At the turn of the last century, community cookbooks were typically self-published by groups or organizations, often for fundraising purposes and featured recipes from homecooks. Historically, the cookbooks were distributed across the country by local women's groups and strongly connected to place.
In 2022, as part of its "Something in Common" exhibition, the Central Library in Downtown LA put up a display of 99 cookbooks. From radiologists and rock collectors to zoo docents and Air Force wives, all of these books were written by groups of ordinary people. To artist, curator, and writer Suzanne Joskow, they are a sociological treasure trove. She has been collecting these self-published efforts in her online Community Cookbook Archive: LA.
Fashion Foods in Beverly Hills is one of the community cookbooks from Los Angeles County in Suzanne Joskow's collection. Photo by Suzanne Joskow.
Joskow explains that the heyday for community cookbooks is linked to the history of publishing. "Los Angeles was somewhat late to the publishing industry, even for the West Coast it was behind San Francisco," she says. "Book publishing didn't take off here until the 1880s, and almost immediately there was a community cookbook published."
Immigrant and ethnic groups, and even Native recipes taken from oral tradition, are represented in this collection. "From the turn of the last century, you see real evidence in these cookbooks of the wide range of Los Angeles," Joskow says.
A recipe for cheese straws appears in "The Federation Cookbook," published in Pasadena. Photo by Suzanne Joskow.
Early pages of Los Angeles' community cookbooks have recipes for preserving citrus because of their abundance in Southern California, and an anticipation that the reader will have access to specific varietals and imported ingredients.
Condensed soup was introduced by Campbell's in the 1920s and marketed with a tomato soup cake recipe, later found in a community cookbook. Photo by Suzanne Joskow.