A Taste of History

We’re celebrating American Archives Month this October by highlighting local food history in our collection!  The Buffalo Collection includes several cookbooks compiled by community organizations and businesses, as well as professional and amateur chefs. Even the B&ECPL Staff Association produced a few over the years.

Below are just a few of the cookbooks are available for perusal in the Grosvenor Room, and there are additional copies of some titles that can be checked out.  Perhaps you’ll rediscover a old favorite recipe or find an unusual dish to try.

 Some of the historic recipes in our collection can be found in these titles:

Best sellers cookbook / Buffalo and Erie County Public Library (N.Y.) Staff Association. Lenexa, Kan.: Cookbook Publishers, [1982]. TX715 .B48553

BRAG’s soul food cook book 1971 / Buffalo Rights Action Group. Buffalo, N.Y., [publisher not identified], 1971. TX715 .B8233 1971

The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo cookbook / Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. Josephine Goodyear Committee. Buffalo, N.Y.: Thorner-Sidney Press, 1962. TX715 .C5295 1962

A book of recipes covering three generations of the Farny and Wurlitzer family and the wives of present business associates / Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. [North Tonawanda, N.Y.], [publisher not identified], [1956]. TX725 .W8 1956

Blizzard cookbook / Turgeon, Kitty. [East Aurora, N. Y.] : [Roycroft Campus Gift Shop], 1978. TX715 .T94

The best of Buffalo: A cultural cookbook of area restaurants / Gentner, Norma L. Buffalo : The Author, [1980]. TX715 .G4

Na zdrowie! = “To your health”; authentic Polish recipes and memories of a Lackawanna tavern keeper / Rog, Helen Jakubowski. Buffalo, NY: The Cookbook as Legacy, [1992]. TX723.5.P6 R58 1992

Recently published local cookbooks include the following:

Food for four seasons / Seychew, Christa Glennie.  Buffalo, NY: Buffalo Spree, [2013]. TX715 .F66 2013

Buffalo cooks with Janice Okun: memories and recipes from a life in food / Okun, Janice. Buffalo, NY: Western New York Wares, Inc., [2010]. TX715 .O386 2010

Great Lake effects: Buffalo beyond winter and wings; a cookbook / Junior League of Buffalo. TX715 .G81145 1997 Buffalo, N.Y.  The League, [1997]

Nickel City Chef: Buffalo’s finest chefs and ingredients / Seychew, Christa Glennie.  Buffalo, N.Y.: Buffalo Heritage Unlimited, [2011]. TX714 .S48 2011

As for drinks, we can’t forget our brewing history.  These books on Buffalo beer are popular with local historians and brewing enthusiasts.

Buffalo beer: The history of brewing in the Nickel City / Rizzo, Michael F. Charleston, SC: American Palate, 2015. HD9397.U63 R69 2015

Nickel City drafts: a drinking history of Buffalo, NY / Murphy, Dan. Buffalo, N.Y.: Western New York Wares, [2010]. GT2890 .M87 2010

Rushing the growler: A history of brewing in Buffalo / Powell, Stephen R. Buffalo, N.Y.: Apogee Productions, [1999]. HD9397.U63 B88 1999

We couldn’t resist adding this image of our old owl logo from the 1982 Best sellers cookbook  by the B&ECPL Staff Association. Bon appétit!