De Knight, Freda. The Ebony Cookbook. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Company, 1973.

This is one of my favorite retro cookbooks.  The 1973 version is not easy to find, and I was lucky to have paid only 5 bucks for it at Half-Price Books in Berkeley, one of my favorite places to buy old cookbooks – second only to library book sales.

There are some great biscuit and quickbread recipes here, as well as all the comfort food standards, like chicken and dumplings.  This is my go-to book when I want to make an easy, delicious, frosted cake on a whim, since there are numerous recipes that won’t have you turning your kitchen upside down.

If you love African-American cooking (and who doesn’t?), this is a must because the recipes are the real deal.