By Robin Caldwell at Fresh and Fried Hard
Black family food history is important and nothing is more important than the foods you’ve cooked and eaten and loved.Last week, I suggested to a friend that she compile family recipes to give her kin a book for Christmas. Her reply was that the only family recipes she has are the ones she created. And then I bombarded her with questions:
What do you cook that is most requested by your family?
What do you like cooking for family and friends?
What’s your favorite dish to cook?
What’s going to happen to your recipes after you’re gone?
My friend is humble, she thinks her recipes can be found in any cookbook. Her recipes can’t be found in any cookbook. The recipes of the cookbook author are found in a cookbook. Yes, there are 50-11 cookbooks with potato salad and meatloaf recipes but they are all interpretations of standard recipes. My friend’s interpretations of recipes are as important as anyone else’s.
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More so.
Her recipes (and yours) are important to history, especially your family history.
June is National Soul Food Month, a great time to compile your recipes and the recipes of kin to create a family cookbook that can be passed on for generations. It is my belief that the most influential and important cooks are the ones who cooked for us and called themselves kin.
Forget those TikTok and Instagram folk, and don’t let your recipes become a hidden, forbidden, lost and stolen history in your own family.
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Dining and Cooking