The Charm of New Mexican Cooking

Every state has foods that define it. New York  has apple pie and turnovers, a nod to the many orchards  upstate . The cuisine of Georgia has grits and peaches. Then there's New Mexico with its' variety of corn - masa- jalapenos and chiles. An eight-eight year old cookbook is making a comeback with time tested recipes that highlight the area.

Historic Cookery: Authentic New Mexican Food (Gibbs Smith Publishing, reprinted 2019) was written in 1932 by Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert. Ms. Gilbert would still be known if she had never created  the cookbook. She was daring and headstrong from a culture that raised women to be meek housewives and a country that dismissed her because of her heritage and her sex.Ms. Gilbert was born in 1894 to a prominent and centuries old New Mexican  family with strong ties to Spain.As with other strong minded women of her generation, she persisted. She started off in education and then delved into spreading the New Mexican culture to the mostly Anglo American population of the time.. The cookbook is a compilation of basic New Mexican dishes which for the first time were written down with measurements.A second printing in 1959 updated the recipes and a copy was sent to every governor in the union. It was the brainchild of  Thomas J .Mabry, a New Mexican senator  alsowho sent a bag of pinto beans with every cookbook. This reintroduced America to chile, making it one of the country's top dishes.

I like this book. It's a tiny one, without the pretense of modern cookbooks riddled with the author's history and chatty stories about the recipes.The writing is vintage, reminiscent of our mothers' and grandmothers' cookbooks.There are only eight small sections with the back offering luncheon and dinner menus - again a harking back to a more elegant time.Many of the recipes can easily be made today however be warned about the baking. Years ago ovens didn't have temperature regulators. Baking recipes have the the instructions as "bake in a moderate oven". (figure 350 -375 degrees Farenheit - I'd go with 350 just to be on the safe side). Another aspect is that New Mexican cooking uses a snout to tail philosophy with recipes for tripe ,menudo , homemade blood pudding - morcilla and kidneys -rinones. There are other meat recipes such as stuffed fowl (which could be chicken, turkey or even pheasant) stuffed with a mix of beef, raisins , pinon nuts and dark chocolate). Of course there are quesadillas recipes along with homemade tacos and tortillas,Beans are big in the diet and there are many, with variations involving chickpeas. I love the hot chocolate recipe along with the one for emmeladas, fried cakes in syrup. The book ends with a curious chapter on gruel, made with water and cornmeal. It's a thick soup made for young children the elderly and the sick, good for those who can't handle solids.

Historic Cookery - Authentic New Mexican Food is a timeless classic that fits in perfectly with today's recipes and tastes. It brings the first fusion cooking of  Spanish and indigenous into the public eye. Classic dishes, like classic styles and cars never goes out of fashion.