Now, she’s updated her favorite recipes from the collection for the modern kitchen. The chapter on cornbread, for example, is an eye-opener, taking us from wads of dough cooked in the ashes of a fire because you had no utensils to spoon bread and “Spanish” riffs which remind me of the jalapeño cornbread served at Highland Park Cafeteria.
The naturalistic photos by Jerrelle Guy (credit to her for the feature photo at the top of the post) are just as good as the prose and make me want this book in hardcover rather than my usual Kindle version. Take a look at the lamb shanks photo on page 215, complete with some “accidental” splatters on the dish, and you’ll be hoofing it to the butchery for ingredients to make this dish.
The leisurely history lessons with each recipe limit their quantity but I’m happy to take quality over volume in this case. There’s a tempting recipe for barbecued pork shoulder but no brisket, for example, and potato salad but no cole slaw. (Though the author might argue those are Southern dishes from German and Dutch traditions, vs black, and she’d be right.)
Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking: A Cookbook (yes, that’s an affiliate link, and hopefully enough readers will click it that we can get our own copy) is a revelation for anyone who loves food with tradition mixed in. Check it out.
