Sometimes a title or ingredient can feel shocking, but put into context of the date the book was published, a new perspective is gained. Take “A Date with a Dish: A Cook Book of Negro Recipes” by Freda De Knight. The title stuns 21st century sensibilities as the word “Negro” is now considered offensive. But in 1948, when the book was published, “Negro” was an acceptable word.  De Knight was Food and Home Service Editor for Ebony Magazine and led the way in promoting a previously overlooked cuisine with her first edition of a book that is most entertaining and informative.  

“A Date with a Dish” was the first of its kind to contain recipes, menus and cooking hints from and by African Americans from all over America. She compiled this book years before the Civil Rights Amendment passed. Taken in its historical context, this simple volume of recipes and anecdotes is a remarkable achievement. A black woman published a cookbook of black recipes and received enough interest and critical acclaim to warrant a reprint three decades later.

She opens with, “There is magic in a cookbook,” and her recipes and introductions, touched by her lyrical wand, reveal family traditions, delectable personalities and a view into a time gone by.

De Knight traveled the country culling recipes from her friends and family as well as cooks she met along the way. Her goal was to honor and illuminate African American cooking beyond the stereotyped ingredients and recipes — and she succeeded.  

She brought the same amount of respect for starlet/singer Lena Horne’s recipe for East Indian Chicken as she did to Mrs. Cora Perrin’s recipe for Jellied Pineapple Salad. De Knight has “seen soup made from costly delicacies and it was scrumptious and seen soup made from leftovers by the poor and it was breathtakingly good. Whether it is served in a palace or a shack it is good for us. So let’s try it!”

The book is peppered with the stories of the cooks she met in her travels. She writes of the southern plantation cook, the high-end renowned Philadelphia caterer and the 100-year-old woman teaching canning techniques in the mid west. “A Date with a Dish” exposes the reader to recipes as esoteric as Lobster Newburg and as pedestrian as Scrapple; it is a book full of recipes, history and love. In her own words: “A cook book can teach you everything you need to know if you take the time to read it as you would your favorite story.”

Tidbit: A recent visit to the Indoor Plymouth Farmer’s Market yielded potatoes, carrots, bread, pea greens, chowder base and grass fed beef. Delish! The next Farmer’s Market will be Thursday, Feb. 18 from 3-6:30 p.m. at Plimoth Plantation.

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