Good Things To Eat, As Suggested By Rufus is a cookbook written by Rufus Estes and first published in 1911. The book contains a collection of practical recipes for preparing a wide variety of dishes, including meats, game, fowl, fish, puddings, pastries, and more. The recipes are presented in a clear and easy-to-follow manner, making them accessible to cooks of all levels of experience. Many of the recipes are accompanied by helpful tips and suggestions for variations, allowing readers to customize the dishes to their own tastes. The book also includes a brief introduction by the author, in which he shares some of his own culinary experiences and philosophies. Overall, Good Things To Eat, As Suggested By Rufus is a valuable resource for anyone interested in cooking and exploring new flavors and techniques.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
First printed in 1911, Rufus Estes's
Good Things to Eat is the work of a former slave and the first African American chef to write--let alone publish--a cookbook. Estes rose in life to become a chef to two presidents, European royalty, Pullman Private Car travelers, and late-19th-century celebrities such as "Bet-a-Million" Gates. His cookbook, reissued in facsimile with the addition of 56 period images, is a remarkable window; through it we can view the food of an era, the fine and everyday cooking (the two overlap) of its time. Readers interested in American history, culinary and otherwise, and in encountering one of its singular personalities will embrace the book.
Here Estes shares some of his 600 evocative dishes, the labor, he notes, of years: Chicken Timbales, Celery and Nut Salad, Tomato Soup (three kinds, one prepared with corned-beef stock), Rechauffé of Finnan Haddie, Boston Baked Beans, Lamb Curry, and Creamed Spaghetti (the pasta in a white sauce). There are stuffing recipes for duck, rabbit, fish, goose, pig, and turkey, two of which, clearly designed for Estes's carriage trade, contain truffles. A chapter on bread specialties includes recipes for Rye Breakfast Cakes, Graham Bread, Oriental Oatmeal Bread (inexplicably named, as its only "exotic" ingredient is molasses), Quick Muffins in Rings, and, simply, dearly,"A Pan of Rolls." This everyday breakfast item, to be started the night before, contains sugar, lard, and butter. The sweets chapters--there are three--reveal the vast range of early 20th-century "dainties" and include Baltimore Cake (two versions), Snippodoodles (thin, cinnamon-flavored cookies), Crullers, Cranberry Sherbet, and Maple Parfait. While written in the abbreviated style typical of the time, the recipes could be made by cooks with the kitchen experience Estes justifiably assumed of his audience. This is a lovely, instructive, and, considering the history of it author, moving book--a vivid look at a near but totally vanished American past. --Arthur Boehm
