Cookbooks & Cookery, Menus, Recipes, & Preserving Food - Special Collections Research Center

The Special Collections Research Center has more than 1,000 cookbooks and cookery titles, menus, and manuscripts with recipes for cooking and preserving food. There are tips on the use of tobacco, the making of spirits such as wine, and the distilling of hard liquors. 

In the oral history collections are recordings about Kentucky distilleries and individual stories about the family farm, gardening, canning, and curing. The photograph archives has pictures of gardens, kitchens, cooks, food, and food preparation.

There are online titles, some with ads for cooking stoves. There are also recipes within the online historical Kentucky newspapers found in the Kentucky Digital Library.

The various materials are dated from the 1500s to the present year.  Our collections are available for use in the Breckinridge Reading Room 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. M-F.

This research guide was completed with assistance from Dr. James Birchfield, Curator of Rare Books Emeritus, and Librarian Cindy Cline, Cataloger - Special Formats Unit.

Photograph images from Microsoft Ciipart.

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