Family Recipes From Rosedown and Catalpa Plantations

Discover authentic antebellum recipes in this cookbook from two legendary Louisiana plantations—enlivened with cultural history and personal stories.

Dixie biscuits, divinity candy, pond lily salad, lightning cake, and foolish pie are just a few of the delightful dishes included in this collection from the historic Rosedown and Catalpa plantations of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Nearly three hundred recipes are included here, along with a brief history of plantation life and cooking in the antebellum South, as well as firsthand memories of Rosedown.

Found by researchers exploring the Catalpa Plantation attic, many of these original family “receipts” are used in the present-day Rosedown Plantation kitchen demonstrations. Recipes for familiar comfort foods such as corn fritters, green pepper pickles, stuffed eggs, turkey gumbo, lobster croquettes, Thanksgiving relish, bread pudding, and many more are included, offering an abundant selection of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century culinary favorites.