Compiled by Gerald Patout, former Head Librarian

Williams Research Center, The Historic New Orleans Collection

 

Overview

Morris-Knower, Jim. “Cookery Academia: Culinary collections in libraries grow up, and out.” College and Research Libraries News 65, no. 4 (April 2004): 195–197, 201.

[Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme.] Physiologie du goût, ou Méditations de gastronomie transcendante; ouvrage théorique, historique, et à l'ordre du jour, dédié aux gastronomes parisiens par un professeur. Paris, Charpentier, 1844. (first edition, 1826, Paris)

———. The Physiology of Taste; or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy. New York: Knopf, 1949, 1971. (translation of original work)

Griswold, Frank Gray. The Gourmet. New York: Duttons, 1933. (NOTE: definition of creole cooking and explanation of “gourmet” and “gourmand.”)

Bibliographies

Brown, Eleanor, and Bob Brown. Culinary Americana: Cookbooks Published in the Cities and Towns of the United States of American During the Years from 1860 through 1960. Staten Island, NY: Maurizio Martino, 1961, 1990.

Uhler, John, and Glenna Uhler. The Rochester Clarke Bibliography of Louisiana Cookery. Plaquemine, LA: Iberville Parish Library, 1966.

Jumonville, Florence M. Bibliography of New Orleans Imprints, 1764–1864. New Orleans: Historic New Orleans Collection, 1989.

Vicaire, Georges. Bibliographie gastronomique. London: Holland Press, 1978, 1890.

Bitting, K. G. Gastronomic Bibliography. San Francisco, 1939.

Longone, Janice Bluestein, and Daniel T. Longone. American Cookbooks and Wine Books, 1797–1950. Ann Arbor, MI: William Clements Library, 1984.

Dissertations and Theses

Fontenot, Sharon M. “Food Customs in a Louisiana French Parish.” Master’s thesis, Louisiana State University, 1980.

Gutierrez, C. Paige. “Foodways and Cajun Identity.” PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1983.

Wicker, Karen M. “The Development of the Louisiana Oyster Industry in the Nineteenth Century.” PhD diss., Louisiana State University, 1979.

Reed, Mary Barton. “Louisiana Cookery: Its History and Development.” Master’s thesis, Louisiana State University, 1931. (Photocopy from W.P.A. files)

Fournet, Estelle. “A Comparison of Food Habits in Non-French and French Louisiana.” Master’s thesis, Louisiana State University, 1939.

Kaltwasser, Jennifer L. “The Cookbook as an Indicator of Social History: New Orleans, Louisiana, c. 1960–1970.”  Honors thesis, Newcomb College, Tulane University, 1998.

Subject-Specific Books: Louisiana History & Social Customs

French, B. F. Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida: Including Translations of Original Manuscripts Relating to Their Discovery and Settlement, with Numerous Historical and Biographical Notes. New York: J. Sabin and Sons, 1869. (Pages 49–50: 1699 account of Iberville's encounter with Native Americans and their reception, foods, and cooking; includes picture of commodities.)

Coleman, William H. Historical Sketch Book and Guide to New Orleans and Environs with Map. New York: W. H. Coleman, 1885.

Federal Writers' Project (New Orleans). New Orleans City Guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1938.

Huber, Leonard. Creole Collage: Reflections on the Colorful Customs of Latter-Day New Orleans Creole. Lafayette: Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1980. (Pages 39–41: Creole cuisine, seasoning of food, coffee)

Arthur, Stanley Clisby. Old New Orleans: A History of the Vieux Carré, Its Ancient and Historical Buildings. New Orleans: Harmanson, 1936.

Ripley, Eliza. Social Life in Old New Orleans: Being Recollections of My Girlhood. New York: D. Appleton, 1912.

Robinson, Lura. It's an Old New Orleans Custom. New York: Vanguard, 1948.

Dufour, Charles L., and Samuel Wilson, Jr. Women Who Cared: 100 Years of the Christian Woman's Exchange. New Orleans: The Exchange, 1980. (NOTE: History of Christian Women's Exchange, institution that published The Creole Cookery in 1885.)

Churchill, Francis Gorton. Pen Drawings of Old New Orleans. New Orleans: Robert H. True, 1916.

Laussat, Pierre-Clément de. Memoirs of My Life to My Son during the Years 1803 and after, Which I Spent in Public Service in Louisiana as Commissioner of the French Government for the Retrocession to France of That Colony and for Its Transfer to the United States. Baton Rouge: published for The Historic New Orleans Collection by the Louisiana State University Press. (NOTE: references to food and cooking: 63, 67–70, 73, 81, 86. Louisiana Purchase gala celebration: twenty-four gumbos served, buffet with Bavarian sweets, tea, coffee, chocolate, and consommés.)

Specific Cookbooks

Friedel, Louise-Béate Augustine. La Petit cuisinière habile, ou, l'art d'apprêter les aliments avec délicatesse et économie, écrit sous la dictée de Mlle. Nouvelle-Orléans, 1840.

Le Trésor des ménages: recueil des expériences intéressantes et utiles, relatives à l'économie rurale et domestique, au jardinage, à la destruction des insectes et animaux nuisibles; à la basse-cour, à l'entretien des meubles et du linge, etc., et en général à tous les objets qui peuvent contribuer aux avantages et aux agréments de la vie à la ville et à la campagne. Nouvelle- Orléans, 1840. (NOTE: uncatalogued 1828 edition published in France in the holdings of THNOC.)

Verstille, E. J. Mrs. Verstille's Southern Cookery: Comprising a Fine Collection of Cooking and Other Receipts Valuable to Mothers and House-Keepers. New York: Owens and Agar, 1866, 1867. (in Special Collections, LSU)

Hearn, Lafcadio. La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes from Leading Chefs and Noted Creole Housewives, Who Have Made New Orleans Famous for Its Cuisine. New York: W. H. Coleman, 1885.

Christian Woman's Exchange. The Creole Cookery. New Orleans, T. H. Thomason, 1885.

Washington, Mrs. [pseud.]. The Unrivalled Cook-Book and Housekeeper's Guide.  New York: Harper and Brothers, 1886.

Schmit, Patricia Brady. Nelly Custis Lewis's Housekeeping Book. New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1982.

Magnolia Mound Plantation House. The Magnolia Mound Plantation Kitchen Book: Being a Compendium of Foodways and Customs of Early Louisiana, 1795–1841, Interspersed with Anecdotes, Incidents and Observations. Baton Rouge: Magnolia Mound Plantation House, 1986.

Land, Mary. Louisiana Cookery. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954.

Ursuline Academy Alumnae Association. Recipes and Reminiscences of New Orleans. New Orleans: Franklin Printing Company, 1971.

Harris, Gladiola B. Old Trace Cooking. Oakland, MS: G. B. Harris, Riverside Press, 1981.

Stanforth, Deidre. The New Orleans Restaurant Cookbook. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967. (NOTE: Preface and introduction useful)

Journals and Serials

Louisiana Cookin’. New Orleans: Kriedt Enterprises, 1997–, bimonthly, ISSN 1096 – 4134.

Louisiana Conservationist. New Orleans: Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department. Sept. 1948–, bimonthly; ISSN 0024-6778.

Bultman, Bethany E. "Louisiana's Unique Culinary Palette." Louisiana Cultural Vistas 15, no. 1 (Spring 2004). Quarterly, 1994–, ISSN 1082-4553.

Bultman, Bethany E. "A True and Delectable History of Creole Cooking." American Heritage 38 (December 1986): 66–73.

Ravensway, Charles Van. "The Creole Arts and Crafts of Upper Louisiana." Bulletin of the Missouri Historical Society 12, no. 3 (April 1956): 211–248. (Footnote #21: Inventory of the Estate of Sieur Jean Baptiste Prevost)

Brady, Patricia. "Literary Ladies of New Orleans in the Gilded Age." Louisiana History 33, no. 2 (Spring 1992): 147–156. (Page 155: Mollie Moore Davis's weekly salon; Cable, Hearn, Woodward Brothers; “refreshment rooms filled with food.”)

Price, Edith Dart. "Inventory of the Estate of Sieur Jean Baptiste Prevost, Deceased Agent of the Company of the Indies, June 13, 1769." Louisiana Historical Quarterly 9: 445–498. (Page 433: earliest cookbook on inventory)

Yost, Genevieve. "The Compleat Housewife or Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion: A Bibliographical Study." William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine, 2nd ser., 18, no. 4 (October, 1938): 419–435. (NOTE: Page 434: Smith's Compleat Housewife may be traced from the library of Daniel Parke Custis to that of his son John Parke Custis; family related to THNOC publication, Nelly Custis Lewis's Housekeeping Book (1982) and MSS 102 - Butler Family Papers at THNOC.)

Newspaper Articles and Publications

Various advertisements: garden seeds, Madeira Wine, Burton Ale, Fresh Preserves & Spanish Olives, Coffeehouses & Entertainment. Louisiana Advertiser, October 12, 1832, 1.

"The Latest Boston Notion." The Daily Southern Star, February1, 1866, 8, col. 1.

"Cooking School." The Daily Picayune, January 18, 1893, 3, col. 2.

Advertisement: The Creole Cookery Book, The Daily Picayune, June 3, 1885.

"The Cooking School." The Daily Picayune, March 3, 1893, 3, col. 4.

The Picayune's Creole Cook Book. New Orleans: The Picayune, 1901. (numerous editions)

"Creole Cookery, a Book Which Reveals the Secrets of the Louisiana Kitchen." Times Picayune, April 15, 1900, 6.