Scarce New Mexican Cookbook
Historic Cookery from the Land of "Poco Tiempo"
Publication: (N.-pl. but Las Cruces, NM): New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Agricultural Extension Service, 1939. First edition.
Notes: This is the correct first edition of this popular introduction to New Mexican foods, written by one of the leading proponents of Mexican American culture of the time. Cabeza de Baca Gilbert's book "We Fed Them Cactus" is an important part of the Chicana literary canon.
This cookbook, with cultural notes throughout, was first published in this anonymous edition, as Extension Circular No. 161 in May 1939. This is a very scarce, even rare, cookbook that has basically been in print continuously since its first publication.
This is an early New Mexican cookbook and is widely cited as the first book to describe the modern U-shaped hard-shell taco. There are many earlier taco recipes, but they don't match what we think of as a taco. For example, the 1914 California Mexican-Spanish Cook Book describes a taco that is stuffed, sealed and deep-fried. Other cookbooks describe rolled tacos. This book describes a fried tortilla folded in half with beef, potato, onion, and lettuce filling.
Other recipes in this book include carne adobada, estofado, chiles rellenos, tamales, pozole, and various desserts.
18, [2:blank] pages. Self-wrappers.
Edition + Condition: First edition, first printing (dated May 1939 at the top of the front cover). Very good in stapled self wrappers, with minor staining to the front cover.
Item No: #12842
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