New book! "The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks"
 

Well, it's actually from Sept. 2015. I found the book at the library just now.

Not: It's not a cookbook, per se.

The author, Toni Tipton Martn, said last year: "I am currently writing the sequel to this book, which will have 500 recipes from the books. Please stay tuned!"

http://thejemimacode.com/about/
(includes a short Q&A)

http://www.splendidtable.org/story/t...ican-cookbooks
(interview, with some pictures from the books - and audio)

"'The Jemima Code' wins James Beard award for Centennial author"
http://www.denverpost.com/food/ci_29...tennial-author

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/bo...on-martin.html
(NYT review from December, by Alexander Smalls)

Excerpt:

"For me, delving into these pages was like attending a family reunion. Although I own many of these books, Martin gives them an eye-opening new context. Her entries include everything from 'A Domestic Cook Book,' compiled by Malinda Russell, a free woman of color, and self-published in 1866 to 'Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons,' a relatively recent book by Jessica B. Harris, who has done much to celebrate and document the African-American culinary journey. In these pages, I saw my grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles and aunts, along with the neighbors and churchgoers of my youth. These people have served up our story with humility and grace, taking pride in their offerings, preparing familiar renditions of foods I have eaten all my life and consider my culinary heritage."


From Amazon:

"...The Jemima Code presents more than 150 black cookbooks that range from a rare 1827 house servant's manual, the first book published by an African American in the trade, to modern classics by authors such as Edna Lewis and Vertamae Grosvenor. The books are arranged chronologically and illustrated with photos of their covers; many also display selected interior pages, including recipes. Tipton-Martin provides notes on the authors and their contributions and the significance of each book, while her chapter introductions summarize the cultural history reflected in the books that follow. These cookbooks offer firsthand evidence that African Americans cooked creative masterpieces from meager provisions, educated young chefs, operated food businesses, and nourished the African American community through the long struggle for human rights. The Jemima Code transforms America's most maligned kitchen servant into an inspirational and powerful model of culinary wisdom and cultural authority."

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/...inary-heritage

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-c...956629/?no-ist
(interview)

http://www.oah.org/tah.oah.org/conte...tipton-martin/
(another interview)

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/arti...icans-to-cook/
(LONG article, from January, with many pictures)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining...028-story.html
(includes three recipes - one is "Frozen Sandwich")

From the very long November 29 reader review:

The book is broken into 13 parts:
Forward by John Egerton
Forward by Barbara Haber
Introduction
19th century cookbooks - Breaking a Stereotype.
1900-1925 - Surviving Mammyism: Cooking lessons for work and Home
1926-1950 - The Servant Problem: Dual Messages
1951-1960 - Lifting as we climb: Tea cakes, finger sandwiches, community service, and civil rights
1961-1970 - Soul Food: Mama's cooking leaves home for the big city
1971-1980 - Simple Pleasures: A Soul food revival
1981- 1990 - Mammy's Makeovers: The ever-useful life
1991-2001 - The Hope of Jemima
Acknowledgments
Index

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...3b9_story.html
(Excerpt from the book, from last year)


http://thejemimacode.com/


Lenona.

New book! "The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks"
 

> wrote in message
...
Well, it's actually from Sept. 2015. I found the book at the library just
now.

Not: It's not a cookbook, per se.

The author, Toni Tipton Martn, said last year: "I am currently writing the
sequel to this book, which will have 500 recipes from the books. Please stay
tuned!"

---

<snip>

I am currently reading this:

http://freepress.org/article/book-re...outh-1865-1960

LENONA TALKS ABOUT "The AUNT Jemima Code: Two Centuries of FROCOOKIN'"
 

On 4/29/2016 11:29 AM, wrote:
> Well, it's actually from Sept. 2015. I found the book at the library just now.

Lenona? Does that sound black to you?

New book! "The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks"
 

On Friday, April 29, 2016 at 6:26:06 PM UTC-4, Julie Bove wrote:

> http://freepress.org/article/book-re...outh-1865-1960


The link doesn't work.

New book! "The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African AmericanCookbooks"
 

On 4/30/2016 10:12 AM, wrote:
> On Friday, April 29, 2016 at 6:26:06 PM UTC-4, Julie Bove wrote:
>
>> http://freepress.org/article/book-re...outh-1865-1960
>
>
> The link doesn't work.
>

Yes it does:


Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers In the South, 1865 -
1960
By Rebecca Sharpless
University of North Carolina Press
182 pages, Notes, Index
Though I have not read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, I have seen the
movie. It has unleashed furious criticism, especially in the black
blogosphere. The most common criticism is that The Help sanitizes an
important and painful part of African American history: the role of
black female domestics in white homes. Not to worry, though: the real
story has been told, and more than admirably, in Cooking in Other
Women’s Kitchens.

Sharpless explores three issues in relation to black female domestics:
the manner in which they moved from slavery to paid employment as
domestics; how the women survived the brutal discrimination, racism and
poor working conditions common to their roles, and the myths and
stereotypes surrounding African American female cooks.

The period know as Reconstruction, which lasted from 1865 through 1876,
saw African Americans leave the plantations and pour into southern towns
and small cities looking for work. African American women were firmly
caught in the vise of race, class and gender, and found it incredibly
difficult to secure employment. Jim Crow and the inability to get an
education forced black women into domestic work in which they took care
of generations of white families while their own families were often
left unattended or in less-than-ideal situations.

Many cooks had no skills in preparing or cooking food, and oftentimes
the women of the household was similarly situated. Furthermore, the work
was fraught with minefields: the mistress of the house controlled what
was collected, cooked and how it was served. This meant that every
aspect of the work involved a power struggle. Black cooks worked with
inferior ingredients in insufficient quantities in poorly equipped
kitchens, yet were expected to produce elaborate and delicious meals at
any time of the day or night. The miracle is that so many black female
cooks developed the necessary skills to satisfy their employers.

African American female cooks also worked under deplorable conditions.
On average they worked six days a week if the cook lived out; a live-in
cook was expected to be on call twenty four hours a day. Most cooks made
fewer than five dollars per week, and many even less than that as white
employers used things such as left over food and second hand clothing
and furniture as payment. If ill, they dared not miss work; when they
became pregnant, they often worked right up to the time they delivered,
and were expected back at work almost immediately thereafter. Indeed,
Sharpless found that during this time period, black women had higher
rates of miscarriages, still births and complicated deliveries then did
white women. These were no doubt related to the conditions under which
they worked.