Rouses_May-June-2018

the Eat Local issue

T he most famous mention of a Lane cake is in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird . The Finch’s neighbor, Miss Maudie Atkinson, keeps her recipe closely guarded, though clearly bourbon — or shinny, as Scout calls it — tops the ingredient list, “Miss Maudie made a Lane cake so full of shinny it made me tight,” she says in Chapter 13. ​

And 19 th -century cookbook writing was not confined to just white women. In 1881, Abby Fisher authored the oldest- known cookbook written by a former American slave. Fisher was born in South Carolina, likely in 1832, and likely of a union between a slave and her owner. She grew up in plantation kitchens, where she learned to cook, and eventually moved to Alabama. In 1870, Fisher was married with 10 children and working as a cook in Mobile. Sometime in the next decade, the Fisher family relocated to San Francisco, where Abby Fisher began a pickling and preserves business and worked as a caterer for the wealthy. Fisher flourished in San Francisco, winning medals for her pickles,preserves and sauces at state fairs in San Francisco and Sacramento. She was often asked to compile her recipes in a cookbook, and though unable to read or write, she acquiesced, dictating her recipes to several prominent white patrons. In the preface to What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking , Fisher states that the book is “based on an experience of upwards of thirty-five years” and is intended to be “a complete instructor, so that a child can understand it and learn the art of cooking.” As it turned out, cookbooks were only the beginning of a movement of women determined to help each other, families and eventually all of society. During the Progressive Era (1890-1920), as women churned out cookbooks in record numbers, they also stepped into the public sphere in new ways. Technological advances, public education and social trends allowed women to be far more active outside the home than before, resulting in a proliferation of women’s organizations. Though art and literary clubs were founded first, women soon moved beyond goals of self- improvement to societal improvement. As American cookbook expert Jan Longone noted in a lecture she gave at the University

of Michigan in Ann Arbor, women “started with helping themselves and each other and moved into helping all of society.” InAlabama,theAlabamaWomen’sChristian Temperance Union, founded in 1884, addressed a range of social issues including alcoholism, women’s education, poverty, child labor, prison reform, and homes for abandoned women and children. In 1895, the literary clubs of major Alabama cities merged to form the Alabama Federation of Women’s Clubs. The initial 130 members soon shifted the Federation’s focus to civic

affairs, tackling a wide variety of issues including illiteracy, public education reform, juvenile delinquency and treatment of juvenile offenders. As Mary MarthaThomas described in her book, The New Woman in Alabama: Social Reforms and Suffrage, 1890- 1920 , it would eventually become the largest women’s organization in Alabama, and would lay the groundwork for the Alabama women’s suffrage movement. This work is an excerpt from Blejwas’ book on Alabama food history, forthcoming from the University of Alabama Press.

New Orleans Doberge Doberge, pronounced “doh-bash,” “doh-badge” or “doh-baj,” is a variation on Hungary’s Dobos Torta. Invented by Beula Levy Ledner, the “Doberge Queen of New Orleans,” who came from a baking family in Germany, this delicious combination of rich vanilla butter cake and creamy custard is topped with ganache, a smooth blend of chocolate (or lemon or caramel) and cream. Get the recipe at www.rouses.com. [Photo by Romney Caruso]

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MY ROUSES EVERYDAY MAY | JUNE 2018