Customer Reviews

Creole Cookery

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This photoreproduced volume of the original 1885 edition is an historical work of some local importance -- the second collection of Creole recipes ever published. As hundreds of civic groups have done since, the thirty-two ladies of the still-existing Christian Woman's Exchange compiled this book as a money-raiser so they could buy or build a permanent roof over their heads. "The recipes which make up the collection," they assured the reader, "are the contributions of housekeepers experienced in the science of cookery as practiced throughout the South, and more particularly as it is understood and applied by the Creoles of Louisiana." Their effort was quite exhaustive and the result, 120 years later, is a still perfectly usable recipe book -- many of them are in regular in the public cooking demonstrations at the Hermann-Grima House in the French Quarter, which the Christian Woman's Exchange eventually made their headquarters. It's also a fascinating reference source in the foods and eating habits of our ancestors. Besides okra soup and parsnip fritters (I'll pass), you'll find Sauce Piquante (yum!), Baked Red Snapper, Fried Tomatoes with Peppers, Peach Sherbet, and Roll Jelly Cake [sic]. In fact, there are more than 150 cake recipes. Also a dozen ways to prepare oysters, three dozen pickling recipes, and more than a hundred puddings. It's instructive of the distinction between "creole" and "cajun," though, that you won't find jambalaya, dirty rice, or similar rural staples.