A Time to Cook in Mobile, Alabama

This is a great community cookbook, written by members of the Mobile Federation of Republican Women in 1966 and at a time when, as backlash against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, socially conservative voters in the Deep South were slowly switching their political affiliation to the Republican party.  This community cookbook reflects a patronage originating at both the top of the Alabama political sphere and community-based supporters such as "Billy Holston and his barber" (most certainly evidence that the cookbook committee spent a good bit of time both writing letters to Washington, D.C. and hitting the pavement locally). 

The recipes in this book are practical and workable even by today's standards, if you ignore the two or so recipes for tomato aspic and stick to the savory dishes.  The Seafood and Meat & Poultry chapters reflect easy access to the wealth of seafood along the Gulf Coast and the interior farming communities of central Alabama, so there's a little bit of everything in this cookbook without being a tidal wave of congealed salad recipes and condensed milk.