There’s a magic in old, tattered, stained cookbooks that transports you back to another time and place, when certain recipes were made with love and relied upon by countless Southern cooks, when you would sit at your grandmother’s kitchen counter watching her make something made from mayo or jiggly gelatin.
How I Found My Inspiration
For many decades, Southern Living has published a yearly cookbook, a collection of recipes (reader-submitted and otherwise) characteristic of what home cooks were making that year—and I’ve never seen a vintage version out in the wild at a store. Sure, I’ve spotted the occasional collection of old Southern Living magazines at an antique stall, but when I spotted a trio of used 1980s Southern Living cookbooks stuffed onto the secondhand bric-a-brac shelf at an otherwise-posh home store, it felt something like fate.
I bought two of them, leaving the third to whoever fate decided. (Turns out, it was my sister who randomly came across it while shopping days later, and she gave it to me for Christmas.) As soon as I spotted the carefully written notes detailed in the margins and leftover grocery lists of the previous owner, I decided it was time to cook through Southern Living’s 1981 Annual Recipes Cookbook, which clearly was used belovedly by someone once before.
Making a Cookbook Goal for 2025
Kaitlyn Yarborough
I’m sure that I am not the only one whose cookbooks go far too long without proper usage. I either primarily use one cookbook, or rely upon online recipes for whatever I’m craving. It feels like a waste, to be sure, and a bit of guilt brews when I think of my grandmothers, who have loved their tried-and-true cookbooks to tatters. Therefore, mayo and gelatin be darned, I’m trying one recipe from Southern Living’s 1981 Annual Recipes Cookbook per month to see what everyone was cooking up almost four decades ago.
While I’m resolved to try at least one new recipe each month of 2025 and focusing on one particular cookbook—a funky 1980s masterpiece—for those who want to make their own cookbook goal, it could just as easily focus on recipes from each of your cookbooks. Try a new recipe from a different cookbook each month, or simply cook your way through just one cookbook if you feel passionate about it.
1981 Southern Living Annual Recipes Cookbook
Kaitlyn Yarborough
Recipes and Tips To Remember
Inside the cover page, I find the words scrawled: “cole slaw, page 217.” When I flip open the book, it falls easily to that page, as if the past owner frequented it often.
The cookbook is organized, quite helpfully, by month, with menus listed out for various seasonal dinners and occasions, mostly sourced from passionate readers that love to host and have their own recipes and hosting tips to share. I find menus designed for berry-filled, no-bake summer picnics and cozy Tex-Mex fall dinners, amongst countless others.
Kaitlyn Yarborough
“Teas, showers, and receptions seem to become the rule in spring rather than the exception. For these, a rather distinctive type of party food is called for—a light, refreshing punch, pretty finger sandwiches, dainty mints, and tiny cakes,” reads the May section. I dog-ear the page to come back to the Pecan-Cheese Wafers recipe.
My first recipe to try was for Meltaway Butter Cookies that was accented with a grocery list tucked into the page from the previous owner, which I took as a good sign. They were simple, delicious, and gone from the kitchen quickly. Other recipes I’ve flagged include Old-Fashioned Dumplings, Chuckwagon Beans, Sweet Potato Surprise, and Nutmeg Feather Cake. A few others, such Lemon Baked Ribs and Sweet-and-Sour Beets, I make a mental note to avoid—respectfully.
All in all, it is both a bit funny and wholly comforting to see these recipes passed down from countless Southern cooks just like so many I know. To cook them feels like a way to offer a small gesture of appreciation.