African American Books - Page 3

Essence Brings You Great Cooking

Jonell Nash

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The best of ESSENCE. magazine's food pages and African-American cuisine

For more than two decades, millions of men and women across the country have relied on ESSENCE magazine to cater to their taste for great food. Now, Jonell Nash, former food editor for ESSENCE, brings together in one definitive volume the best recipes, cooking tips, nutritional information, food folklore, and stunning color photographs from the food pages of the magazine.

Rooted in tradition, with bits of history and culture, ESSENCE BRINGS YOU GREAT COOKING culls more than 300 recipes that answer the needs of a new era of health-consciousness, hectic schedules, and renewed appreciation of African-American and home cooking. Included are classics such as Chicken and Dumplings, Baked Red Snapper, and Braised Cabbage, as welt as unique contemporary dishes such as Fruited Duck Salad and Orange-Blossom Grits. There are wonderful options for all kinds of diets with recipes that excite meat-eaters and vegetarians alike, from Creole Okra and Tomatoes and Ali's Vegetable Curry to Sweet Pepper and Crabmeat Quiche. This easy-to-follow book guides you through the preparation of a weekday meal as well as elegant recipes perfect for formal and informal entertaining.

Rufus Estes' Good Things to Eat: The First Cookbook by an African-American Chef (Dover Cookbooks)

Rufus Estes

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

It's refreshing to read a title from the past 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Dover Publications has reprinted Rufus Estes' Good Things to Eat: The First Cookbook by an African-American Chef, the first cookbook by an Afro-American chef, returning this time-lost 1911 culinary classic to print. It's refreshing to read a title from the past which doesn't skimp on the lard or the fats, and intriguing to read about Estes' Southern childhood and early years as a railway attendant, while the easy recipes for Baked Milk (an early form of custard), or Parsnip Fritters.

Nice Collectible 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This is a good book to add to your collection if you are into collecting cookbooks or African American collectibles. There is a very brief introduction by the author of his life. It doesn't go into a lot of detail of his experiences as a chef but names a few places where he worked. Some of the recipes may be familiar to the seniors out there. I remember my grandmother preparing dishes that were similar in nature to some of the recipes listed.

Obviously, this isn't a cookbook like the ones of our generation. The recipes are very brief, don't always list proportions, and are skimpy in preparation detail. If you purchase this and decide you want to try something, make sure you read the recipe over a few times to ensure that it flows and will work. For example, the fried chicken recipe instructs you to steep the chicken but there isn't enough liquid mentioned in the recipe for that, and the instructions on cooking the marinade are vague as they only specify that the liquid is heated. Since the marinade or steeping liquid includes carrots and turnips (yes, really) you have to assume that either water or broth was used and the mixture cooked until at least those vegetable were softened.

I suppose the recipes are in the tradition of the cooking like Grandma used to do, a pinch of this or a spoonful of that with most of the detail being committed to memory!

The title says that this is the first cookbook by an African American Chef. However, there is another book (available at Amazon), "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking" that was published in 1881.

Editorial Review:

Includes nearly 600 mouth-watering recipes: chicken gumbo, chestnut stuffing with truffles, cherry dumplings, southern style waffles, and scores of other dishes from haute cuisine to family-style meals. Of special value to anyone interested in the African-American experience.

Black Hunger: Soul Food And America

Doris Witt

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

(RAW Rating: 4.5) - Exposing the myth 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Using the history of Aunt Jemima as a springboard for researching
the affinity between African-Americans and food, BLACK HUNGER
focuses on debates that have been waged over the term 'soul food'
since the tumultuous era of the late 1960's and early 1970's.

BLACK HUNGER looks specifically at how the association of African-
American women with food has helped structure twentieth-century
psychic, cultural, sociopolitical, and economic life in America.
An association that has blossomed into a complex web of political,
religious, sexual and racial tensions between Blacks and whites,
and within the Black community itself.

Doris Witt uses vaudeville, literature, film and cookbooks to
explore how food has been used to perpetuate and challenge racial
stereotypes. Hence, the main focus is the controversy surrounding
the authenticity of soul food and stereotypical views of black
women in the United States. Witt fervidlyly contends that Aunt
Jemima was not only used to sell pancakes, but also to perpetuate
post-Civil War race and gender hierarchies, including the
subordination of African-American women as servants, and white
fantasies of the nurturing mammy.

As I read this book, I sensed Witt raising her fist in a Black Power
salute and wielding her spatula like a sword; as if Aunt Jemima had
stepped off the pancake box with vengeance and fury. BLACK HUNGER,
which began many years ago as a dissertation at theUniversity of
Virginia, is now an extraordinary book that should claim a viable
place in African American history. This is a fascinating look at the
role of food in our culture.

Reviewed by aNN
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

If I Can Cook/You Know God Can (Bluestreak Series)

Ntozake Shange

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Experience African-American experience through culinary hist 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I am not an African-American but through Shange's words I can feel the grief, the sorrow, and the triumphs of the African-American experience. By talking about food, which everybody needs and relates to, she paints a far more vivid picture of the African people in the Diaspora than a scholarly historian might. Many of her recipes call for ingredients I've hardly heard of, but her evocative descriptions of the food almost make me able to taste it.

Editorial Review:

Ntozake Shange offers this personal culinary memoir, with dashes of literature and pinches of music, in her rousing tribute to black cuisine as a food of life that reflects the spirit and history of a people. With recipes such as "Collard Greens to Bring You Money," Shange introduces us to 'Afro-Atlantic foodways:' a cuisine born on the slave ships of the Middle Passage, and shared by all members of the African Diaspora. If I Can Cook/You Know God Can is a vivid story of the migration of a people that opens our hearts and minds to what it means for "black folks in the Western Hemisphere to be full."

Iron Pots & Wooden Spoons: Africa's Gifts to New World Cooking

Jessica B. Harris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Cajun, Creole, and Caribbean dishes all have their roots in the cooking of West and Central Africa; the peanuts, sweet potatoes, rice, cassava, plantains, and chile pepper that star in the cuisines of New Orleans, Puerto Rico, and Brazil are as important in the Old World as they are in the New World. In Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons, esteemed culinary historian and cookbook author Jessica Harris returns to the source to trace the ways in which African food has migrated to the New World and transformed the way we eat. From condiments to desserts, Harris shares more than 175 recipes that find their roots and ingredients in Africa, from Sand-roasted Peanuts to Curried Coconut Soup, from Pepper Rum to Candied Sweet Potatoes, from Beaten Biscuits to Jamaica Chicken Run Down, from Shortening Bread to Ti-Punch.

Enticing recipes, a colorful introduction on the evolution of transported African food, information on ingredients from achiote to z'oiseaux and utensils make this culinary journey a tantalizing, and satisfying, experience.

What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking

Abby Fisher, Fisher

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Historical Treasure 4 out of 5 stars.
30 of 30 people found this review helpful.

As soon as I learned of this book's existence, I ordered a copy for myself. I love cooking (and cookbooks), and I am also fascinated by the kind of first-person, anecdotal history that can be derived from the writings or records of ordinary people living long ago. This work--the first cookbook by an African-American, actually a former slave, originally published in 1881-- appeals to both of those interests, and, in addition, is a curious little conversation piece to display on a bookshelf. The recipes are not ones you will turn to each night when making dinner, but they are fun to experiment with, as long as you rewrite the directions first in their proper order (they are written in a stream-of-consciousness style), and as long as you read the historical notes that define the units of measure used in the recipes. This book could be a great guide for a "historical reinactment" of a Civil War era dinner, or, if not, then it is at least a selective culinary history of the Old South. Most interesting to me are the medicinal recipes, like blackberry syrup as a remedy for dysentery, and the recipe for "infant diet." This edition contains not only the original cookbook, but an informative afterword that explains some historical facts about Mrs. Fisher and the society around her. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in American history, African-American history, or the art of cooking.

Editorial Review:

This is the oldest known African-American cookbook published in America. Originally published in San Francisco in 1881, it contains 160 authentic old Southern recipes and features an informative and authoritative introduction by noted culinary historian, Karen Hess, who specializes in the cuisine of the South.

Hallelujah! the Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories and Recipes

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Neo Soul: Taking Soul Food to a Whole 'Nutha Level

Lindsey Williams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

More than one hundred taste-tempting soul-food recipes.

From the grandson of Harlem's queen of soul food, Sylvia Woods, comes a new take on soul food-down-home cooking that tastes as good as the food you grew up with. Lindsey Williams knows soul food. He was raised in the kitchen of his grandmother's restaurant, Sylvia's, where he mastered the art of soul-food cooking. But being around all of that good food took its toll. When he tipped the scales at four hundred pounds, he knew he had to make some serious changes.

That's when he lost more than half his body weight and began his own brand of healthy soul-food cooking that's loved by the clients of his catering business. Now, with Neo Soul, we can all enjoy some guilt-free soul food.

Neo Soul features more than one hundred of Williams's delectable recipes, including Grandma's Roasted Turkey, Lenzo's Trout Stuffed with Collard Greens, Okra Gumbo, Neo Sweet Potato Pie, and Blueberry Buckle. They're all so good, you'll never miss the fat

The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro: The Classic Year-Round Celebration of Black Heritage from Emancipation Proclamation Breakfast Cake to Wandering Pilgrim's Stew

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the organization that brought us The Black Family Reunion cookbooks comes The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro, a fun, richly brewed collection of recipes, historical facts, photos, and personal anecdotes. First published in 1958 by the National Council of Negro Women, it includes contributions from members in thirty-six states plus the District of Columbia and offers exceptional insight into American history and the African-American community at the time of its publication. As John Hope Franklin (whose own family owns a copy of the book) points out, much of the cultural information in the cookbook has never been passed down to successive generations.

Arranged according to the calendar year, the cookbook opens with a cake to be baked in celebration of both New Year's Day and the Emancipation Proclamation. Scattered among the recipes one finds excerpts from documents such as the Gettysburg Address and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Tributes to well-known figures like Harriet Tubman, Phillis Wheatley, and Booker T. Washington appear alongside brief bios and recipes in celebration of important but obscured figures. This delightful collection of delicious recipes helps us commemorate African-American history throughout the year.

Vertamae Cooks Again: More Recipes from the Americas' Family Kitchen

Vertamae Grosvenor

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

CALLING ALL COOKS! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

If you don't have a copy of Vertamae Cooks in the Americas Family Kitchen or Vertamae Cooks Again, order them now!

Vertamae Cooks Again is full of recipes from all over the Americas, with an emphasis on Mexican cuisine. No tacos or enchiladas here folks -- try my favorite - tres leches cake. Or give the ribs called "table cloth stainers" a try.

Besides being a great cook, Vertamae is a food anthropologist. Most of the recipes in both books are accompanied by historical information that gives you a feel for the culture. Her recipes are always clearly written and unique. And her books include listings of stores that carry some of the hard-to-find ingredients.

Check out the PBS series Vertamae Cooks in the Americas Family Kitchen, then buy both books and try the recipes. You'll hope that Vertamae cooks again and again and again...

Editorial Review:

Culinary anthropologist Vertamae Grosvenor traveled to Haiti, the Bahamas, and Mexico to tape segments of her television series and to get firsthand experience with real local cooking from real family cooks. In this book she serves up a collection of recipes from all the cultures that make up the Americas, including the Gullah culture of the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia, the Island cultures of the Caribbean, and the Creole culture of New Orleans. Organized by course -- soups, salads, side dishes, entrees, breads, and desserts -- here are traditional favorites like Red Beans and Rice as well as exotic dishes like Cuban Whole Roast Pig and African Sweet-Potato Stew.