• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Russell, Malinda. A Domestic Cook Book: Containing a Careful Selection of Useful Receipts for the Kitchen by Malinda Russell a Free Woman of Color. Paw Paw, MI, 1866.

This is the first cookbook by an African American author. It is notable not only for its early date but also for the variety of recipes included.

Fisher, Abby. What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc. San Francisco: Women’s Cooperative Printing Office, 1881.

Long thought to be the first African American cookbook, this work offers recipes for some classic Southern dishes as well as an extensive array of condiments. A facsimile edition with extensive notes by the late culinary historian Karen Hess is available.

Estes, Rufus. Rufus Estes’ Good Things to Eat, As Suggested by Rufus: A Collection of Practical Recipes for Preparing Meats, Game, Fowl, Fish, Puddings, Pastries, Etc. Chicago: Franklin, 1911.

The first cookbook written by an African American chef offers a sophisticated range of recipes as well as advice for kitchen maids and a brief sketch of Estes’s life.

Hayes, Mrs. W. T. Kentucky Cook Book: Easy and Simple for Any Cook, by a Colored Woman. St. Louis: Tomkins, 1912.

The work offers recipes for a variety of Southern classics as well as fascinating photographs of some of the cooks.

Carver, George Washington. 105 Different Ways to Prepare the Peanut for the Table. N.p., n.p., n.d.

The title tells all about this pamphlet, which is also found as an appendix in Carver’s biography.

Richard, Lena. Lena Richard’s Cook Book. New Orleans: Rogers, 1939.

This work, by the first black woman to have a television show, offers creole recipes from southern Louisiana as well as more traditional culinary classics.

DeKnight, Freda. A Date with a Dish: A Cookbook of American Negro Recipes. New York: Hermitage, 1948.

The book, by Ebony magazine’s first food editor, contains mid-twentieth-century versions of African American classics. It has been re-edited several times and is still in print as the Ebony Cookbook.

Muhammad, Elijah. How to Eat to Live. Chicago: Muhammad Mosque of Islam No.2, 1967.

The leader of the Nation of Islam offers his views on nutrition and health. A second volume was published in 1972.

Princess Pamela. Princess Pamela’s Soul Food Cookbook. New York: Signet-NAL, 1969.

This paperback work by the New York own er of a popu lar East Village soul food eatery epitomizes the era.

The Tuesday Soul Food Cookbook. Tuesday Magazine. New York: Bantam, 1969.

This compilation was assembled by the editors of a Sunday supplement for black readers.

Grosvenor, Verta Mae Smart. Vibration Cooking; or, The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970.

There have been three editions of the NPR commentator’s work on her travels around the African Diaspora and the foods that she encountered.

Mendes, Helen. The African Heritage Cookbook. New York: Macmillan, 1971.

This is one of the first works to connect the foods of Africa, the Caribbean, and the American South.

Lewis, Edna, and Evangeline Peterson. The Edna Lewis Cookbook. N.p., n.p., 1972.

“Miss Edna’s” first cookbook begins to present her theories on fresh and seasonal foods.

Darden, Norma Jean, and Carole Darden. Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family. New York: Doubleday, 1978.

The story of the Darden family is told with anecdotes, photographs, and food.

Edwards, Gary, and John Mason. Onj E Fun Ori Sa (Food for the Gods). New York: Yoruba Theological Archministry, 1981.

The privately published work looks at the ritual offerings made to the orisha of the Yoruba religion and the loa of Vodun and is the first to examine the foods of the New World African religions that many African American artists are becoming involved with.

Bulter, Cleora. Cleora’s Kitchens: The Memoir of a Cook and Eight Decades of Great American Food. Tulsa, OK: Council Oak, 1985.

The changing food trends of the twentieth century are told