The Ella E. Hall Recipe Book

Ella E. Hall, a Black cook and landlord in Ann Arbor, Michigan, collected her favorite recipes in a journal between 1920 and 1939. Published for the first time, Hall’s recipe book contains not only recipes from family and friends, but also articles, clippings, and advertisements, which provide a glimpse into the food culture and daily life of the time. The book includes over 50 recipes that will interest and delight food historians, like sour milk griddle cakes, Lady Baltimore cake, pepper hash, green tomatoes pickles, campfire pineapple ham, and beverages such as root beer, ginger ale, and even home-brewed beer. This recipe book has been held in the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive within the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Michigan Library, and this first published edition makes Hall’s charming collection accessible to more readers. Introductory essays by Jessica Kenyatta Walker, scholar of African American history and foodways, and Susan Wineberg, who found and donated the recipe collection to the Special Collections Research Center, flesh out Ella Hall’s story and help position this book in the context of Ann Arbor in the first half of the twentieth century. Read more