LA CUISINE CREOLE

New York: Will H. Coleman, 1885. Very good.. First edition of the first published book on this culinary tradition, "an invaluable record of the history of Creole food, New Orleans, and Louisiana" (John T. Edge). Subtitled "a collection of culinary recipes from leading chefs and noted Creole housewives, who have made New Orleans famous for its cuisine," this book includes some of the earliest printed recipes for classics of the area's food, including jambalaya and gumbos, with characteristic ingredients like okra and crayfish. But even more, it was an important cultural document of the vibrantly heterogeneous culture: "In LA CUISINE CREOLE Hearn located food at the core of a people's culture. Its publication marked the beginning of a wave of nineteenth-century cookery books that preserved and popularized singular cuisines in their historical place" (Bruce Kraig). 7.25'' x 5.5''. Original olive-green pictorial cloth stamped in black and gilt with serving dish design and ornamental crab and lobster. Pink endpapers. Index at rear. [4], 268 pages. Small bookseller tickets on pastedowns; bookplate from the "Waldo Lincoln Collection of American Cookery-Books" presenting the book to the American Antiquarian Society but sold by AAS (with small stamp noting such on rear pastedown gutter), without any other library markings. Spine ends and hinges skillfully repaired, some edgewear to front fly leaf, else very nice with only a little rubbing and soiling.