolonizing Diet Project! I first heard about it on the Poor Proles Almanac Podcast, and bought the cookbook they put together for the project. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s worth a listen!
Wow that’s an impressive collection! I love this idea of a cookbook as a cultural artefact. I have a few of my Nans old cookbooks and while many of the recipes look pretty awful to me today, I love them. They say something about when they were written, the ingredients available, the popular styles, and I love seeing the pages she turned down or used the most!
Thanks, Sarah! I’m pretty passionate about it, hence the collection 😅
Your cookbooks sound lovely, and so nostalgic! Recipes and cookbooks can tell such important stories, and it sounds like your Nan’s books do just that. ❤️
I write a lot about recipes and cookbooks as objects of cultural heritage, or cultural artifacts. I talked a lot about this in my cookbook proposal, I wrote about it a couple months back, sadly it didn’t sell.
Preserving the diversity of Ukrainian cuisine through a collection of recipes from marginalized communities across Ukraine is not something traditional publish is ready for. I am working on changing that, but it’s hard give the current state of the industry.
I’m sorry to hear your cookbook proposal didn’t sell, that’s incredibly disheartening. The project you’re describing sounds exactly like the sort of cookbook I love to buy!
Before I started being more active on Substack, I had no idea what the publishing industry was like and it has been quite the wake-up call how broken the system is. I hope you’re able to find a way to get your stories told soon, that project sounds incredibly important.
Thank you, Hannah! The more I learn about traditional publishing the more I realize that alternative ways of making books align much closer with my values.
I am definitely using substack to archive and share recipes, I will also be sharing oral histories and interviews hopefully soon. I wish I could do this work full time. I am also teaching myself how to make books/zines.
As you said in your wonderful newsletter, cookbooks are primary sources, and sadly not enough people think of them as such. That’s why in my latest post, I talked about the nefarious nature of the majority of traditional published cookbooks that are promoting a homogeneous, globalized, westernized, and sanitized cuisine that lacks nuance and complexity of traditions, its people, and culinary practices.
I am so glad I found your substack! Thinking and talking about cookbooks is one of my favorite things in the world.
A while ago I curated a cookbook such as this. Various home cooks across India shared a story and a recipe over email. I then put all of them together into an ebook format and sold it online.
All this to say, yes it’s great to be punished but don’t let that stop you from putting together your community cook book it sounds fab
Thank you, Perzen! Also, your project sounds absolutely incredible and of such significant cultural, culinary, and historical value! What's the name? I would love to add it to my list of must have books.
You are absolutely right! I don't know if you saw my most recent post, but I just finished working on my first cookbook zine. I already started working on future ones and looking forward to making more and more of them.
Very good point that community cookbooks are primary sources. I own a small handful of them for that very reason, but I mostly avoid them because I find it difficult that the recipes have vague provenance.
Yes! They can be tricky because of the provenance issue, depending on your use case. Occasionally you’ll find one with mini biographies of the contributors, which is always helpful. Sometimes you aren’t lucky enough to get even a city or state, let alone a date, though.
My particular interest in community cookbooks is comparing broader food trends and the emergence of recipes across the US. I’ve been working on making my personal collection into a digitally searchable database of sorts (for private research use, but ones that are exempt from copyright I’ll end up sharing on the Internet Archive). I’ll be able to search by ingredient or location or date quickly. Once that is up and running, combined with the scanned community cookbooks I’ve found for free digitally online (listed in the Free, Open Access Cookbook Index on my site), I’m hoping to be able to more efficiently track trends/ingredient usage/etc. over time in the US!
It’s a bit tedious at this stage, but once everything is searchable it’s going to be incredibly fun to explore.
That sounds like an incredible project! I collect American WWII cookbooks and have a similar idea to index my cookbooks along with the women's wartime magazines in my collection. I use them as research for my podcast but it's hard to know what I have on specific topics. I think it would be cool to do what the British do and make facsimiles of original cookbooks. Maybe someday!
As for your collection, I think community cookbooks are a great way to get a sense of the emergence of recipes over time. I love the ones with stories or blurbs about the person or if it has local ads. Those are so fun!
Yes! I wish there were more facsimiles of American cookbooks. I have a facsimile of the original Joy of Cooking and one of a women’s suffrage community cookbook, but that’s it so far.
And yes! Local ads and personal sections are so fun!
This post brings me so much joy! I love my Canal House and Julia Child cookbooks because I know they'll deliver on a good dish, but I equally love my First Slovak Ladies Association and my Lafayette Junior League community cookbooks because of my emotional resonance with them (I can make kolač just like my grandmother did or gumbo like one of my college best friends from them) and because they're a vivid window into a particular time and place.
I'm very excited to follow along on your substack!
Thank you so much, Dominika! I’m glad this resonated with you!
I’m in the same boat. There are cookbooks I love for their reliability and cookbooks I love because they bring me closer to the people I love. I think, especially in the online blogosphere, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that certain recipes and cookbooks are so much more than just instructions!
Oh my goodness, I think I could be in heaven in your cookbook library. What a treasure trove! I can look through books like this for ages.
I agree with you about forgotten cuisines being preserved in community cookbooks. Native American cuisine is one example. Online searches suggest things like "Navajo fry bread" but that was actually food they were forced to make once they had been relegated to the reservations and had to somehow make do with government supplied provisions. It's hard to find information about the recipes each of the tribes actually made, much less instructions for how to recreate those foods.
Thank you! It’s definitely a passion project, I’ve been collecting cookbooks for over ten years now, but there have definitely been seasons where I accumulate them at a faster pace, haha.
And absolutely! Native American cuisine is a good example. I think most foodie people are familiar with Sean Sherman (The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen) and his work around indigenous foods. Another awesome resource is the Decolonizing Diet Project! I first heard about it on the Poor Proles Almanac Podcast, and bought the cookbook they put together for the project. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s worth a listen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=scOHe4oEbIE
Yes! I have seen Sean Sherman’s book, but I had not heard about the other project. Thank you for the tip!
Wow that’s an impressive collection! I love this idea of a cookbook as a cultural artefact. I have a few of my Nans old cookbooks and while many of the recipes look pretty awful to me today, I love them. They say something about when they were written, the ingredients available, the popular styles, and I love seeing the pages she turned down or used the most!
Thanks, Sarah! I’m pretty passionate about it, hence the collection 😅
Your cookbooks sound lovely, and so nostalgic! Recipes and cookbooks can tell such important stories, and it sounds like your Nan’s books do just that. ❤️
Yes exactly, totally agree ☺️
I write a lot about recipes and cookbooks as objects of cultural heritage, or cultural artifacts. I talked a lot about this in my cookbook proposal, I wrote about it a couple months back, sadly it didn’t sell.
Preserving the diversity of Ukrainian cuisine through a collection of recipes from marginalized communities across Ukraine is not something traditional publish is ready for. I am working on changing that, but it’s hard give the current state of the industry.
Also, so glad I found your work.
Thank you, Olga!
I’m sorry to hear your cookbook proposal didn’t sell, that’s incredibly disheartening. The project you’re describing sounds exactly like the sort of cookbook I love to buy!
Before I started being more active on Substack, I had no idea what the publishing industry was like and it has been quite the wake-up call how broken the system is. I hope you’re able to find a way to get your stories told soon, that project sounds incredibly important.
Thank you, Hannah! The more I learn about traditional publishing the more I realize that alternative ways of making books align much closer with my values.
I am definitely using substack to archive and share recipes, I will also be sharing oral histories and interviews hopefully soon. I wish I could do this work full time. I am also teaching myself how to make books/zines.
As you said in your wonderful newsletter, cookbooks are primary sources, and sadly not enough people think of them as such. That’s why in my latest post, I talked about the nefarious nature of the majority of traditional published cookbooks that are promoting a homogeneous, globalized, westernized, and sanitized cuisine that lacks nuance and complexity of traditions, its people, and culinary practices.
I am so glad I found your substack! Thinking and talking about cookbooks is one of my favorite things in the world.
A while ago I curated a cookbook such as this. Various home cooks across India shared a story and a recipe over email. I then put all of them together into an ebook format and sold it online.
All this to say, yes it’s great to be punished but don’t let that stop you from putting together your community cook book it sounds fab
Thank you, Perzen! Also, your project sounds absolutely incredible and of such significant cultural, culinary, and historical value! What's the name? I would love to add it to my list of must have books.
You are absolutely right! I don't know if you saw my most recent post, but I just finished working on my first cookbook zine. I already started working on future ones and looking forward to making more and more of them.
Let me know if I can help share your ebook.
I read it yesterday and am SO excited by this cheesecake zine. Have subscribed so I don’t miss instructions on how to purchase it!
Okay but I’m so curious about The Wee Cookbook now
I’ll post some pics and tag you! It’s adorable!
Very good point that community cookbooks are primary sources. I own a small handful of them for that very reason, but I mostly avoid them because I find it difficult that the recipes have vague provenance.
Yes! They can be tricky because of the provenance issue, depending on your use case. Occasionally you’ll find one with mini biographies of the contributors, which is always helpful. Sometimes you aren’t lucky enough to get even a city or state, let alone a date, though.
My particular interest in community cookbooks is comparing broader food trends and the emergence of recipes across the US. I’ve been working on making my personal collection into a digitally searchable database of sorts (for private research use, but ones that are exempt from copyright I’ll end up sharing on the Internet Archive). I’ll be able to search by ingredient or location or date quickly. Once that is up and running, combined with the scanned community cookbooks I’ve found for free digitally online (listed in the Free, Open Access Cookbook Index on my site), I’m hoping to be able to more efficiently track trends/ingredient usage/etc. over time in the US!
It’s a bit tedious at this stage, but once everything is searchable it’s going to be incredibly fun to explore.
That sounds like an incredible project! I collect American WWII cookbooks and have a similar idea to index my cookbooks along with the women's wartime magazines in my collection. I use them as research for my podcast but it's hard to know what I have on specific topics. I think it would be cool to do what the British do and make facsimiles of original cookbooks. Maybe someday!
As for your collection, I think community cookbooks are a great way to get a sense of the emergence of recipes over time. I love the ones with stories or blurbs about the person or if it has local ads. Those are so fun!
Yes! I wish there were more facsimiles of American cookbooks. I have a facsimile of the original Joy of Cooking and one of a women’s suffrage community cookbook, but that’s it so far.
And yes! Local ads and personal sections are so fun!
This post brings me so much joy! I love my Canal House and Julia Child cookbooks because I know they'll deliver on a good dish, but I equally love my First Slovak Ladies Association and my Lafayette Junior League community cookbooks because of my emotional resonance with them (I can make kolač just like my grandmother did or gumbo like one of my college best friends from them) and because they're a vivid window into a particular time and place.
I'm very excited to follow along on your substack!
Thank you so much, Dominika! I’m glad this resonated with you!
I’m in the same boat. There are cookbooks I love for their reliability and cookbooks I love because they bring me closer to the people I love. I think, especially in the online blogosphere, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that certain recipes and cookbooks are so much more than just instructions!
I’m so glad you’re here and following along! ☺️