Open Source Cookbook
A cookbook created by its users

OS Cookbook is a collaborative cookbook created with the geek in the kitchen at heart, but with a bent toward the college geek. Suffice to say, most collegiate geeks have spent a fair chunk on their computer hardware (as I have) and may or may not have the money or resources to cook a 5-course dinner.

Now, of course, many of these recipes are much more difficult to prepare in the college dormitory, the primary reason being that city fire codes in just about every city I know of prevent you from having an open heating element in rooms that are smaller than a certain size, which means no range tops, no ovens, and not even a buffet range. Many of these recipes require a stove or oven, but there are others that can be done and can work just as well in a microwave. Available in text or MS Word .doc or in an elegantly designed .pdf format.

"The challenge of working within the Southern idiom loomed large on its own. Presented with the opportunity to develop our own style, we chose to follow the guidance of Bill Neal in our neck of the woods and Alice Waters in California by cultivating a network of suppliers, growers, and purveyors who could determine the path of the menu. Adopting the mantra ingredient-driven cuisine, we set off on a labor–intensive search for local growers at our still-nascent farmers market, for suppliers of old-fashioned indigenous ingredients like stone-ground cornmeal and flours from Lindley Mills in Alamance County, and for small seafood brokers from the North Carolina coast willing to drive three and a half hours to bring us better quality fish and shellfish." "--Ben and Karen Barker" Recipes , summer desserts and more recipes.

Le Cordon Bleu has not only set the standard for cookery schools around the world but has been innovative in more ways then one: it was the first school to organize demonstrations during which a chef cooked dishes and gave the participants a chance to sample each one (on the following days students made the same dishes in practical classes themselves). Through a judicious mixture of practical classes and demonstrations, students learn French cuisine from French chefs "at the source". When it comes to the teaching of French cuisine and pastry, Le Cordon Bleu is unrivaled. The school's reputation is based on the professional quality of the courses taught. Beginners are introduced to basic techniques and professionals improve their skills through contact with award-winning French chefs who hail from Michelin-starred restaurants. Le Grand Diplôme du Cordon Bleu is recognized throughout the culinary world and opens the doors to the best kitchens in France and abroad. The restaurant has a list of seven full menus - with recipes for your pleasure.

"Filling up water buckets for the kitchen had its benefits, though, as it was on my trips in and out of the kitchen with water that I first learned to cook, watching how Roland or my older sisters made things with their "dump cooking" methods and making mental notes about how ingredients went together.
Dump cooking means no recipes, just measure by eye and feel and taste and testing. Cooking by feel and taste has been a heritage among black American women since slavery, and that's the way I learned to cook. When I talk about dump cooking I am thinking of fresh vegetables (planting and tending a vegetable patch and then cooking and canning its products has also been a tradition for black women), homegrown or from a farmers' market. I think of peeling potatoes, stringing beans, chopping onions, hulling peas, washing greens, and more. " --Mildred Council (Mama Dip)"

Mama Dip's recipes for Pecan Pie, Polka-Dot Pumpkin Pie and Sweet Potato Cobbler or her sweet potato biscuits

See a short interview with Mama Dip and peek into Mama Dip's kitchen via the Carolina Weekly.

Confederate Receipt Book.
A Compilation of over One Hundred Receipts, Adapted to the Times (1863)

Spruce Beer
Take three gallons of water, blood warmth, three half pints of molasses, a tablespoonful of essence of spruce, and the like quantity of ginger, mix well together with a gill of yeast, let it stand over night, and bottle it in the morning. It will be in a good condition to drink in twenty-four hours.

Artificial Oysters
Take young green corn, grate it in a dish; to one pint of this add one egg, well beaten, a small teacup of flour, two or three tablespoonfuls of butter, some salt and pepper, mix them all together. A tablespoonful of the batter will make the size of an oyster Fry them light brown, and when done butter them. Cream if it can be procured is better.

From the Shtetl Kitchen - Family Recipes
(Di yerushe fun mayne bobes - My grandmothers' heritage )

Knishes, potato kugl, borsht, hamentashn and latkes - the comfort foods of Jewish living. These recipes and more from an authentic Jewish mother and grandmother.

Fun itlekhn hoyz trogt men epes aroys
(If you hobnob with men, no matter who, you can always learn a thing or two)

More Recipe Resources at ibiblio:

More Cookbooks and recipes from the UNC Press including The Robert E. Lee Family Cooking and Housekeeping Book, Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery and Marion Brown's Southern Cook Book.

Usenet recipe archive Not much to look at, a broad range of recipes from African stew to zuccotto. Note: this archive dates back to 1992 and utilizes some archaic formats. It might be necessary to download some files and open them using a text editor.

All listed resources are hosted by ibiblio, The Public's Library and Digital Archive.
Last updatedSeptember 23, 2002