A treasure trove of antique recipes is tucked away into the stacks at the University of Texas San Antonio Library’s Special Collections.
Thumbing through the books is fascinating even if you aren’t fluent in Spanish. It’s obvious by the sketches and ingredients that ‘food’ translated in any language means ‘love’.
The Mexican Cookbook Collection is made up of nearly 1000 Mexican, Texan and Southwestern books…some date back to the 19th century. San Antonian Laurie Gruenbeck donated the collection and continues to add to it. Juli McLoone at UTSA is the curator for the collection.
Some of the old recipes are difficult to duplicate. For instance, ingredients like mamey and tejocote fruit aren’t commonly found in this country. But for the adventurous, pig’s feet and tripe are readibly available…at least in South Texas. (Bolner’s Meat Market)
I asked local chef Melissa Guerra, who has the fabulous kitchen store at Pearl, to translate a recipe, make it user friendly and show me how to prepare it. She chose these delicious empanadas. They’re super easy to make, and wow, are they good! I’d serve with a chardonnay.
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