Malinda Russell published A Domestic Cookbook in 1866, a work containing an early African American fried-chicken recipe.
Russell was a formerly enslaved African American cook and businesswoman from Tennessee who later lived in Michigan. Her cookbook was published in Paw Paw, Michigan, and is recognized as the first known cookbook published by an African American woman.
The book includes practical household recipes, including fried chicken, cakes, preserves, and pastry. Its instructions reflect nineteenth-century domestic cooking rather than the standardized recipes used by modern restaurant chains.
Russell is sometimes confused with Abby Fisher, whose What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking appeared in 1881. Both women were important African American cookbook authors, but Russell’s book came earlier.