What 1881 cookbook by formerly enslaved chef Abby Fisher is an early African American cookbook?

What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking is the 1881 cookbook by Abby Fisher, an important early record of African American foodways.

Fisher was born enslaved in South Carolina around 1831 and later became a successful pickle and preserve maker in San Francisco. Because she could not read or write, she dictated her recipes and life story for publication. The book includes recipes for meats, vegetables, breads, preserves, and desserts.

The cookbook is especially valuable because it preserves culinary knowledge carried through slavery and emancipation. It also challenges the idea that African American cooking was transmitted only orally or anonymously. Historians regard Fisher’s work as one of the earliest cookbooks by an African American author, although other Black-authored culinary texts followed later.