Seafood Sauce Recipes from Cooking in Old Creole Days, 1904, 1928.

Seafood Sauce Recipes from Cooking in Old Creole Days, 1904: Here’s great recipes from an historic cookbook, Cooking in Old Creole Days, 1904.

cooking in old creole days

Of course we have the cookbook. See it here: https://www.vintagecookbook.com/product/cooking-in-old-creole-days/

Cooking in Old Creole Days, 1904, Rare First Edition, First Printing: This wonderful cookbook is the only cookbook I know of–and I’ve read a LOT of cookbooks–that mixes music and cooking. Written in both English and French by Celestine Eustis, the cookbook has eight exquisitely detailed illustrations by Harper Pennington. Each illustration goes with a short Creole song printed on a semi-transparent page tipped onto each illustration. I think Eustis explains the songs in her introduction to the cookbook, but that introduction is in French and my French is extremely limited. However, there’s an English introduction, too, by S. Weir Mitchell. He tells us that the black cooks of the South sang certain songs when they prepared certain dishes, and that Eustis includes the songs in an effort to preserve the folklore of the Southern cook.

This hard cover cookbook was published by R.H. Russell in 1904, although it has four pages of advertisement for books published by Harper &  Brothers, Publishers. The book is good antique condition. The cover is worn, with one corner nearly worn off. The spine cover has been mended with clear librarian’s tape. The front and back hinges are both damaged, but holding, and they have been mended, as well. The binding is holding and only few pages have light spots. The pages are uniformly tanned at the edges. A short New York Times article about Eustis’ death is taped to the title page. A four-leaf clover is taped to the inside of the back cover with the date and place it was found.