Julia Child Sampled Our New Jersey Cookbooks. Why Don’t You?

Christie Lutz NJ Food and Recipes
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Black cover of a cookbook that simply treads "Cook Book"

By Tara Maharjan

When I started my Library Science program at Simmons College in Boston, I came across an opportunity to become a Cookbook Librarian at America’s Test Kitchen. The collection is comprised of over 4,000 books ranging from local cookbooks to The Modernist Cuisine. I held the position as a very well fed volunteer for two years. I loved my position but graduate school ended, cookbook librarians are rare, and my passion is archiving. I moved back to my home state of New Jersey and strung together part-time, and sometimes full-time, temporary archiving work until I became  a full-time Processing Archivist in Special Collections and University Archives at Rutgers University.

The Sinclair Jerseyana Cookbook collection came to my attention: forty boxes of cookbooks that needed a finding aid. Finally my interest in cookbooks and my passion for archiving came together! The collection is made up of cookbooks from New Jersey towns,  local churches, schools, and organizations, and companies that operated in the great Garden State. Every book is unique. Some have homemade covers, others are professionally bound; some focus on ethnic cuisine, while a few focus specifically on and promote products to be used. Two of my favorite cookbooks with homemade covers are this wood burned cover from the 1976 cookbook by The Christian Community Shrine of St. Joseph, entitled Our Community Cookbook,

 

Wood burned cover of a cookbook with a tree and an church represented.

and this screen-printed 1973 cookbook entitled Look Who’s Cookin’, by the Somerville Neighborhood Troop 12 from Rolling Hills Girl Scout Council.

 

Screen printed cover of a 1973 Rolling Hills Girl Scout Council cookbook entitled "Look Who's Cooking"

Some cookbooks were for a cause.

Cover of a 1907 cookbook with a red cross on the front.

(Muhlenberg Hospital Auxiliary. Cook Book. Plainfield, NJ: The Auxiliary, 1907.)

Other cookbooks were produced to promote products, such as the 1962 Fun-To-Do Party Book, by the Ballantine Beer Company from Newark, or the Gem Chopper Cook Book (seen below) from Flemington, 1902.

1962 Fun-To-Do Party Book, by the Ballantine Beer Company from Newark

Cover to the Gem Chopper Cook Book.

 

This collection is filled with so many wonderful and unique cookbooks, with dates ranging from 1902-2006, that you just need to check out the collection yourself. Julia Child did in 1992 when she came and received an honorary degree at Rutgers. More information about the collection can be found here.