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Preserving the unique heritage of Louisiana's cooking, dining, and restaurant traditions is part of the mission of Special Collections. Each Special Collections department preserves significant resources pertaining to our state's food heritage. For example, sheet music in the Jazz Archives records how music lyrics often referred to food and the way food references were used as metaphors in popular songs, while the architectural archives records restaurant renovations.
The most important sources for Louisiana food research are the Louisiana Collection and the Manuscripts Department. Below we list some of our more important culinary research resources by department.
The most important sources for Louisiana food research are the Louisiana Collection and the Manuscripts Department. Below we list some of our more important culinary research resources by department.
Special Collections
One of my favorite cookbooks is Christopher Blake's Easy Elegance (Chelsea House, 1978, ISBN: 0-87754-070-5). It turns up on Amazon. It's maddening to use (poor indexing, strange sequencing of recipes, seemingly obvious missing steps) but I find myself drawn to it regularly.
Part One, A Touch of New Orleans, is arranged as a half dozen cocktails, followed by appetizers, soups, po Boys, and entrees. That's followed by Holidays, with recipes for the Sugar Bowl, Battle of New Orleans, St Patrick's (Gaelic Steak) and St Joseph's days, Bastille Day (Tournedos Creole, etc), etc.
Restaurant specials follow, with Begues, Cafe Sbisa (I've made the duck with green pepper sauce several times), Messina's, Moran's, and a whole range of recipes from friends. Bayou she crab soup with basil and pine nuts, That's the first section.
The second section is more conventional in layout, with sections on soup, chicken, noodles, rice, shrimp, crab, etc. Not very conventional in content, though. The roast loin of pork sounds conventional enough. Not. The Holy Trinity makes an appearance, as does a half tablespoon of Tabasco, and 2 tablespoons of beurre manie. The pork is coated with a thick paste of flour, spices, and milk before it goes in the oven.
