The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks

From the publisher --- Women of African descent have contributed to America’s food culture for centuries, but their rich and varied involvement is still overshadowed by the demeaning stereotype of an illiterate “Aunt Jemima” who cooked mostly by natural instinct. To discover the true role of black women in the creation of American, and especially southern, cuisine, Toni Tipton-Martin has spent years amassing one of the world’s largest private collections of cookbooks published by African American authors, looking for evidence of their impact on American food, families, and communities and for ways we might use that knowledge to inspire community wellness of every kind.

The Jemima Code presents more than 150 black cookbooks that range from a rare 1827 house servant’s manual, the first book published by an African American in the trade, to modern classics by authors such as Edna Lewis and Vertamae Grosvenor. The books are arranged chronologically and illustrated with photos of their covers; many also display selected interior pages, including recipes. Tipton-Martin provides notes on the authors and their contributions and the significance of each book, while her chapter introductions summarize the cultural history reflected in the books that follow. These cookbooks offer firsthand evidence that African Americans cooked creative masterpieces from meager provisions, educated young chefs, operated food businesses, and nourished the African American community through the long struggle for human rights. The Jemima Code transforms America’s most maligned kitchen servant into an inspirational and powerful model of culinary wisdom and cultural authority.

Of all the cookbooks published in the USA from the birth of its nation to the end of the 20th century only a small fraction of them bore the names of African American Cooks. In two centuries pf the estimated over 100,00 recipe that made it into print only 200 or so were credited to black cooks and writers. Cookbooks exist for many reasons: education, imparting culinary authority, passing on traditions, and to raise money for churches to name a few. (ALWAYS trust a church cookbook- my husband will tell you all about the hours I spend in used bookstores looking for books of recipes that you know are amazing and full-proof as their NAME IS ON IT!!!)

I personally enjoyed the presentation of the different cookbooks within but the whole book read like a (very disturbing) textbook vs. a non-fiction book you might pick up at the library and enjoy reading your way through.

I give it 4.5 stars, but will mark it here as four out of five as it could have been a bit more “enjoyable”!