Charleston Women-Winter 2020

www.CharlestonWomen.com | www.ReadCW.com | www.CharlestonBrides.com CW But, after due consideration, I concluded to bring forward a book of my knowledge based upon an experience of upwards of 35 years.” Mrs. Fisher was probably enslaved during that “upwards of 35 years” experience with Southern cooking. While her talent for cookery brought her fame and stability, she still couldn’t read. Yet, by including recipes like “Plantation Corn Bread” in her book, she displayed a nostalgia for the way things were. Nostalgia for the past also played into the creation of a local classic, “Charleston Receipts,” the oldest Junior League cookbook still in print. Starting as a fundraiser for the organization, the book’s recipes were collected from families with surnames such as Laurens, Hagood and Ravenel. It was sorted into categories like canapes and hominy and interspersed with illustrations from Charleston renaissance painters. “Charleston Receipts” plunges readers into a world of white gloves and church hats, cotillions and sockhops. It’s a world in which there are 10 kinds of punch and no fewer than six kinds of shrimp pie. It’s the beautiful recollection of our grandmothers and their golden memories. And it begins with this verse: “There was a time when folks had cooks, Who never did depend on books To learn the art of cooking.” In short, “Charleston Receipts” was compiled because the ideal 1950s housewife still needed to learn how to cook, even without the cooking help their relatives had once employed. Decades later, in 1989, Oscar Vick published “Gullah Cooking: Creative Recipes from a Historic Past from the Low Country of South Carolina.” A collection of stories, poems, sketches and recipes created to honor the Gullah culture, it is a relic, Vick said, of “a stormy past.” He does a beautiful job capturing the music of the Gullah language in poetry and whimsical recipes. The “Who Kissed Maybelle?” Stew referenced earlier is from this book, and requires, among other things, 12 squirrels, 12 doves and six ducks. There’s much to love about Southern cuisine. A poet could write odes all day to boiled peanuts, pimiento cheese, sweet tea and mint juleps. Celebrity chefs compile the recipes of our storied past, celebrating heirloom vegetables and the perfect grain of Carolina Gold rice. Revisiting these original cookbooks is a journey through history, from illiterate orphans to former slaves to the “perfect” 1950s housewife. It’s a compelling journey, with plenty to learn and many recipes to master in your modern kitchen. charleston women New Location 264 N. Shelmore Blvd. Mount Pleasant, SC 843.881.2364 info@bakiessc.com www.BakiesSC.com