True Women Cookbook

by Janice Woods Windle
(Bright Books, $22.95 paper)

Now that you’ve read the book and seen the television mini-series based on Windle’s best-selling novel True Women (Ballantine, $8.95, paper) it’s possible to own the cookbook that started the whole thing. Author Janice Woods Windle began collecting family recipes to create a wedding gift for her son Wayne in 1984. In the process, she uncovered an heirloom scrapbook of handwritten recipes more than a century old which lead her to research the fascinating personal stories of her female ancestors. The original cookbook project was put on hold while Windle collected stories about the women who helped settle the Central Texas area. The vibrant “true women” of the title played an integral part in Texas history from the fall of the Alamo through World War II and their exploits produced a novel and a television program.

Once those projects were well-launched, Windle returned to the cookbook. It includes family lore and correspondence, antique photos of many of the novel’s characters, handwritten home remedies and colorful recipes. The heirloom recipes have been updated for modern tastes and most include nutritional information. The devoted fan can prepare dishes that resemble the fare at the tables of Sarah Ashby McClure, Annie King Colville, or Euphemia Texas Ashby King. It’s possible to celebrate Texas Independence Day (March 2) with Celebration Chicken or Texas Ranger Steak with sides of Muy Amiga Slaw. While it’s understandable that the author wanted the cookbook to be useful and current trends dictate adjusted fat and salt contents, that treatment renders the recipes themselves somewhat less interesting. The culinary history could have been preserved had Windle perhaps printed the true originals alongside the updated versions to complete the historical picture.

One of the newest trends in cookbook publishing is the “reading cookbook” and the True Women Cookbook certainly falls into that niche. It’s the perfect companion piece to Windle’s novel and a smart publisher would bring the two out as a boxed set for gift-giving. Reading it is likely to evoke family food memories and inspire readers to unearth the culinary heirlooms in their own histories. Take it into the kitchen with the kids and get them excited about what their family cooks. The True Women Cookbook would also make a great middle school teaching tool in the Texas History classroom. What better way to breathe life into the history of the “Runaway Scrape” than to taste some dishes created by the women who lead it? Like the ancestors who preceded her, Janice Woods Windle has managed to carve out an important place in Texas history.

At about the same time this book was published, I received promotional information about two new resources for aspiring food history buffs. Food History News is a quarterly newsletter published by culinary historian Sandra Oliver of Islesboro, Maine. Oliver presents fascinating, well-researched articles such as an interview with author Andrew Smith about the good writing but bad history surrounding “The Truth About Poisonous Tomatoes” and a column on the Joy of Historical Cooking. She is knowledgeable about the national network of cultural museums and historical sites that present historical cooking demonstrations, including Austin’s beloved Jourdan-Bachman Pioneer Farm. The most recent issue features updates about local culinary history organizations around the country with suggestions about how to get one started. If hard-to-find historical cookbooks and scholarly works on culinary topics are of interest, check out the mail-order catalogue firm Food Heritage Press. Massachusetts culinary historian Joseph M. Carlin features more than 150 titles from over 40 university presses, small publishers, museums, and historic sites around the U.S. and Canada. He has facsimiles of early American gems such as American Cookery (1796) and What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking (1881) plus regional cookbooks and works of literary food writing. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the True Women Cookbook show up in both of these places.

This article appears in May 30 • 1997 and May 30 • 1997 (Cover).