Second(?) Mexican American Cookbook
Mexican Cooking: The Flavor of the 20th Century, That Real Mexican Tang
Publication: San Antonio, TX: Gebhardt Chili Powder Co., 1911. First Edition.
Notes: The likely first edition of the second, Mexican American cookbook, which was issued by William Gebhardt, one of the leading manufacturers of chili powder and related products in the first half of the 20th century. This dated edition appears to preced the digitized version and the 2005 reprint of what is called the first printing.
According to the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) Handbook (online), "Gebhardt initially sold his powder in Texas, but his success with his product allowed him to take credit as the first entrepreneur to market his chili powder on a large scale. Gebhardt Chili Powder Company published a cookbook, Mexican Cooking, in 1908 in an effort to introduce and educate the American public on Mexican food. It was one of the first cookbooks to focus on Mexican-American cooking and spurred several later editions."
This thin pamphlet includes more than 100 recipes, including instructions for making classic Mexican dishes like corn tortillas, menudo, asado de chile colorado, tamales, tortilla soup, enchiladas, and chiles rellenos. The recipes are titled in Spanish and English and written in English.
Truth in Bibliography Disclosure: The source of TSHA's 1908 date for this book is unclear. No copies of a 1908 edition are recorded in OCLC. Your cataloguer has handled an undated version that is very similar to this edition. That undated copy now appears to be the second edition. A stated third edition was issued in 1922. The present copy is likely to be the first edition, copyrighted 1911 on the inside front cover, below an ad for Eagle Chili Powder. The back cover of the present copy is blank with an image of a can of Chili Con Carne on the inside rear cover. The centerfold leaf is printed in color but differs from the likely second edition in that it does not have ads. Instead, it has a "lonche" menu followed by a two-page spread of food images, and concluding with a "Comida Mexicana" dinner menu. Pages 42 and 43 are left mostly blank for "memoranda"; the final leaf is titled "contents" (changed to "index" in the second edition). In the second edition, page 42 reprints both the menus (keeping the typo "tortillad" from this edition), page 43 is the index, and page 44 has four recipes not included in this likely first edition. The pagination of both this and the second edition do not include the four-page color centerfold sheet.
8-1/4 by 3-5/8 inches (tall and narrow). 44 pages plus a color centerfold bifolium. Color covers.
OCLC (main entry): 47264528, describing the book as it was once believed to be, as "The first-ever compendium of Mexican American cooking," a distinction probably held by El cocinero español (1898). Mexican Cooking might be the first Tex-Mex cookbook. A 1905 Los Angeles cookbook includes a chapter on Mexican food.
Edition + Condition: Likely first edition. A very good copy, lightly chipped along the bottom edge of the front cover, with a short split to the wrappers at the base of the spine. Uncommon.
Item No: #365234
Price: $850