Lowcountry Cuisine Spring/Summer 2019

lowcountry cuisine LC 33 www.LowcountryCuisineMag.com | www.CharlestonRecipes.com Planting Roots and Raising Money Local Community Cookbooks BY ANNE SHULER TOOLE S ometime after my grandmother moved here, speaking and cooking mostly in French, she was given a copy of the cookbook “The Carolina Housewife” – an olive branch from a friend who jokingly thought she might glean from it some elements of cooking in the South. She later handed it down it to me. Written anonymously by “a Lady of Charleston” in 1847 – at that time, the names of Charleston women were traditionally published only at birth, marriage and death – the author is known to be Sarah Rutledge, daughter and niece of two signers of the Declaration of Independence. Her book is a compilation of almost 550 Charleston-centric recipes handed down from her family, friends and acquaintances nearly 175 years ago – for charitable purposes. The recipes are written, as explained in Rutledge’s