EBR Library's Culinary Cornucopia

When Mary Stein was a child living in West Virginia in 1962, her mother discovered a punch recipe in an edition of Good Housekeeping. “It became her favorite punch,” recalled Stein. But the family moved around a lot. Eventually the magazine was lost, and the punch recipe with it. 

Decades later, Stein was working in her current role as the Assistant Library Director of the East Baton Rouge Parish library system, and she realized she might have a way to find it. “I went and looked at our backfiles, our archives, our databases. I knew what year we were living in that house in West Virginia, so I narrowed things down, used the process of elimination. And I found her that recipe.” 

These archives, Stein points out, are available to all library patrons. In fact, the East Baton Rouge Parish library system offers a vast collection of culinary resources that often go under-realized. In light of the library’s 2024 culinary-focused One Book One Community program—which features Youtube chef superstar Max Miller’s new book Tasting History—we’re sharing three places to find exciting new ideas for the kitchen, all from the library, and all totally free. 

Magazine Archives 

The East Baton Rouge Parish Library system has subscriptions to over 600 magazine titles—many of them with a focus on cuisine and cooking, some going back as far as a century. Find back issues from decades ago of national publications like Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and Bon Appétit—as well as local periodicals such as Acadiana Profile, New Orleans Magazine, and inRegister. An even more extensive collection can be discovered in the library’s microfilm collections—going as far back as the 1800s. 

In addition, library patrons can access more recent editions of major culinary magazines e-book style via the library’s subscription to Flipster—which features issues of publications such as Food & Wine, CookingLight, Rachael Ray Every Day, and more going back to 2018. An even more extensive collection of recently-published food and drink focused magazines can be perused via the library’s Pressreader database—which includes titles such as Cooking with Women’s Weekly, Taste of Home, National Geographic Traveller Food, delish, and more.

Food/Cooking Info Guide 

The librarians at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library have made almost 150 “InfoGuides” available on the ebrpl.com site—compiling resources from across the library’s assets under certain themes. One of these, happily, is “Food/Cooking”. In the Food/Cooking InfoGuide, take advantage of the AtoZ Food America and AtoZ World Food databases, which include a geographically-vast selection of recipes, food glossaries, food histories, and more. 

The InfoGuide also includes a curated collection of the library’s books on Louisiana cooking—featuring everything from Chef John Folse’s Louisiana Sampler to church cookbooks, to Recipes from Mike Anderson’s Seafood. It goes beyond recipes, too—discover the heart of food culture in Baton Rouge in the guide’s collection of links to food hubs, including 225 Magazine’s latest Food & Drink coverage, the Red Stick Farmers Market, Slow Food Baton Rouge, Healthy BR, and more. 

Cookbooks

“We have thousands of cookbooks in this library system,” said Stein. And even in the era of the food blog and the Google search, they’re still checking out. “You can tell they’ve been used, too. Because there is, like, chocolate sauce on them.” 

If you’re looking for a new recipe, though, we recommend starting with the One Book One Community pick for the year, Max Miller’s Tasting History—which combines delicious recipes from across the globe with history lessons you didn’t know you needed. 

Learn more about this year’s OBOC programming at ReadOneBook.org, and don’t miss the kickoff party on Friday, March 8 from 5 pm–7 pm at the Main Library at Goodwood.