University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2013 Recipes Exist In The Moment: Cookbooks And Culture In The Post-Civil War South Kelsielynn Ruff University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Ruff, Kelsielynn, "Recipes Exist In The Moment: Cookbooks And Culture In The Post-Civil War South" (2013) Electronic Theses and Dissertations 634 https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/634 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu “RECIPES EXIST IN THE MOMENT”: COOKBOOKS AND CULTURE IN THE POST-CIVIL WAR SOUTH A Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of History The University of Mississippi by Kelsielynn Ruff August 2013 Copyright Kelsielynn Ruff 2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Cookbooks manifested Southern archetypes between the late 1860s and the early 2000s From the late 1800s through 1945, cookbooks exemplified Jim Crow with racist language, stereotyped illustrations, and marginalization of black laborers Almost at the same time, an ideological belief that glorified the South’s loss in the Civil War and romanticized the leaders and fallen soldiers as heroes, called the Lost Cause, appeared in cookbooks Whites used reminiscence about antebellum society, memorialization of Civil War heroes, and coded language to support Lost Cause beliefs As the twentieth century progressed, the racial tensions morphed, and the civil rights movement came to a head Between the 1950s and the late 1960searly 1970s, cookbooks reflected the cultural tensions of the time, harkening back to the earlier Jim Crow-style recipes and language From the 1970s to the mid-1980s, due to a bolstering of white Southern pride caused by the death of segregation, the Lost Cause resurfaced with a resurgence of heirloom Lost Cause recipes Southerners challenged domestic ideology and gender roles by the second half of the twentieth century, and Southern social, political, and religious figures attempted to reinforce women’s roles and preserve family values Concurrently, the movement of the Religious Right in the 1980s of conservative evangelicals was spreading through the country Cookbooks further reflected the push of reverting to family values by showcasing recipes handed down from mothers and grandmothers Lastly, the enterprises of Southern Living magazine, Cracker Barrel, and Paula Deen’s stardom commercialized the concept of Southernness and exported it through the United States ii DEDICATION I dedicate my thesis to my mother, who won her fight with cancer as I finished this project Thank you, Momma, for all you have done for me to help me realize my dreams and succeed iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the following people for making this thesis and my Master’s degree possible: First, an incredibly massive thanks goes to my academic gurus and colleagues for their intellectual guidance I created this work for every history teacher I have ever had, including Mr Tom Coleman, Mr Glenn Hallick, and the incredible history faculty at both Flagler College and the University of Mississippi A special thanks to Dr John Diviney and Dr J Michael Butler of Flagler College for teaching me that history was the career I wanted, for listening when I needed an ear, and for helping me through some of the hardest years of college To Drs Deirdre Cooper Owens and Jesse Cromwell, thank you for your advice regarding graduate school, career plans, and the “next step.” To Drs Charles Reagan Wilson, Ted Ownby, and Darren E Grem of the University of Mississippi, I must thank you for not only your advice as I strategized my career, but also for being amazing readers and critics, allowing me to present this finished product with pride A special thanks also to Dr Angela Jill Cooley for her help along the way with this project, and for volunteering to see it through to the end Second, I must say thank you to those who have assisted in the creation of this paper through the contribution of research materials This project, which started as an undergraduate seminar paper in 2010, has left a long trail of gratitude for cookbook contributions First and foremost, I wish to say thank you to Katherine Owens (for cookbooks and endless Chicago-style citation help), Mary Lou Brusaw (for cookbooks and sewing lessons), Warren and Irene Hawkins (for cookbooks and amazing memories), and Marsha Ruff (for cookbooks, many of which were heirlooms, and life itself) Thank you also to the Public Library Systems of St Johns and Marion Counties, Florida, for loaning your materials I owe a great debt to Peggy Dyess and the Interlibrary Loan department of Flagler College for your tireless and personal attention, and for filling the nearly hundred loan requests, while I completed the founding stage of this thesis at Flagler Secondly, while at the University of Mississippi, both developing this work as a seminar paper and thesis, I must thank the Archives & Special Collections staff for the dozens of pulled cookbooks, the Interlibrary Loan department for fetching me everything possible, and Judy Greenwood for, once learning of my project’s subject, donating her own personal cookbooks to the cause of research A grateful thank you to Phila Rawlings Hach and her son Joe for answering several questions I had regarding her cookbooks mentioned in the fifth chapter Part of this work also grew out of a seminar paper, which took me to Birmingham, Alabama and the headquarters of Southern Living magazine for research To Susan Ray, Susan Payne Dobbs, and Jean Wickstrom Liles, I cannot thank you enough for your openness, time, books, hospitality, interviews, and my almost complete set of Southern Living© Annual Recipes cookbooks To Rebecca Gordon and the rest of the Test Kitchen staff, thank you for having me at your table, welcoming me into your process, and listening to my humble opinions on your test recipes I must also thank Sheila Scott, Karl and Pat Seitz, and my father, William Ruff, for housing me during my research ventures in the fall of 2011 iv My research took me to New Orleans, Louisiana on a short window of time in my final semester’s schedule, accidentally scheduled during the Mardi Gras season Several people not only made it possible for me to travel and stay, but also made it a wonderfully productive trip I would like to thank the Graduate School of the University of Mississippi for their financial assistance to go complete the research Charlotte Jones, you wonderful Floridian, bless you for falling in love with and staying in one of the best cities, and for giving me a gracious, hospitable, and downright fun place to stay to research To Susan Tucker, Bea Calvert, and the staff of the Newcomb College Institute’s Nadine Vorhoff Library at Tulane University, thank you for your generosity and freedom in the utilization of your culinary collection I would also like to thank The Historic New Orleans Collection and Bobby Ticknor for access to your wealth of material and your flexibility with me on the last day before your holiday began I also received assistance from the staff of the New Orleans Public Library on my very short, but sweet, visit to New Orleans, for which I am grateful My final and most sincere thanks must go to my family and friends who have supported me along the way There are far too many people to list, and surely I would forget someone if I tried The first group of this subset I must thank are those amazing souls who read any (or all) versions of this paper, from its days at Flagler to its size today A special thank you to my dear friend Kristin for reading and editing every single page, including the footnotes and bibliography I come from a large family with many, many branches, including several members who I am not related to by blood Either way, to my “kin,” I know for a fact I could not have gotten to where I am without you all To my dear friends scattered far and wide—from Albuquerque to Washington, D.C., Denver to Orlando, and everywhere in-between: I am so thankful for those of you who have been there for me through so many trials and tribulations To those I met on my short two-year journey in Mississippi, especially the Jaquess family, I will carry each one of you Oxonian friends with me as I leave this beautiful space v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii DEDICATION iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1: Cookbooks in the Jim Crow South CHAPTER 2: Lost Cause Cookbooks 37 CHAPTER 3: Resurgence in the Civil Rights Movement and After 56 CHAPTER 4: The Rise of the Religious Right in Cookbooks 78 CHAPTER 5: Commercialization of the South through Cookbooks 89 CONCLUSION 109 BIBLIOGRAPHY 111 APPENDIX 127 VITA 139 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Cover of Harriet Ross Colquitt, The Savannah Cook Book 128 Cover of Laura Thornton Knowles, Southern Recipes Tested by Myself 129 Cover of Natalie V Scott, Mandy’s Favorite Louisiana Recipes 130 Cover of Lillie S Lustig, S Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel, comps and eds., Southern Cookbook 131 Cover of Emma & William McKinney, Aunt Caroline’s Dixieland Recipes 132 Cover of Junior League of Montgomery, Southern Recipes 133 “The Turbaned Mistress of the Kentucky Kitchen,” Minnie C Fox, comp., The Blue Grass Cook Book 134 “Emma Jane Jackson Beauregard Jefferson Davis Lincoln Christian,” Blanche Elbert Moncure, Emma Jane’s Souvenir Cook Book 135 “Luncheon Suggestions,” Junior League of Montgomery, Southern Recipes .136 10 “Poultry and Game,” Junior League of Montgomery, Southern Recipes 136 11 “Three Boys Eating Watermelon,” Lillie S Lustig, S Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel, comps and eds., The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes .137 12 “Two Boys in Bed,” Lillie S Lustig, S Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel, comps and eds., The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes .137 13 “Confederate Slaw,” Sallie F Hill, ed., The Progressive Farmer’s Southern Cookbook .138 vii INTRODUCTION Historians of the South continually look for new and innovative ways to examine the region’s past in the period when it emerged reunited with the North after the Civil War, and its people reimagined the South’s image as a part of the United States Historians’ interest in the complicated legacy of the Lost Cause and the implications of a regional white supremacist doctrine have ignited several topics of inquiry on the matter, but few researchers have incorporated the intersection of foodways into their historical conversation The lack of this inclusion neglects the role that cookbooks played in the portrayal of the South after 1865, or how that image changed over the course of the twentieth century The title of this thesis came from a quote by Thomas Keller, who stated, “One of the problems with writing a cookbook is that recipes exist in the moment.”1 While Keller found that this could be a troublesome characteristic of cookbooks, cookbook authors and historians alike should note that a cookbook’s ability to provide a snapshot in time makes the work an invaluable primary source for scholarship The goal of this thesis is to interpret how cookbooks exemplified white supremacist views during the Jim Crow era, between 1890 and 1945, and during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s It aims to identify the ways that cookbooks exhibited Lost Cause ideology post-Civil War, with a resurgence from the 1960s to the 1980s Additionally, cookbooks reaffirmed a push toward family values with the influx of the Religious Right in the 1970s and 1980s as a response to national social movements, and, ultimately, Dave Welch, “Thomas Keller,” PowellsBooks.Blog, October 10, 2006 (accessed November 30, 2011), http://www.powells.com/blog/interviews/thomas-keller-by-dave/ 1 ——— Recipes from Old Virginia 1958 Reprint Richmond, VA: The Dietz Press, 1998 Watts, Edith Ballard Jesse’s Book of Creole and Deep South Recipes New York: The Viking Press, 1954 Weeden, Howard Bandanna Ballads New York: Doubleday & McClure Company, 1899 Weiner, Jon “Civil War, Cold War, Civil Rights.” In The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture, edited by Alice Fahs and Joan Waugh, 237-57 Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004 Weiss, Caroline D A Collection of Créole Récipés as used in New Orleans, prepared for use with herbs and seasonings of New Orleans, Kiskatom Farm, Mandeville, LA New Orleans: Peerless Printing Co., 1941 Welch, Dave “Thomas Keller.” PowellsBooks.Blog, October 10, 2006 http://www.powells.com/blog/interviews/thomas-keller-by-dave/ (accessed November 30, 2011) Wesson Oil & Snowdrift People, The The Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Cook Book: How to Win Compliments for Your Cooking New Orleans: The Wesson Oil & Snowdrift People, 1950 Westminster Presbyterian Church, Decatur, Alabama Westminster Centennial Cookbook Kearney, NE: Cookbooks by Morris Press, 1989 White, Earlene Treasured Recipes of Days Gone By N.P.: n.p., ca 1910 Wilcox, Estelle Woods The Dixie Cook-book Atlanta: L A Clarkson & Company, 1883 Google Books, http://books.google.com/books?id=DBYEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover# (accessed October 19, 2010) Williams, Daniel God’s Own Party Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010 Williams, James Short, Sweet, Southern N.P.: n.p., n.d Wilson, Charles Reagan Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920 Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1980 ———, ed The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Myth, Manners, and Memory Vol Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006 Winner, Lauren F “Reaganizing Religion: Changing Political and Cultural Norms Among Evangelicals in Ronald Reagan’s America.” In Living in the Eighties, edited by Gil Troy & Vincent J Cannato, 181-195 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009 125 Windham, Kathryn Turner Southern Cooking to Remember 1974 Reprint, Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1994 NetLibrary, http://research.flagler.edu:9012/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=108389 (accessed September 30, 2010) Woman’s Auxiliary, Grace Episcopal Church, St Francisville, La Recipes from Audubon’s Happy Land West Feliciana St Francisville, LA: The Auxiliary [self-published], ca 1940 Nadine Vorhoff Library, Newcomb College Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana Woman’s Exchange of Memphis, Tennessee, The Recipes collected by the Woman's Exchange of Memphis, Tennessee 1964 Reprint N.P.: Accurate Printing, Inc., 1992 Woman’s Society of Christian Service, Oxford-University Methodist Church Cook Book of Popular Recipes N.P.: n.p., 1944 Woman’s Society of Christian Service, Trinity Methodist Church, Greenville, Mississippi Treasured Recipes Kansas City, MO: North American Press of Kansas City, Inc., 1966 Women’s Auxiliary, Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Lake Village, Arkansas Treasury of Favorite Recipes N.P.: n.p., 1958 Nadine Vorhoff Library, Newcomb College Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana Women’s Club Leaders in Arkansas-Mississippi Favorite Recipes from along the Mississippi Montgomery, AL: Favorite Recipes Press, Inc., 1965 Women’s Society of Christian Service of the First Methodist Church of DeLand, The Cracker Crumbs N.P.: n.p., ca 1950-1960 Woodford County Homemakers, Versailles, Kentucky Best of the 20th Century Cookbook Versailles, KY: The Versailles Office Centre, 1999 Woodward, C Vann The Strange Career of Jim Crow Third edition Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 Wynette, Tammy The Tammy Wynette Southern Cookbook Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Co., 1990 126 APPENDIX 127 Cover of Harriet Ross Colquitt, The Savannah Cook Book (New York: J.J Little and Ives Company, 1933) 128 Cover of Laura Thornton Knowles, Southern Recipes Tested by Myself (New York: George H Doran Company, 1913) 129 Cover of Natalie V Scott, Mandy’s Favorite Louisiana Recipes (1922 Reprint, Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2010) 130 Cover of Lillie S Lustig, S Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel, comps and eds., The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes (Reading, PA: Culinary Arts Press, 1935) 131 Cover of Emma & William McKinney, Aunt Caroline’s Dixieland Recipes (Chicago: Laird & Lee, Inc., 1922) 132 Cover of Junior League of Montgomery, Southern Recipes (N.P.: n.p., ca 1910) 133 “The Turbaned Mistress of the Kentucky Kitchen,” Minnie C Fox, comp., The Blue Grass Cook Book (New York: Duffield & Co., 1911), opposite title page 134 “Emma Jane Jackson Beauregard Jefferson Davis Lincoln Christian,” Blanche Elbert Moncure, Emma Jane’s Souvenir Cook Book (N.P.: n.p., 1937), 135 Ruff 136 (left)“Luncheon Suggestions,” Junior League of Montgomery, Southern Recipes (N.P.: n.p., ca 1910), 53 10 (right) “Poultry and Game,” Junior League of Montgomery, Southern Recipes (N.P.: n.p., ca 1910), 75 136 11 “Three Boys Eating Watermelon,” Lillie S Lustig, S Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel, comps and eds., The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes (Reading, PA: Culinary Arts Press, 1935), 28 12 “Two Boys in Bed,” Lillie S Lustig, S Claire Sondheim, and Sarah Rensel, comps and eds., The Southern Cook Book of Fine Old Recipes (Reading, PA: Culinary Arts Press, 1935), 34 137 13 “Confederate Slaw,” Sallie F Hill, ed., The Progressive Farmer’s Southern Cookbook (New York: G.P Putnam’s Sons, 1961), 157 138 Ruff 139 VITA Kelsie Ruff was born in Ocala, Florida After graduating from Vanguard High School in Ocala in 2005, she attended the College of Central Florida and graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in 2008 In 2010, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from Flagler College in Saint Augustine, Florida In the fall of 2011, she entered the Graduate School at The University of Mississippi This thesis 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