Early Mexican American Recipes in English
The Landmarks Club Cook Book: A California Collection of the Choicest Recipes from Everywhere
Publication: Los Angeles: Out West Company, 1903. First Edition.
Notes: A community cookbook notable for its section devoted to Spanish-American cookery, one of the first such collections of recipes published in English.
The Landmarks Club worked to preserve historical sites in California, many of which dated back to the Spanish and Mexican eras in the state's history. The writer Charles Lummis, then president of the club, compiled "a number of the most famous and typical dishes of old-time California, New Mexico, Mexico, and Peru...most of them for the first time in English." He writes that "there is very little precise measuring done among these old-fashioned chefs—much depends on instinct and practice" and "even if the precise proportions could be given, they might be 'too rich' for a strange palate at first trial." He recommends that cooks "adjust proportions to personal taste."
Among the Peruvian dishes he offers recipes for are seafood chupe, sancochado, and ajiaco de papa. There are also recipes for various types of tamales, migas, a rabbit dish "fit for a king" and made with the udder of a cow (tripas de leche), quesadillas with "a thread through the edges so the cheese cannot fall out", enchiladas, chiles rellenos, frijoles boiled "slowly at least a day", and cajete (dulce) de leche, among many others. The Spanish-American section is 17 pages with a three-page introduction.
"Charles Lummis became one of the great proselytizers of Hispanic cookery"—Dan Strehl (ed.), Encarnación's Kitchen, p. 29.
[14 leaves of half-tone plates, including the exterior of the kitchen at the Mission San Juan Capistrano and a portrait , The Tortilla Maker], [4], [2 leaves of half-tone plates], vi, 261, [3:blank],[1: Blanks for your pet recipes], [14:blank] pages.
Edition + Condition: Old tidemark in lower margin, affecting most pages but little or no text. In a light blue cloth binding (also seen in green). Nicer than usually found.
Item No: #365932
Price: $3,500