Rare Female Authored Indigenous Mexican Cookbook, Cocina Poblana, 1955
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- 1955
1955. Velázquez de León, Josefina. Cocina Poblana. México, D.F.: Academia de Cocina Velázquez de León, 1955. 2nd edición. 123 pages. 8vo. Original illustrated wrappers featuring a richly colored kitchen scene of two women, one standing with a prepared dish, the other grinding ingredients on a metate, rendering visible the gendered labor and intergenerational techniques central to poblano cuisine. Some black and white photographs inside. A major regional cookbook by Josefina Velázquez de León (1899–1968), one of the most influential figures in 20th-century Mexican gastronomy and the first woman in Mexico to build a nationwide culinary-education empire. Her press, Ediciones Josefina Velázquez de León, produced dozens of now-scarce regional cookbooks that documented Indigenous, mestizo, and urban food traditions at a moment when Mexican cuisine was becoming codified as national patrimony.
This 1955 edition expands on the recipes gathered “por un grupo de Sras. y Sritas. de la Ciudad de Puebla, Tehuacán y Teziutlán,” and augments them with additional preparations tested by the Academia de Cocina “Velázquez de León.” Poblano cuisine, rooted in Indigenous Nahua techniques, convent tradition, and urban mestizo innovation, is represented here through recipes for moles, pipianes, tamales, adobos, dulces típicos, and festival dishes that characterize mid-century Puebla. Velázquez de León’s pedagogical ethos, professionalizing domestic labor while preserving regional techniques, positions this book as a key artifact of women’s authorship and culinary transmission in post-Revolutionary Mexico. Surviving regional cookbooks from her press are coveted by research libraries because they document culinary practices rarely recorded elsewhere and often transmitted orally within women’s networks. Wrappers show tears and edge wear; title page has light ex libris stamp. Some staining and foxing to margins not affecting text. Overall good condition. A scarce early edition of a foundational regional Mexican cookbook and an essential item for institutional collections in gastronomy, women’s history, and Puebla’s culinary heritage.
This 1955 edition expands on the recipes gathered “por un grupo de Sras. y Sritas. de la Ciudad de Puebla, Tehuacán y Teziutlán,” and augments them with additional preparations tested by the Academia de Cocina “Velázquez de León.” Poblano cuisine, rooted in Indigenous Nahua techniques, convent tradition, and urban mestizo innovation, is represented here through recipes for moles, pipianes, tamales, adobos, dulces típicos, and festival dishes that characterize mid-century Puebla. Velázquez de León’s pedagogical ethos, professionalizing domestic labor while preserving regional techniques, positions this book as a key artifact of women’s authorship and culinary transmission in post-Revolutionary Mexico. Surviving regional cookbooks from her press are coveted by research libraries because they document culinary practices rarely recorded elsewhere and often transmitted orally within women’s networks. Wrappers show tears and edge wear; title page has light ex libris stamp. Some staining and foxing to margins not affecting text. Overall good condition. A scarce early edition of a foundational regional Mexican cookbook and an essential item for institutional collections in gastronomy, women’s history, and Puebla’s culinary heritage.