11-24-10 —    Wanda Dodson can vividly remember the wood stove her grandmother cooked on and she can recall the treats that her grandmother made the children each day when  they returned home from school.

    “She would make cake doughnuts for us when we came in from school. I have so many memories of that stove,” said Dodson.

    It’s stories like this that will make the cookbook being compiled by the Wayne County Historical Society a special one for many generations. In fact, it’s hard to call it a cookbook. When completed it will be more like a collection of recipes that tie together family and community. It will not only share the ingredients for a favorite family recipe, but a story about the person who made the dish or the memory that made it special.

    “We have such a rich heritage of food—people who gardened and grew their own food and canned and froze their food. This made this a perfect book to put together,” said Dodson, as she and other members of the cookbook committee shared their plans. “We wanted to do something to capture that. So many people today, particularly the younger generation, think good food is fast food.”

    Like many good ideas, the cookbook has grown over the past couple of years since the committee began working on it. It has evolved into much more than they even imagined at those early meetings.

    “This has been fun,” said committee member Joy McGinnis.

    The committee has received quite a few contributions already. Dodson noted they are blessed with desserts, but they are looking for submissions to help fill out some of the sections they hope to include in the book.

    These include things like directions to make soap or recipes for wild game. They are also looking for recipes from some of the old restaurants in Monticello and have succeeded in unearthing a few of those.

    Dodson said they also hope to have a section with recipes for dishes that people took to church suppers or dinner on the grounds and other community gatherings.

    “We want to get a good balance,” she said.

    Some people have submitted a special photo to go with their memory.  

There are also poems and even some old letters that date back to the early 1900’s. Dodson noted that the letters can be compared to the blogs that are written on the internet today. Women shared the routines of their day and then wrote about what they would cook and how they would prepare it.

    “This has just been very interesting,” said Dodson.

    While no firm deadlines have been set yet for submissions, the committee expects to continue the collection through at least the spring. McGinnis noted that stories that are submitted don’t have to be long. Many are only a paragraph or two in length, but they convey a specific memory about the recipe.

    Anyone who would like to submit a story and a recipe can bring them by the Elizabeth Furr Duncan Library, which is located in the museum.  

The library is open Tuesday through Saturday. Or they may be mailed

to: The Wayne County Historical Society, P.O.  Box 320, Monticello, Ky. 42633. They may also be e-mailed to wchistoricalsociety@windstream. net.