Texas Classics
First Presbyterian Church (Houston, Tex.) Ladies' Association
The Texas Cook Book
Houston: The Association, 1883
The Texas Cook Book is considered the first cookbook printed in Texas. Our copy was inscribed as “Mrs. William Hunter’s cook book” and featured numerous newspaper clippings glued in among the pages. The book contains a number of health recipes and home management tips found in other cookbooks of the time. More than half the food recipes included are for desserts, and included are a number of recipes for berry wine and cordials.
TX715.T3632
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (Waco, Tx.)
Household Manual and Practical Cook Book
Waco, Tex.: Brooks & Wallace Steam Print, 1888
One of the oldest Texas cookbooks, this collection stands out for its collection of Mexican dishes. Other cookbooks inside and outside of Texas from the period feature recipes for chili con carne, Mexican rice, and tamales, but this cookbook goes a step further with lomo michado, capirotada, albondigas, and more.
TX715.S15593 1888
United Daughters of the Confederacy. Texas Division. Albert Sidney Johnston Chapter, Austin.
The Capitol Cook Book
Austin: Von Boeckmann, Schutze & Co., printers, 1899
Few copies exist of the first edition of The Capitol Cook Book, which includes family recipes as well as numerous advertisements for Austin businesses operating at the turn of the century.
Click to cover to read to book
TX715 .M9 1899
Dallas Free Kindergarten and Training School
The Lone Star Cook Book
Dallas: Samuel Jones Co., Printers, 1901
Believed to be the first Dallas cookbook. Pages at the end include some handwritten recipes.
Part of the George W. Cook Collection. Gift, 2014.
TX715.D173 1901
Eiband & Fischer's Kochbuch: Bestehend aus Rezepten
Neu-Braunfels: Eiband & Fischer, c. 1910z
New Braunfels was a destination for many German immigrants to Texas in the 19th century, with a population in 1850 that ranked it as the fourth-largest city in Texas.
Click to cover to read to book
TX721.E53 1910z
Junior League of Dallas
The Junior League of Dallas (Incorporated) Cook Book
Dallas; R.C. Dyer, 1930
Recipes for eggs stuffed with pate de fois gras and eggs stuffed with caviar suggest the audience for this cookbook was not feeling the impact of the Great Depression.
TX715.J973 1930
Jane Trahey (1923-2000)
A Taste of Texas
New York: Random House, 1949
This book of recipes was compiled for Neiman Marcus by Marihelen McDuff, and edited by Jane Trahey. Jane Trahey was a pioneer of advertising in the 1960s, mostly for beauty and fashion companies in New York City. But her first major job was with Neiman-Marcus, where she worked as a copywriter beginning in 1947, before rising to the position of director of advertising and sales. She was with Neiman-Marcus for nine years, before leaving to establish her own advertising agency.
TX715.T766
Arthur and Bobbie Coleman
The Texas Cookbook
New York, A. A. Wyn, 1949
One of the first Texas cookbooks published for the national market. It’s been criticized by contemporary writers for being inauthentic and over the top—inside you’ll find recipes for barbecued armadillo and stewed rattlesnake, and red and pinto beans used interchangeably.
TX715.C69
Helen Corbitt (1906-1978)
Helen Corbitt’s Cook-Book
Cambridge: Riverside Press; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957
In 1999, Texas Monthly named Helen Corbitt “tastemaker of the century” for her forty years spent elevating Texas cuisine and sharing her secrets of hospitality. Born in New York, she moved to Austin in 1931 to teach at the University of Texas. She managed tea rooms at fine hotels in Austin and Houston, before Stanley Marcus’ eight-year campaign to hire her succeeded, and she joined Neiman-Marcus as Director of Food Services in 1955. In 1957 the Chicago Tribune called her “the Balenciaga of food and the best cook in Texas.” More than forty years after her death, Corbitt is still shaping food culture—in the summer of 2022, her black bean, corn, and black-eyed peas dip, cowboy caviar, went viral across social media.
TX715.C799 1957
Linda West Eckhardt (b. 1939)
The Only Texas Cookbook
New York: Bantam Books, 1986
Linda West Eckhardt is a cookbook author and James Beard Award winner, who was the first food editor of Texas Monthly.
TX715.O534 1986