Church and Charity Cookbooks

Church and Charity cookbooks date their beginnings back to the Civil War. A uniquely American invention, these cookbooks were published inexpensively by churches and charitable organizations to help fund every conceivable cause. Whether a recipe for “Ida’s London Pie” or “Jean’s Jello Supreme”, they provide the researcher with mountains of information on what the vast majority of Americans ate at a particular time and place. Church and Charity cookbooks in MSU’s collection are primarily from Michigan, although other states, regions, and even countries are represented.