In the Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies (GSFS) 401 Winter 2020 semester class on Food, Gender, and Environment taught by Dr. Alex Ketchum, students are analyzing the ways that food accessibility and environmental threats are gendered, sexualized, and racialized within the global context. As part of the course, students visited McGill’s archives and special collections to have a hands on experience with historical cookbooks (more on that here: http://www.historicalcookingproject.com/2020/02/field-trip-to-mcgill-rare-books-and.html). The Special Series of Student Posts is a collection of student reflections on what information we can glean from cookbooks.
My recipe and blog were based on two books, by Toni Tipton-Martin, The Jemima Code and Jubilee. Both books center African American women’s knowledge as evidenced by cookery and cookbooks over the last two centuries. Tipton-Martin felt compelled to write these because cookbooks that recognized African American women’s contribution to the genre (nation building, really) had not been widely celebrated. Given the influence that Southern cooking has within the style of American cooking, this seems like a glaring omission, as African American women had produced much of the food served in Southern households for centuries. Many of the recipes outlined in Jubilee celebrate this storied history, but it was the pancake/griddle cake’s connection to a slaveholding past that caught my attention and became my focus.
![]()
Minstrelsy was the first American entertainment sensation. It was part of a national theatre experience, as Vaudeville houses would offer shows starring Minstrel characters in different parts of the US simultaneously. The minstrel characters were extremely popular and one in particular would have staying power (Lott 1992, 33). The character of Mammy was a full figured black woman who was clad in a doo-rag and served loyally in the kitchen of the master. Important features of mammy was her subservience and asexuality. The character/ caricature was so successful, as to transcend from minstrel shows into popular culture, such as movies (ex. Gone with the Wind) and food, with the role of ‘Aunt Jemima’. The image of Aunt Jemima is with us to this day, selling pancakes, syrup and problematic nostalgia of a bygone era.
The Jemima Code, according to Tipton-Martin, is part of a legacy of imagery, texts and assumptions that still plague black women in the kitchen. This code assumes the black woman cook to be unskilled, invisible, cooking by instinct and not ability, passive and ignorant. There are myriad reasons why the image of the expert Michelin chef does not look like Aunt Jemima and many of them include histories of racism, and patriarchy (Burke 2019). Tipton challenges these notions with her history book, The Jemima Code and the companion cookbook, Jubilee.
I chose a griddlecake recipe from Jubilee, to make for my project. Primarily, I was fascinated with the history that Tipton cites at the beginning of the recipe. Here she talks about these cakes being prepared at Monticello, the home of slaveholder and ex-president, Thomas Jefferson.
My fascination with the antebellum south is long standing for a number of reasons. Southern slavery is so well documented and slavery in the Caribbean and Canada, less so. Given that my parents are of Afro-Caribbean heritage, my own personal, written historical connections to 19th century cooking are lost in the documentation that may or may not have existed and certainly was not retained in my parent’s migration to Canada. Perhaps as a substitute for that history, I am enthralled by African American history; it is an attraction and repulsion that keeps me intrigued. Moreover, the implications of the mammy figure, from minstrelsy, as well as Aunt Jemima affect me in the present.
Weekends at my household always include the making of pancakes for my children and my family. This is something of a tradition, as that was true for me growing up! My (very) Caribbean mother, always made pancakes on a griddle on Saturday mornings.
Cooking
![]()
The recipe is exceedingly simple. Griddlecakes diverge from pancakes in two ways. First, they have cornmeal instead of flour. Second, they have little sugar.
![]()
Many pancake recipes call for buttermilk, which I do not have. Fortunately, I learned a buttermilk hack long ago. Add vinegar to milk and let it sit for 10 minutes. This sorta transforms the milk and makes it similar to buttermilk.
![]()
The batter was a bit runnier than I had expected and the cakes did not plump up.
![]()
However, I considered them a success! My food critics (aka my kids) did not care for them and immediately asked me to make banana pancakes. Nevertheless, the adults enjoyed them thoroughly.
I have never considered the history of a cookbook before preparing a recipe and having done that now, I feel inclined to make it a practice. Perhaps this food experiment will lead to others where I uncover different flavours and legacies.
References
Burke, Angela. 2019. “The Pressures of Being First.” Eater, December 18, 2019. https://www.eater.com/young-guns-rising-stars/2019/12/18/21021179/chef-mariya-russell-kumiko-kikko-chicago-running-michelin-starred-kitchen.
Lott, Eric. 1992. “Love and Theft: The Racial Unconscious of Blackface Minstrelsy.” Representations 39 (1): 23–50.
Tipton-Martin, Toni. 2015. The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks. First edition. Austin: University of Texas Press.
———. 2019. Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking. First edition. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers.
Complicating the Past and the Palate
by Charlene Lewis-Sutherland
My recipe and blog were based on two books, by Toni Tipton-Martin, The Jemima Code and Jubilee. Both books center African American women’s knowledge as evidenced by cookery and cookbooks over the last two centuries. Tipton-Martin felt compelled to write these because cookbooks that recognized African American women’s contribution to the genre (nation building, really) had not been widely celebrated. Given the influence that Southern cooking has within the style of American cooking, this seems like a glaring omission, as African American women had produced much of the food served in Southern households for centuries. Many of the recipes outlined in Jubilee celebrate this storied history, but it was the pancake/griddle cake’s connection to a slaveholding past that caught my attention and became my focus.
Minstrelsy was the first American entertainment sensation. It was part of a national theatre experience, as Vaudeville houses would offer shows starring Minstrel characters in different parts of the US simultaneously. The minstrel characters were extremely popular and one in particular would have staying power (Lott 1992, 33). The character of Mammy was a full figured black woman who was clad in a doo-rag and served loyally in the kitchen of the master. Important features of mammy was her subservience and asexuality. The character/ caricature was so successful, as to transcend from minstrel shows into popular culture, such as movies (ex. Gone with the Wind) and food, with the role of ‘Aunt Jemima’. The image of Aunt Jemima is with us to this day, selling pancakes, syrup and problematic nostalgia of a bygone era.
 |
| Image from Jemima Code (Tipton-Martin 2015, xvi) |
 |
| (Tipton-Martin 2015) |
 |
| Tipton-Martin 2019, 98, 99 |
My fascination with the antebellum south is long standing for a number of reasons. Southern slavery is so well documented and slavery in the Caribbean and Canada, less so. Given that my parents are of Afro-Caribbean heritage, my own personal, written historical connections to 19th century cooking are lost in the documentation that may or may not have existed and certainly was not retained in my parent’s migration to Canada. Perhaps as a substitute for that history, I am enthralled by African American history; it is an attraction and repulsion that keeps me intrigued. Moreover, the implications of the mammy figure, from minstrelsy, as well as Aunt Jemima affect me in the present.
Weekends at my household always include the making of pancakes for my children and my family. This is something of a tradition, as that was true for me growing up! My (very) Caribbean mother, always made pancakes on a griddle on Saturday mornings.
Cooking
The recipe is exceedingly simple. Griddlecakes diverge from pancakes in two ways. First, they have cornmeal instead of flour. Second, they have little sugar.
Many pancake recipes call for buttermilk, which I do not have. Fortunately, I learned a buttermilk hack long ago. Add vinegar to milk and let it sit for 10 minutes. This sorta transforms the milk and makes it similar to buttermilk.
The batter was a bit runnier than I had expected and the cakes did not plump up.
However, I considered them a success! My food critics (aka my kids) did not care for them and immediately asked me to make banana pancakes. Nevertheless, the adults enjoyed them thoroughly.
 |
| My sous-chef and food |
References
Burke, Angela. 2019. “The Pressures of Being First.” Eater, December 18, 2019. https://www.eater.com/young-guns-rising-stars/2019/12/18/21021179/chef-mariya-russell-kumiko-kikko-chicago-running-michelin-starred-kitchen.
Lott, Eric. 1992. “Love and Theft: The Racial Unconscious of Blackface Minstrelsy.” Representations 39 (1): 23–50.
Tipton-Martin, Toni. 2015. The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks. First edition. Austin: University of Texas Press.
———. 2019. Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African-American Cooking. First edition. New York: Clarkson Potter/Publishers.