From Molded Salads to Tamales: Holiday Cookbooks and the Surprising Story of American Festivity
Cranberry sauce shaped like a can and neon-hued gelatin salads may seem like quirky relics, but they’re part of a rich tradition found in the Library of Congress’s 40,000-strong cookbook collection. Holiday cookbooks didn’t truly take off until after World War II, when convenience foods and new kitchen gadgets transformed how Americans celebrated. Early cookbooks, like Thomas Jefferson’s 1742 confectionery manual, assumed cooks already knew their way around a hearth—recipes were vague, measurements rare, and illustrations nonexistent. By the mid-20th century, cookbooks reflected the optimism of the microwave era and the rise of cake mixes, while the arrival of refrigeration and supermarkets made exotic ingredients more accessible. Recent decades have seen a burst of diversity, with cookbooks celebrating everything from Kwanzaa to tamales, and even plant-based feasts. Whether scribbled in braille or passed down in family notes, these books show that holiday cooking is less about what’s on the table and more about the stories simmering behind each dish. Every recipe, after all, is a memory in the making.
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