RIVER ROAD RECIPES II: A Second Helping | Junior League of Baton Rouge | 1986 ©1976

RIVER ROAD RECIPES II: A Second Helping is a regional cookbook first published in 1976 by the Junior League of Baton Rouge and considered by many food experts and critics to include some of the best Cajun, Creole and Southern recipes for the home cook.

It is the second book released in the #1 bestselling community cookbook series of all time, River Road Recipes, and received rave reviews from peers, professional editors, and readers. Craig Claiborne’s A Feast Made for Laughter, called RIVER ROAD RECIPES, "one of the finest, most exciting regional cookbooks to be found in America,” while the New York Times said, “If there were community cookbook Academy Awards, the Oscar for best performance would go hands down to River Road Recipes.” The cookbook is also a Walter McIlhenny Community Cookbook Hall of Fame Winner.

More than 600 recipes for authentic gumbos, jambalayas, courts-bouillons, pralines, and more fill the pages of RIVER ROAD RECIPES II: A Second Helping, including favorites like Crawfish Bisque, Garlic Cheese Grits, Spinach Crêpes Florentine, Old Fashioned Lemon Pie, Black-eyed Peas Sausage Jambalaya and Shrimp Creole.

The 256-page comb bound book is in good condition other than a tear in the middle of the back cover (see images). There are no notes or writing inside and it appears to be unread. This is a copy from the seventeenth printing in 1986. 

A must-have addition to your culinary library, this cookbook is an example of a community cookbook. Frequently published by a group of women as a fundraiser, these treasured cookbooks allow us to gain a unique insight into American culture, social norms, and the collective history during an era. Through the recipes, kitchen equipment used, household hints and headnotes, the reader is provided a valuable snapshot of historical details that might not be documented elsewhere. As a result, these cookbooks have become unofficial records of the past, often valued by collectors and culinary scholars more for their historical relevance, than the recipes inside.