Almost immediately, the Civil War transformed the way Southerners ate, devastating fields and food transportation networks. The war also spurred Southerners to canonize prewar cooking styles, resulting in cuisine that retained nineteenth-century techniques in a way other American cuisines did not. This fascinating book presents a variety of Civil War-era recipes from the South, accompanied by eye-opening essays describing this tumultuous period in the way people lived and ate. The cookbooks excerpted here teem with the kinds of recipes we expect to find when we go looking for Southern food: grits and gumbo, succotash and Hopping John, catfish, coleslaw, watermelon pickles, and sweet potato pie. The cookbooks also offer plenty of surprises. This volume, the second in the American Food in History series, sheds new light on cooking and eating in the Civil War South, pointing out how seemingly neutral recipes can reveal unexpected things about life beyond the dinner plate, from responses to the anti-slavery movement to shifting economic imperatives to changing ideas about women’s roles. Together, these recipes and essays provide a unique portrait of Southern life via the flavors, textures, and techniques that grew out of a time of crisis.
ContentsAcknowledgmentsFood in the Antebellum South and the Confederacy, by Christopher FarrishSeeing the Civil War South through Its RecipesMary Randolph, The Virginia Housewife: or, Methodical CookSelections from Confederate Periodicals, 1861–1865Confederate Receipt Book: A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the TimesMaryland Recipe Manuscript, 1850s–1870Maria Barringer, Dixie Cookery: Or How I Managed My Table for Twelve Years, For Southern HousekeepersAnnabella P. Hill, Mrs. Hill’s New Cook Book: A Practical System for Private Families, in Town and CountryAbby Fisher, What Mrs. Fisher Knows about Old Southern Cooking, Soups, Pickles, Preserves, Etc.NotesGlossary of Nineteenth-Century Cooking TermsIndex
