Newspaper Article

75 years of N.M. COOKING ; 1931 cookbook promoted traditional local cuisine

DONNA REDMAN For the Journal

2006

Overview

Actually, it was gaining popularity as far back as 1931. In her cookbook \"Historic Cookery,\" first published that year, Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert said there are two reasons for the popularity of New Mexican food. The first is that it tastes good, and the second is that the basic ingredients -- chile, beans, lamb's quarters (a wild plant similar to spinach), goat cheese and whole grain cereals, for example -- are good for you. Gilbert was the first home economics extension agent in northern New Mexico. She wrote her cookbook as a free publication distributed throughout the state by the New Mexico State University Extension Service. The blurb on the back cover of the small cookbook says it is possibly the earliest cookbook of New Mexican foods published, and was the first to give exact measurements and instructions for preparing the traditional cuisine. Another cookbook, the \"Mexican Cookbook\" by Erna Fergusson, was first published in 1934. You may have heard of Erna Fergusson. Born in 1888, she wrote about New Mexico and promoted tourism in the Southwest with her Indian Detours business. An Albuquerque library is named after her. She, too, loved and wrote about the simple food served in New Mexican homes. Her 118-page cookbook includes menus as well as regional food lore.

• Publisher: Albuquerque Publishing Company
• Subject: de Baca Gilbert, Fabiola Cabeza / Fergusson, Erna / Rustebakke, Ann / Stein, Diana