Cover image for The Jemima code : two centuries of African American cookbooks
Title:
The Jemima code : two centuries of African American cookbooks
ISBN:
9780292745483
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
xv, 246 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 29 cm.
General Note:
Includes index.
Contents:
Nineteenth-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 city -- 1971-1980, simple pleasures : a soul food revival -- 1981-1990, mammy's makeover : the ever-useful life -- 1991-2011, sweet to the soul : the hope of Jemima.
Summary:
Winner, James Beard Foundation Book Award, 2016 Winner, Art of Eating Prize, 2015 Winner, BCALA Outstanding Contribution to Publishing Citation, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, 2016 Women of African descent have contributed to America's food culture for centuries, but their rich and varied involvement is still overshadowed by the demeaning stereotype of an illiterate "Aunt Jemima" who cooked mostly by natural instinct. To discover the true role of black women in the creation of American, and especially southern, cuisine, Toni Tipton-Martin has spent years amassing one of the world's largest private collections of cookbooks published by African American authors, looking for evidence of their impact on American food, families, and communities and for ways we might use that knowledge to inspire community wellness of every kind. 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.
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