Addy, An American Girl

Addy’s Cook Book by Rebecca Sample Bernstein, Terri Braun, Tamara England, and Jodi Evert, 1994.

This cook book is one of the activity books that was written to accompany the Addy series that is part of the American Girls franchise. The American Girls books were written to help teach American history (as well as sell the accompanying dolls and accessories), so this book has recipes of the type that people would have eaten during the American Civil War, when the character of Addy lived, and some historical information.

The book begins with sections of historical information about African Americans, kitchens, and table settings in the 1860s. It describes the lives of slaves and explains how they were given basic rations of food which they could supplement and extend by producing or gathering some food of their own, such as vegetables they grew or fish they caught themselves. When they managed to escape from slavery, they had to depend on help from others, such as churches or abolitionists, until they became established in their new lives. When they were able, many of them provided help to others who were in the same position. (This was a topic covered in the Addy books.)

The types of kitchens they used depended on where they were living. As slaves, Civil War era African Americans would do their cooking in small fireplaces attached to the small cabins where they lived. Because they needed the fire for cooking, they kept it burning all the time, even in hot weather. Free African Americans had more options. Depending on their living arrangements, they might have a stove for their cooking, or if they lived in a boarding house, they might be provided with meals as part of their boarding, paid for along with the rent on their rooms.

The recipes in the book are divided into three sections: breakfast, dinner, and favorite foods. There is a section with some general cooking tips, but there are other cooking tips and pieces of historical information included along with the recipes. Some information that I found particularly useful explains why some historical recipes can be confusing to read. Because some people were using cooking fires and some were using stoves, 19th century recipes can have vague-sounding instructions like “fry until golden brown” instead of specific cooking times and temperatures. It was also common for people to cook favorite dishes from memory instead of following written recipes. People learned to cook from their elders, and they just continued doing what parents and grandparents always did when they cooked. The book doesn’t mention it, but this style of cooking also continued into the 20th century, so even when people wrote down recipes, they might seem vague or incomplete to modern readers. It was like that with recipes that my grandmother and great-grandmother wrote down, too. They were accustomed to making certain recipes mostly from memory, and they didn’t feel obligated to write down every little step, assuming that anyone who read it would already know how to make that kind of dish and would just need a few reminders about amounts. Fortunately, the recipes in this book are all written with detailed, modern instructions and include cooking times and oven temperatures.

The book explains that poor people during the Civil War didn’t usually have much for breakfast because they had to rise early and get to work. Most mornings, they might have some leftovers from the previous night or some simple hot foods, like buttermilk biscuits and hominy grits, a traditional Southern breakfast food made from corn (my grandmother said that she had it when she was growing up on a farm in Indiana, too). As a special treat, they might have scrambled eggs or sausage and gravy.

The dinner section includes main dishes, like fried fish, and side dishes, like hush puppies. A particular recipe that gets extra attention is Hoppin’ John, a rice dish with black-eyed peas and bacon. Hoppin’ John is special because it’s a dish traditionally served at New Year’s Day.

The section of favorite foods include chicken shortcake, a few other side dishes, and a few special treats, including peach cobbler and shortbread. I’ve tried the shortbread recipe, and I like it. It’s easy to make and includes only a few ingredients, and it’s really good. It does contain a lot of butter, so it’s just an occasional treat.

The book ends with a section of advice for planning an Emancipation party. It explains how people celebrated when the Emancipation Proclamation was read publicly on December 31, 1862, having been transmitted to communities by telegraph. Children played games like Novel Writers (which is a story-writing game similar to Consequences) and Blindman’s Buff. The book also describes the origins of Juneteenth – slaves in Texas were freed on June 19th, 1865, about two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.