Abby Fisher (1831-1913) was one of the first Black American women to publish a cookbook. Her preserves, stews, cakes, and folk remedies offer a glimpse into southern food tradition and remind us that Black folks were often the ones establishing these culinary practices.
Abby Fisher (1831-1913) was one of the first Black American women to publish a cookbook. Her preserves, stews, cakes, and folk remedies offer a glimpse into southern food tradition and remind us that Black folks were often the ones establishing these culinary practices.
Food has been a unifier for millennia, not just gathering people together to share a meal, but acting as a warm introduction to new histories and traditions. This February on Womanica, we’re celebrating Tastemakers - the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past. The impact of chefs like Pig Foot Mary, Mama Dip, and Georgia Gilmore stretch far beyond the culinary scene - uplifting their local communities and inspiring those who came after them.
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Hi, I'm Chef Kia Damon. I'm a Florida born chef, writer, host and recipe developer. I served as an executive Chef of New York City restaurant Lalito at the age of 24 and became Cherry Bombe magazine's first Culinary Director at 25. Since leaving I've founded Kia Feeds The People, a budding mutual aid effort. I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we're talking about Tastemakers. We're celebrating the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past.
Today we’re talking about one of the first Black American women to publish a cookbook. Her preserves, stews, cakes, and folk remedies offer a glimpse into southern food tradition and remind us that Black folks were often the ones establishing these culinary practices.
Please welcome Abby Fisher.
Not much is known about Abby’s personal life. We do know she was likely born around 1832 in South Carolina to a Black mother and a white, French father. She was likely born enslaved, though that is not confirmed.
At some point, Abby moved from South Carolina to Mobile, Alabama, where she met and married Alexander C. Fisher. The couple would go on to have 11 children.
Sometime in the late 1870s, the Fishers moved to California. There, Abby and Alexander set up a preserves business called Mrs. Abby Fisher and Co. Abby quickly gained notoriety as a skilled cook. In 1879, she won the highest award at the Sacramento State Fair. A year later, she won two medals at the San Francisco Mechanics’ Institute Fair: a bronze for best pickles and sauces, and a silver for best assortment of jellies and preserves.
Abby took her culinary success further. She wanted to create a written record of her recipes. She couldn’t read or write, so she dictated to her friends who could. With their help, she immortalized her recipes on paper. In 1881, Abby’s cookbook, “What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking” was published.
The cookbook begins with a preface and an apology. Abby revealed doubts about whether she could share her recipes without any formal education. But she did have over 35 years of cooking experience and knew that sharing her food knowledge would have value for future generations. The preface reads, “This book will be found a complete instructor, so that a child can understand it and learn the art of cooking.”
The recipes Abby shares range from briney shrimp salad with pickles to beefy okra gumbo to rich custardy sweet potato pie. Her cookbook exemplified a deep knowledge of southern, Black cooking tradition and brought that knowledge to new audiences. One recipe she shared was for “plantation cornbread, or hoe cake.” This dish was often made by enslaved people while out in the fields, using the flat side of a heated hoe — though Abby’s recipe simply calls for a hot griddle. Elsewhere in the cookbook, Abby describes her recipe for blackberry syrup as “an old southern Plantation recipe” common among Black families.
A few personal details about Abby’s life can be gleaned through the pages of the cookbook. The last recipe in the book was for pap, a porridge-like food served to babies. Alongside the recipe, Abby shared that she had “given birth to 11 children and raised them all, and nursed them with this diet.” At that time, raising 11 children without any infant death was a significant feat for any woman, let alone a Black, most-likely formerly enslaved woman. This detail is a testament to Abby’s skills not just as a cook but a mother and caretaker.
Little is known about Abby’s life after her cookbook was published.
In 1984 — more than a century after its initial publication — an old copy of Abby’s book was rediscovered and put up for auction at Sotheby’s in New York. A year later, it was once again published by Applewood Books, bringing Abby’s recipes to a whole new generation of cooks and cookbook readers.
All month, we’re talking about tastemakers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!