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The mother of invention and taste

Posted by Admin.
May 31st, 2021

Blog post by Christina White, undergraduate researcher at WVU

This is the seventh post in White’s series on race, justice, and social change through cookbooksfeaturing the following books from the Ebersole collection: Mammy Pleasant’s Cookbook, A Date with a Dish, A Good Heart and a Light Hand, and The Jemima Code.

A Date with a Dish slices through fallacies and vegetables alike. Freda de Knight writes like she’s chatting on the phone with a girlfriend, whisking readers away on interviews with America’s Black chefs. As I’ve said in earlier posts, the angle found within a cookbook is unfiltered and raw in comparison to accounts written by dominant groups, or those unaffected by Black America’s challenges.

Book cover A Date with a Dish by Freda de Knight

Struggle isn’t an ingredient, but a tangible influence on the composition of a recipe. Freda emphasized “food that stretches” for times of financial hardship. All-in-one recipes like “Mama Scott’s Inexpensive Dinner” document ways that people adapted and problem-solved.

“When sugar was scarce and pennies low, maple syrup and even molasses made delightful eating, added to apples which were topped with a crunchy, flaky crust.”

How to “budget slash” and reuse ham:

Excerpt about ham hocks reads, "Don't shun ham hocks as poor folks' food..."cause they ain't!" However they can do a terrific job in budget slashing. They can be used in a variety of ways; boiled and seasoned, or, after boiling, the meat can be cut from the bone, ground, and made into croquettes or hash, or cut up for creamed ham or ham salad. 
The stock from boiled ham hocks is good for soups and gravies too. Don't throw out the juice! Store it in the refrigerator for later use."

Freda agreed with the saying, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” She understood the needs of her readers and published a tool to help them save money. What a boss!

Resources:

Cookbook image: Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc.

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