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Charleston Receipts Classic Junior League Cookbook
Charleston Receipts was first published in 1950 and is the oldest Junior League cookbook still in print. It contains 750 recipes, Gullah verses, and sketches by Charleston artists. This classic cookbook is a must-have for any collector! Inducted into the McIlhenny Hall of Fame, an award given for book sales that exceed 100,000 copies.
- GenresCookbooks
373 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 21, 2024
This year I am setting myself a project of cooking my way through Charleston Receipts, a family treasure. My mother and grandmother used the cookbook, the first ever Junior League cookbook, thus I am well acquainted with some of the recipes - Macaroni Pie, James Island Shrimp Pie, the 18 pound fruitcake we made at Christmas, red rice (8 Tbs of bacon grease!) and shrimp paste being greatly cherished recipes, though I’m always tweaking them. Then there are the recipes I forgot about including a cucumber salad which is noted as being “popular with the movie colony” in Hollywood. Glory of glories - the Lady Baltimore Cake which is the labor of love I exacted from my mother for birthdays. It’s a daunting recipe calling for heaps of fresh figs. Another special occasion recipe is the oyster stew Mama made for Christmas Eve dinner before midnight service. I see it now, all milky white, succulent oysters bobbing about in her lovely Rosenthal china.
The book also has some recipes I’ll never try - calf’s head soup. No thank, you. Anything with green peppers, unless I can find a substitute. They make me very ill. The section on venison is probably not happening unless the meat locker carries it. Or, the roasted possum. Or tongue.
I have two editions of the book, my mother’s elderly copy which is falling apart and a newer edition give to me by my Great Aunt Ran Royall. I began my journey by flipping through my mother’s copy, she gave it to me when she got a new copy. This was very amusing since she marked some of the recipes she used. A potato dish is marked as “terrible.” A gelatin salad with ginger ale, lemon jello, pecans and tinned fruit cocktail is “poor.” With that combination of ingredients I’m not sure how she could have expected it to be anything else. She made it in 1970. I don’t remember so I’m wondering if she made it for an Officers’ Wives luncheon. Another recipe made for battalion party was downgraded from “ok” to “fair.” The macaroni pie recipe has been marked up by my father, my mother and me as we each tried to capture the sharpness that my great grandmother Gam’s had. I have marked up the Shrimp Pie starting as a teenager in the 70s. I transcribed them to my newer copy. Next I read every single recipe, noting the ones I wanted to make, transcribing the notes from the other, and writing my memories of some.
Now to get cooking. I don’t know to whom I’m going to feed all this food. There’s only two of us and J isn’t here for dinner. I’m sure my best friend will be called on.
The book also has some recipes I’ll never try - calf’s head soup. No thank, you. Anything with green peppers, unless I can find a substitute. They make me very ill. The section on venison is probably not happening unless the meat locker carries it. Or, the roasted possum. Or tongue.
I have two editions of the book, my mother’s elderly copy which is falling apart and a newer edition give to me by my Great Aunt Ran Royall. I began my journey by flipping through my mother’s copy, she gave it to me when she got a new copy. This was very amusing since she marked some of the recipes she used. A potato dish is marked as “terrible.” A gelatin salad with ginger ale, lemon jello, pecans and tinned fruit cocktail is “poor.” With that combination of ingredients I’m not sure how she could have expected it to be anything else. She made it in 1970. I don’t remember so I’m wondering if she made it for an Officers’ Wives luncheon. Another recipe made for battalion party was downgraded from “ok” to “fair.” The macaroni pie recipe has been marked up by my father, my mother and me as we each tried to capture the sharpness that my great grandmother Gam’s had. I have marked up the Shrimp Pie starting as a teenager in the 70s. I transcribed them to my newer copy. Next I read every single recipe, noting the ones I wanted to make, transcribing the notes from the other, and writing my memories of some.
Now to get cooking. I don’t know to whom I’m going to feed all this food. There’s only two of us and J isn’t here for dinner. I’m sure my best friend will be called on.
October 5, 2023
Rereading this brought back childhood memories, smells, tastes, and sights.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews