An Army Wife's Cookbook
The Commander's wife's kitchen was separated from the main living quarters. Mrs. Alice Kirk Grierson's kitchen has been well documented in the history of Old Fort Davis. Authentically restored, the building sits on the Fort grounds surrounded by the rugged landscape as it was in the late 1800's.
*Mrs. Grierson copied recipes from her personal cookbook for the kitchen staff. Her original cookbook rarely was used in the frontier kitchen.
*Her handwritten recipes were in a bound book which also contained household hints. Other recipes clipped from newspapers and collected from friends and family were included.
All photos by Sue McPeak ©reserved
My copy of An Army Wife's Cookbook was purchased at Old Fort Davis' Visitors Center. *The original cookbook had over six hundred recipes, many of which were duplicates. Over half of the recipes were for desserts and few were for main dishes or vegetables.
*In 1968, Mrs. Grierson's cookbook was donated to the National Park Services at Fort Davis National Historic Site.
*Some of the culinary adventures described by other officers' wives have been included to give readers a glimpse into the kitchen of a frontier army wife.
Frontier Fort and Commander Benjamin Grierson's wife Alice K. Grierson
On the Web History:
*Paraphrased text from cookbook/*italics quoted text.
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Half dessert recipes sounds good! Actually, I have a lot more dessert/cookies/cakes and pie recipes than main dishes. I collect those comb-bound fundraiser cookbooks. Fascinating to see the notes written in them, and how some recipes are often limited to certain parts of the country.
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