Electricity sparked a revolution for rural home cooks, and treasured family holiday recipes, passed down for generations, have withstood the test of time

Stories by Addie Broyles

In the years after Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative brought electricity to its members in 1939, light bulbs banished the darkness and power pumped water into homes. Lives were transformed. 

For families, however, the big changes hit home when electricity reached the kitchen. The difficult, tedious and hot work of cooking was soon to become a memory. 

New kitchen appliances and available ingredients arrived and evolved over the coming decades. Schedules got busier and lives got complicated, but one tradition — eating home-cooked meals with family and friends — remained a priority. People gathered at church and social potlucks, dinner parties brought friends together, and old recipes — with the stories that came along with them — were passed to the next generation. 

An old family dish lives on each time a member of the next generation makes it. Many of these tried-and-true favorites — captured on worn recipe cards, in fragile newspaper clippings or in faded copies in three-ring binders — make an annual appearance during the holidays.

Community cookbooks are among the most treasured sources of old recipes. They began to appear during the Civil War, when groups of women gathered recipes to sell for the care of war veterans. The cookbooks became popular with church groups, schools and community organizations, allowing them to raise money and share beloved dishes with friends and neighbors. 

There is no more definitive source of community cookbooks in the state than The Texas Collection, Baylor University’s oldest special collections library which houses more than 9,000 cookbooks from around the state, including several thousand community cookbooks. Much of the collection was donated by the late Houston Chronicle food writer Ann Criswell and Houston cookbook collector Elizabeth Borst White. 

The vast collection, which also includes restaurant menus and traditional cookbooks, includes at least 15 community-made books from the Bluebonnet region. The earliest is a 1926 collection of “receipts” — an earlier term for recipes — from First Baptist Church in Caldwell. The most recent cookbook, “Tasty Treats and Jazzy Eats,” a 2011 publication from Lockhart, was compiled in honor of Alison Berry, a 31-year-old woman who died in 2009. 

The books in the Texas Collection are a treasure trove of recipes from Bluebonnet’s communities. Many of the cooks are long gone, but their favorite recipes live on. 

Two of the collection’s cookbooks are from St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Brenham, which opened in 1848, a year after the town was founded. One cookbook, from 1946, contains recipes with old-school dishes and ingredients, like sweet potatoes and possum, staples of the early Texan’s diet. Another dish was syllabub, a cream-based, whipped-sherry cocktail. By the 1940s, most home cooks didn’t rely on hunting and gathering, but they still foraged for figs and dewberries. Some of the dishes from this cookbook sound as if they could be on menus today: eggs baked in tomatoes, meatloaf, chicken enchiladas, skillet cornbread, coconut macaroons, maple syrup mousse and mint sherbet. 

The Rev. Stephen F. Whaley, rector of St. Peter’s in Brenham, said food is still a big part of the church’s life. “After a funeral, there’s a pretty big spread with finger foods: cucumber sandwiches, pimiento cheese, chicken salad,” he said. “At our potlucks, people break out the King Ranch casserole, cheesy spaghetti and fried chicken.” Then there are the church’s musical events, where you’re more likely to see pork sliders, a newer dish in the Washington County food canon, served alongside a cheese ball, the humble party dish that hit the hostess scene in the 1940s. 

The influence of Czech and German cultures caught Whaley’s eye when he moved from Houston to Brenham seven years ago. “If you call a klobasnek a kolache, you’ll get corrected,” he said. Klobásníky, a sausage roll developed by Texas Czechs in the 19th century, are often mistaken by relative newcomers for their sweet kolache counterparts.

For dessert, instead of the cottage cheese pie featured in the 1946 cookbook, you’re more likely to see store-bought baked goods — likely because of busy family schedules — on the potluck table these days. There are still homemade lemon bars, peach cobbler and the occasional ambrosia salad (served at the front of the line as an appetizer, not a dessert), Whaley said. “And then there’s Cathy Stuckert’s bar that’s like a cookie but is not a cookie,” he said about one dessert published in the church’s 1991 cookbook, which is also in the Baylor collection. “Everybody’s always asking for those.” See recipe, Page 20.

The Burleson County Czech Heritage Museum in Caldwell has published at least nine community cookbooks in the past 80 years, said Amy Jurica, co-chair of the Burleson County Historical Commission. Many of those recipes reference Monravian, Polish, German and Italian culinary traditions, as well as Czech food from families like Jurica’s. Her mother, Helen Jurica, was on committees that helped publish some of those cookbooks. 

“My ancestors made do with what they could grow,” Jurica said. “They ate cabbage they grew in the garden and the pork from the hog they butchered, and kolaches with cottage cheese and poppy seeds, not cherries. That was an American change that came later.” 

Jurica’s own cooking has evolved. She no longer makes a rice casserole that called for a can of cream of chicken soup and Ritz crackers, but still prepares a chicken noodle soup and a cucumber salad that her grandmother made, closely following the original recipes.  

She dreams about the knedliky, or bread dumplings, made with butter, sugar, cinnamon and prunes. “We would fight over them at Christmas,” Jurica recalled. “I would stand there at the pot with my grandmother, waiting for them to finish cooking.” She has tried to make them herself, but they don’t taste like the ones made by grandmother Mimi, who died at 92 in 2018.

“You can tell what they were growing, what they could buy at the store,” Jurica said as she flipped through other cookbooks in the collection, pausing at a familiar inscription: “This one says, ‘From Mom, Christmas 2003,’ ” she said, her voice wavering. 

Her mother died at 74 in 2020. Jurica still makes her sauerkraut soup. 

Beverly McMurrey joined her mother as a member of the Lexington Garden Club in the early 1990s, after a three-decade career that started in information technology at Texas Instruments in Richardson. McMurrey, now 80, said her mother, Fae McMurrey, contributed to several community cookbooks, including a 2007 edition that Beverly McMurrey still has in her kitchen. 

As she flipped through the book, McMurrey laughed at a recipe she submitted. “My recipe is a mock English trifle cake with all store-bought stuff,” she said. “You can tell I don’t cook.” Her mother’s recipes — creamy pumpkin pie, baked grits, Oreo ice cream pie — are the kinds of dishes her mother loved to make for her family and for the garden club’s meetings, which started in 1967. 

She reads names of the cookbook’s contributors out loud. Several remind McMurrey of garden club friends over the years, many of whom have died.

“I’m not big on the food, but it’s the people for me,” she said.

What Central Texans ate before and after electricity 

By Addie Broyles

The earliest residents of what would become the Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative service area — indigenous peoples and then Spanish colonists — ate what lived and grew on the land: native fruits and nuts, wild game and fish. 

Corn, beans and squash came later, and Spanish settlers brought cattle, hogs and other livestock. In the 19th century, immigrant European settlers enjoyed plentiful meat, but had to replace Irish potatoes with sweet potatoes. Flour was expensive and often replaced with corn meal. Traditional dishes were adapted to this new homeland until ingredients from native lands became available. Wheat, then rice, became common. Southern, Mexican and Black cuisines became part of the mix. 

Many rural Texas cooks of the 1800s and early 1900s canned, preserved or pickled seasonal vegetables and fruit. Meat was preserved in the same ways, but also by salting, smoking or drying. Food was cooked over wood- or coal-fired open hearths, and later in cast-iron — then steel — cookers. In towns, general stores offered staples such as sugar, salt and coffee.

By the early 20th century, many Central Texans had non-mechanical wood and metal “ice boxes” that held a large block of ice in an upper compartment to cool perishable food below. 

In 1926, "Cook Book: Choice Receipts Written by the Ladies of Caldwell," put together by the members of that community’s First Baptist Church, included recipes for stewed chicken, cream veal, chicken à la king, griddle cakes, potato peanut loaf and cream of tomato soup. 

After the Depression, many rural homes had been wired for electricity but some folks waited years to turn on the lights. Then electric refrigerator and cooker sales began to soar. About 44% of American homes had refrigerators by the end of the 1930s; that number doubled in the next decade.      

Electric cookers, with a stove on one side and an oven next to it, gave way in the 1950s to electric stovetop burners atop the oven. Those allowed home cooks to maintain constant temperatures, which improved the quality and efficiency of their cooking.

Electricity brought radio and television programs into Central Texas homes, with commercials for products that influenced grocery sales. The baby boom generation spurred a grocery boom in the 1950s and 1960s, when food companies invented new convenient products such as Shake ’n Bake, Cool Whip, Frosted Flakes, Minute Rice and Doritos.  

Waves of new appliances over the decades — blenders, stand mixers, pop-up toasters, juicers, food processors — simplified cooking. Even microwaves, introduced during the Cold War era, became mainstream in the 1970s. 

The innovations continue: Today’s new kitchen appliances continue expanding home cooks’ culinary repertoires and imaginations, creating new traditions for tomorrow’s generations.

Sources: Texas Historical Commission, Texas State Historical Association, Smithsonian Magazine, Business Insider, History.com, Texas Collection at Baylor University, Texas Foodways Alliance, “Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America” by Laura Shapiro  

We’re looking for favorite family recipes and community cookbook treasures

So you have a beloved holiday recipe or cooking tradition that’s been passed down for generations? Or have you been making a favorite holiday dish from a time-worn community cookbook? 

Take the Martinez-Rodriguez family of Bastrop. Eva Martinez was 10 when her mother taught her to make the spicy red mole, which translates to “sauce,” that is central to their holiday and family celebrations.  

Today, more than 50 years later, the Martinez-Rodriguez family carries on the cherished tradition of making the dish passed down by Angela Zamora, originally from Guerrero, Mexico, who was 82 when she passed away in 2020. 

The mole requires hours of preparation. Eva and her children — especially her youngest daughter, Isidra Rodriguez Kinney — gather to make it for special occasions.

“Mole was always a dish we made when the entire family came together,” said Isidra Rodriguez Kinney. “It takes so much work that everyone has to help. I remember helping stir the sauce for a very long time.”

Isidra learned the recipe through repetition and memory, just as Eva Martinez learned from her mother. Now, Isidra, 32, and her four siblings are passing it down to their 18 children. 

From toasting ingredients — including garlic, comino, cloves, peppers, bay leaves, raisins, chicken broth and guajillo chili — to stirring the sauce, everyone pitches in. You can see the Martinez-Rodriguez family’s mole recipe below.

Would you like to share the story of your beloved holiday dish? Write about it (150 words or less) and email to socialmedia@bluebonnet.coop by Dec. 20. Include the recipe if you want. We’ll share some on Bluebonnet’s social media.

Blasts from the past

Heirloom recipes live on in cookbooks, kitchens across the Bluebonnet region

Martinez-Rodriguez Family Spicy Red Mole Recipe

2 teaspoons comino (cumin)
4 garlic cloves
2-3 whole cloves
6-8 dried guajillo chilies, stems and seeds removed
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup raisins
4 cups chicken broth
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small piece of bread (about 1-2 inches)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
 
In a skillet, toast the guajillo chilies over medium heat until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. In the same skillet, toast the comino, garlic, cloves, bay leaves and bread until lightly browned and set aside. Place the toasted guajillo chilies in warm water for about 15-20 minutes until softened. Drain and set aside. In a blender, combine the soaked chilies, toasted ingredients, raisins, tomatoes and onion. Blend until smooth, adding a little chicken broth as needed to help the mixture come together.
 
In a large pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the blended paste and cook, stirring constantly, for about 5-7 minutes. Gradually add the remaining chicken broth, stirring continuously until the sauce thickens and the flavors meld, about 20-30 minutes. Generously ladle sauce over cooked chicken.

Hot Hoppin’ John Salad

Hoppin' John came to Texas by way of the Southern United States, where the black-eyed pea dish has been a staple for more than 200 years. It became a traditional good-luck New Year’s Eve dish during the Civil War. Black-eyed peas, which originated in West Africa, grew well in the South, but this version calls for canned peas. This recipe, originally published in the Austin American-Statesman, was shared by the Saint Ann’s Society of Sacred Heart Church in Rockne in their 2006 cookbook, “Generations.” The women’s group at the church published its first cookbook in 1948. Longtime group member Letitia “Tish” Wilhelm got this recipe many years ago. 

1 cup coarsely chopped or cubed ham, any kind 
1 cup chopped onion, divided 
2 cloves garlic, minced 
1 tablespoon vegetable oil 
3 cups hot cooked white rice, cooked in chicken broth 
1 (16-ounce) can black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained 
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce 
1/2 teaspoon cracked black pepper 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
2 slices bacon 
4 cups finely shredded green cabbage 

Cook ham, 1/2 cup onion and garlic in oil until lightly browned. Stir in rice, peas, pepper sauce, pepper and salt. Cook until thoroughly heated. Place bacon in large skillet; cook until crisp. Set aside, drain all but 1 tablespoon drippings. Add cabbage and remaining onion. Stir-fry until tender. Spoon onto large platter. Ladle rice mixture into center of cabbage. Serve hot or at room temperature. Crumble bacon on top of salad. Makes 6 servings. 

Macaroni and Cheese Deluxe 

Mac and cheese has been around much longer than the iconic blue Kraft box, which hit store shelves in 1937. James Hemings, the enslaved chef of President Thomas Jefferson, brought the dish to the United States in the late 1700s after a trip to Europe. Once Velveeta, the meltable cheese that needed no refrigeration, was available, it didn't take long for this casserole to become popular in even more homes. Norma Blundell of Lockhart contributed this recipe to “Family Favorites,” a 1959 cookbook published by the Christian Women’s Fellowship at First Christian Church in Lockhart.  

1 (6- or 7-ounce) box of macaroni, cooked and drained
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
1/8 teaspoon salt 
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup diced cooked ham
1/2 pound grated mild cheddar cheese

Melt butter, stir in flour and cook until bubbly. Gradually add milk and heat until thickened. Add cheese and heat until cheese is melted. Stir in sour cream, salt, pepper and mustard. Place half of macaroni in a casserole dish, then top with half of ham and sauce. Repeat with remainder of macaroni, ham and sauce. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Breakfast Casserole

Baked breakfasts — soufflés and spoon breads, grits and bread pudding — have a long history, both abroad and later in the United States. By the middle of the 20th century, most families had a favorite breakfast casserole of some kind. In Lee County, the late Fae McMurrey of Lexington used to make this breakfast casserole for members of the local garden club, founded in 1967. After her mother’s death, Beverly McMurrey submitted several recipes in her honor for a 2007 garden club community cookbook called “Simple Pleasures.” The cookbook includes this ham-and-sausage casserole recipe, which calls for a 9-by-11-inch glass baking dish, a near-ubiquitous baking container dating back to the 1915 introduction of low-thermal-expansion borosilicate glass, aka Pyrex. 

4 tablespoons butter
8 slices bread, cubed
10 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 (10.5-ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 to 1 cup shaved ham
1 pound breakfast sausage, cooked, drained and crumbled
5 eggs
2 cups milk

Melt butter in 9-by-13-inch Pyrex dish. Place bread cubes in butter. On top of bread, layer the cheese, soup, ham and sausage. Beat eggs until fluffy, add milk. Pour egg-milk mixture over other ingredients, let sit refrigerated overnight. Set Pyrex dish in a larger dish filled with water. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Graham Cracker Cookies

Cathy Stuckert, a retired teacher and speech and language therapist in Brenham, got this layered cookie bar recipe from a colleague about 50 years ago. This recipe is in “From Our Kitchen to Yours with Love,” a 1991 cookbook from St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Brenham, where the cookies are still a hit. The recipe calls for PET milk, a brand of unsweetened condensed milk that dates back to the late 1880s. Graham crackers date back to 1880 and were named after New England minister Sylvester Graham, who advocated a strict religious diet that included whole wheat-germ flour. 

20 whole graham crackers, divided
2 8-tablespoon sticks butter, divided
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup PET evaporated milk, plus 3 tablespoons, divided 
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup shredded coconut, toasted (preferably finely shredded, like Angel Flake from Baker’s)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Lay out two stacks of graham crackers, 7½ crackers in each stack. Crumble the remaining 5 whole graham crackers into very small pieces for use in the filling. Set aside. Line a 9-by-13-inch pan with one of the stacks of graham crackers as the bottom layer.  
Prepare the filling: On low heat on the stovetop, melt 1½ sticks butter with granulated sugar.  Add the beaten egg combined with the ½ cup evaporated milk. Then raise heat and boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add the pecans, coconut and crumbled graham crackers. Mix, then pour/spoon over the bottom layer of whole graham crackers. Lay the second layer of whole graham crackers side by side over the filling.
Prepare the icing with the remaining butter, the remaining evaporated milk, and the powdered sugar and vanilla. Pour the icing to cover the top layer of graham crackers. Place in the refrigerator to chill completely. Cut into squares and serve cold. Store in refrigerator.

Mandarin Orange Cake 

Boxed cake mixes came out in the early 1930s, but recipes like this Mandarin Orange Cake from the 1983 cookbook, “Favorite Recipes of Fayette Co. Extension Homemakers Club,” show the “helper products” stayed popular. This recipe is from Ruby Martinek, a teacher for more than 40 years, starting in Ellinger in the early 1930s. Her daughter, Jan Jurecka, still lives in Ellinger and has fond childhood memories of her mother’s cooking. 

1 (15.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix 
3/4 cup vegetable oil 
3 eggs 
1 (11-ounce) can mandarin oranges 

Topping: 
1 (16-ounce) carton refrigerated (not frozen) Cool Whip
1 (3.4-ounce) packet instant vanilla pudding
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9-by-13 inch baking dish. Combine cake ingredients and mix. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes. While the cake cools, mix topping ingredients by hand in a small bowl. Spread over cooled cake.