Search Results: Culinary from Langdon Manor Books LLC

San Francisco, CA: The Whitaker & Ray Co, 1900. Very good. 8 3/8" x 5 5/8". Cloth over flexible boards. Pp. 57, [2]. Very good: covers lightly scuffed, soiled and creased; tiny tear and offsetting to ffep; two pages moderately spotted and two with a tiny closed tear; a bit of creasing at margins; lightly toned. This is a lovely cookbook composed exclusively of recipes by women in Sonoma County, California. The book holds 230 recipes in 17 categories including breads, salads, soups, pickles and fish. Sweets were the star, with sections for puddings, pudding sauces, pies, "frozen dainties," cakes and "confectionery." Each recipe noted the California "Miss" or "Mrs." responsible for its inclusion, and there were small quotes at the beginnings of most sections, such as "Love in a cottage and cottage pudding with it" and "'An't please your Honour,' quoth the peasant, 'This same dessert is very Pleasant.'" A segment devoted to "breakfast and luncheon dishes" included waffles, baked eggs and "codfish… Read More

[New Orleans, Louisiana]: N.P., 1954. Very good. 7¼" x 3¾". Plastic spiral-bound at top edge, thin card covers. Pp. 68 + two blank pages for notes at rear. Very good: covers lightly spotted with a few small stains to rear; a few pages lightly soiled at top edge; a bit of light scattered spotting. This is a rare and fantastic book of recipes written by an early African American female celebrity chef and television host, Mandy Lee. Amanda "Mandy" Lee was the on-air pseudonym for Ruth Porter Prevost. She was born in Slidell, Louisiana in 1917, and a 1950 New Orleans census listed her occupation as "lunch room supervisor" for a parish school. Later that year, Lee took over as host of a cooking show on New Orleans' WDSU-TV when Lena Richards died. Richards had been the first African American woman to host her own television cooking show, making Mandy the second. Contemporary news accounts called Mandy "a jovial person with a delightful smile and a rich laughing voice" and spoke of the "warm regard… Read More