The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama's Renowned Tuskegee Institute [Hardcover]

Carolyn Quick Tillery (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996

Enjoy more than 200 traditional African-American recipes! This remarkable volume is the ultimate African-American cooking collection, with time-tested recipes for everything from beverages to soups and salads to main and side dishes to breads to desserts. And, the African-American Heritage Cookbook is more than just a recipe collection. It also features personal vignettes, pictorial accounts, literary passages, and poetry combined together to honor a notable American landmark—the Tuskegee Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington. You’ll learn to make such delectable, traditional dishes as:

-Hot Clam Dip
-Old-Time Potato Salad
-Salmon Croquettes
-Creole Rice
-And more!

Beginning with the final days of slavery and extending through the struggle for civil rights, this singular anthology is a historic tribute to African-Americans of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 210 pages
• Publisher: Citadel Press; 1St Edition edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559723254
• ISBN-13: 978-1559723251
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carolyn Quick Tillery
It was about a decade ago that Carolyn Quick Tillery married two of her passions - history and food - to create a "pick up and go" career for herself. In 1994, she decided to write a book about the history of her alma mater, Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. And from the beginning, she decided to fold in food stories and recipes. Tillery was influenced by food and a powerful oral tradition as a child. A year and a half after beginning, Tillery published The African-American Heritage Cookbook acclaimed for its lively storytelling and Sweet Potato Soup, Mom's Devilish Catfish Stew, Smothered Yard Bird and more than 200 other recipes, rich in flavor and tradition. This was soon followed by the Military Wives Cookbook, which offers readers rare and fascinating tidbits of U.S. history from the perspective of America's military wives while framing nearly 50 sets of recipes with quotes, stories and vintage photographs, in such chapters as "An Independence Tea Party," "Yankee Doodle Pot Roast Dinner," "A Colonial Thanksgiving" and "Christmas in the Confederate White House." Martha Washington, Libbie Custer and Jefferson Davis' wife, Varina, are among the women who share their stories.
A former judicial law clerk, prosecuting attorney and United States Air Force Officer, Ms. Tillery currently manages the United States Central Command Personal & Family Readiness Program, which prepares military families for all phases of deployment and provides them with information to enhance the quality of their lives. She is the author of "A Taste of Freedom," "The African-American History Cookbook" and "Southern Homecoming Traditions," which was a finalist for the prestigious NAACP Image Award.
Southern Homecoming Traditions, the fourth installment in Tillery's African-American Heritage Cookbook series is similar in tone and style: each is really two books in one, a collection of regional recipes as well as a detailed examination of a particular facet of African-American history. Her most recent book is a celebration of the five historic black colleges and one university that comprise the Atlanta University Center: Morehouse, Spelman, and Morris Brown Colleges, Morehouse School of Medicine, Interdenominational Theological Center, and Clark-Atlanta University. Author Carolyn Quick Tillery uses the evocative power of food to take us back to the institutions where so many great African-American leaders were educated, and the region where so many great dishes were created.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Revives a Lost Art, June 24, 2000

By 

Shaun Chavis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama's Renowned Tuskegee Institute (Hardcover)

The recipes in this book remind me so much of my great aunt's cooking-- and of family stories of my grandmother's extravagant 5-course Sunday dinners-- dinners that featured the best of southern home cooking that you'll never find in a restaurant-- dinners that most people do not take time to make in our frantic 21st century lifestyle.

If you've ever had that kind of dinner-- and you've tried to duplicate that good taste (and never got the recipe because your aunt or grandmother just "added a little somethin'"), it's likely you'll find that special recipe here. The book is also a valuable historical lesson-- accented with photographs and historical accounts about George Washington Carver , the Tuskeegee Institute, and other black historical figures. My only caution is that some of the recipes (such as Dr. Carver's Sliced Sweet Potato Pie) don't give exact measurements, so someone who doesn't know their way around the kitchen might have to call a more experienced cook for a little advice.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful in spirit, beautiful recipes, July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama's Renowned Tuskegee Institute (Hardcover)

I discovered this book recently and was truly moved by the beauty of the spirit, and the richness of the culture in which the style of cooking contained in the recipes evolved. There's something unusually special here.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true taste of African-American History!, May 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The African-American Heritage Cookbook: Traditional Recipes and Fond Remembrances from Alabama's Renowned Tuskegee Institute (Hardcover)

When I saw this cookbook on the shelves I knew immediately it would become the centerpiece in my collection of cookbooks. I have tried several of the recipes, and found them all to be excellent. As a former student of Tuskegee Institute, I truly appreciate the historical referances found in the book. The African-American Heritage Cookbook has earned it's place as my personal favorite. Carolyn, thanks for the memories and the SOUL FOOD.