I live in California, and coincidentally, this was where the first Cinco de Mayo celebrations were held in the 1860s. Just in case you have no clue what the holiday entails, “[t]he 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo) commemorates the great victory of the Mexican forces, led by Gen. Porfirio Diaz and Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza, over the French attacking Puebla, on May 5, 1862. It was essentially a military victory, and its celebration gives occasion for arousing the martial spirit and enthusiasm of the united people.”

Battle of Puebla

The turn of the century witnessed America’s adventurous palate, and restaurants serving ethnic cuisine and cookbooks showing how to cook these new dishes sprang up in abundance. In 1914, Bertha Haffner-Ginger published the California Mexican-Spanish Cookbook to clue in the average American woman how to prepare such “exotic” fare as frijoles and tamales. Because most affixed the more genteel term “Spanish” to anything made with chiles, beans, or tortillas, Haffner-Ginger takes pains to explain “it is not generally known that Spanish dishes as they are known in California are really Mexican Indian dishes. Bread made of corn, sauces of chile peppers, jerked beef, tortillas, enchiladas, etc., are unknown in Spain as native foods” before jumping into recipes ranging from salads to tacos to side dishes. Here is a peek at some of the recipes from the book.

Sopa de Frijoles (Bean Soup)

Cook one pint pink beans in two quarts beef stock till tender. Add one cup chopped onions, two green, two ripe chiles (fresh or canned), one quart canned tomatoes, two tablespoons chopped parsley. Cook all thoroughly. Drop in Spanish meat balls and serve with Spanish cheese fingers.

Modern Way to Prepare Corn for Tortilla and Tamales

Put one gallon of shelled corn in enough water to cover; dissolve one-half cup lime in a little water and add to cover; boil fifteen or twenty minutes; remove from fire, pour off first water and add fresh cold water; rub with hand to remove husk. Rinse in another water and it is ready to grind. Don’t wash too much or it will not be pasty enough to make tortilla.

Tortillas No. 3

Corn meal and coarse flour half and half, wet to stiff dough, salt and lard.

Enchiladas

Make Tortilla. Chop one cup onions very fine, slice and chop one-half cup olive, cook in little lard; have cup grated cheese ready, dip tortilla in hot salted large, dip in chile sauce, spread with grated cheese, put in center tablespoonful of cooked onions, tablespoon chopped hard-boiled eggs, two tablespoons chopped chicken, six seedless raisins soaked in claret, level tablespoon chopped onions, a sprinkle of cheese and fourth cup chile sauce, fold both sides, one over the other, pour chile sauce over all, put tablespoon cooked onion on center of top of each and several large pieces of cheese and three whole olives. Place in hot oven till cheese is melted, serve very hot.

Mexican Meat Cakes

Mix pork sausage and hamburger equal parts to two cups meat add one cup wet bread, add one egg, one-fourth cup onion, teaspoon salt, tablespoon green chile pulp, mix and make into cakes one inch thick, put one cup prepared sauce in pan and heat, place meat in sauce, cover, simmer till done.

Spanish Rice

Fry heaping tablespoon chipped bacon, add one garlic, stir, cook few minutes, add one cup washed and dried rice, one can tomatoes, salt, add one-half cup chile pulp, cook slowly; when about dry, add meat stock or hot water to finish cooking, but just enough to have rice dry and grains separated when done.

Spanish Stuffed Potatoes

Rub lard on large smooth potatoes. Bake until soft; cut off a slice and cut out center of potatoes, add two tablespoons butter, one tablespoon of finely cut parsley, two tablespoons of pimiento–chopped–cucumber, chopped–one-fourth teaspoon chile powder, two tablespoons hot milk, one-half whipped egg; beat up until light, fill potato shell. Place two strips of bacon on top, set in oven until bacon is crisp. Garnish with stripe of pimiento and parsley.

Spanish Chocolate Cake

Get the Spanish chocolate, a little round cake about three inches across, flavor different from other chocolate. Melt two cakes, add one-half cup butter, one cup brown sugar, separate four eggs, and beat the yolks and the whites. Mix yolk into chocolate, butter and sugar, beat this mixture well, pour one cup milk on top, the beaten egg white on top of milk, and three cups flour with two tablespoons baking powder. Stir all together, add teaspoon vanilla, and bake in loaf or layers. Make icing of melted Spanish chocolate cake, add tablespoon butter, one-half cup brown sugar, cook. When cool spread on cake or use as filling.

Read California Mexican-Spanish Cookbook by Bertha Haffner-Ginger online

Though the common perception of Mardi Gras links it with New Orleans, the tradition began in Mobile, Alabama in 1703, as that city was the capital of the territory of Louisiane (Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama). The Carnival season in New Orleans began with the grand ball of the “Twelfth Night Revellers,” on January 9, and ended on Mardi Gras (or Fat Tuesday, though English-speaking countries called the day “Shrove Tuesday”), which was the eve of Ash Wednesday and marked the close of the festivities and the beginning of the Lenten Season. Because the New York social season (and those of society in many other major cities) closed with Lent, the celebration spread from the South during the Gilded Age and the Four Hundred, as well as everyday New Yorkers, threw a variety of balls and gatherings to mark the occasion.

Since Mardi Gras celebrations had begun to distance itself from the Church, it descended into what many longtime residents of the city considered “chaos.” The Mystic Crew, or Crew of Comus was founded in 1857 by six New Orleans businessmen as a secret society which would observe Mardi Gras in a less crude fashion. This society was soon joined by rivals–the Argonauts (1891), Atlanteans (1891), Krewe of Proteus (1881), Momus (1879), and Rex (1880), whose members were also made up of businessmen in high society. With the appearance of these secret societies, and the accompanying exclusive balls, floats and parades, Mardi Gras lost a fair bit of its wildness and openness by the turn of the century.

Nevertheless, the customs of these secret societies became a high point of the celebrations, particularly for women and debutantes, who were selected as maids and Queens for each society’s float. Of most importance was Rex, king of the carnival, who came up the river on his private yacht, which was decked out from stem to stem with many colored flags and was saluted by visiting battleships with twenty-one guns. The local militia would meet “His Majesty” on the landing and a grand military parade would lead Rex to the city hall, where he was presented the keys of the city by the “Duke of Crescent City” (the mayor). In the evening, the Krewe of Comus would throw a ball at the old French Opera house, where “all the kings and their queens, representing all the carnival societies, were in the opening quadrille, all crowned and robed and with their splendid suites.” At midnight, all of the masked men would disappear and return in evening dress, but as they were required to show their invitations, it was impossible to discern whom was masked as who.

Another old custom was the “King Cake” or gâteau du Rois. Though associated with the festival of Epiphany in the Christmas season, the French and Spanish colonists brought their traditions to the New World and it morphed into a Mardi Gras custom, since the King and Queen of krewes were chosen on King’s Day, or Twelfth Night. The King cake is a ring of twisted bread topped with icing or sugar dyed the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, gold, and green, and whomever found the trinket baked within its folds was required to provide the cake for the following year’s celebration.

When the clock struck midnight, it marked the end of Mardi Gras and the beginning of Ash Wednesday, the day of repentance. Many of the celebrations and traditions of Mardi Gras of the 19th century remain, so when you get the chance to visit New Orleans during the festivities you will notice the connection between the present and the past remains strong!

Further Reading:
The Picayune’s Guide to New Orleans (1903 edition)
The Picayune Creole cook book (1922)

Why Some Folks Eat Collard Greens on New Years'

One of the traditions which arose from America’s culinary melting pot is the consumption of Hoppin’ John and collard greens. Deriving from the Gullah people of coastal Georgia and South Carolina–by way of West African cuisine and the French and Spanish Middle Ages custom of eating beans on New Years Day–the dishes are thought to bring good luck to the new year, with the black-eyed peas in Hoppin’ John symbolizing pennies, and the collard greens symbolizing money. Regional variations of the tradition included the use of grits and peas in Alabama, the use of rice and peas in South Carolina, and some adding rice (for health) and cornbread. Either way you choose to fix them, they are a reminder of the unique, but shared heritage of African-Americans.

Further Reading:
Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America by Frederick Douglass Opie
Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine by James McCann
What the Slaves Ate: Recollections of African American Foods and Foodways by Herbert C. Covey & Dwight Eisnach