Mammy's Cook Book

[ Los Angeles:] [1927] First edition. Uncommon. . Pictorial red cloth boards. . Octavo. Laid-in promotional ephemera for the book, designed by Henry Holt. Abrasion to cloth along front cover edge. Dampstaining to lower edges of several pages. Pencil signature of previous owner on title page. Still a good to very good copy. Little is known about the author, Katharin Bell, other than what can be gleaned from the book's foreword—that she was raised in a household where-in her meals were prepared by one Sallie Miller (the titular "mammy"), a famous black cook in her day. Bell writes wistfully that "with the dying out of the black mammies of the South, much that was good and beautiful has gone out of life, and in this little volume I have sought to preserve the memory and the culinary lore of my Mammy." The scope of the book is indeed comprehensive, beginning with a poem ("A Recipe to the Cure the Blues"), a brief section on miscellaneous cooking tips and tricks ("Things Worth Knowing"), before moving on to alphabetized recipe sections ranging from beverages, bread, meats, sandwiches, and vegetables. An incisive snapshot of American racial and culinary history. (Inventory #: 17879)