“AS STRONG AS LOVE, AS BLACK AS NIGHT AND AS HOT AS THE DEVIL”

DE BARALT, Blanche Zacharie. Cuban Cookery. With an Appendix on Cuban Drinks. Havana: Molina & Cia., [circa 1942]. Octavo, original black cloth, original red paper cover label. $1300.

Early edition of this classic Cuban cookbook, revealing the “gastronomic secrets of the tropics," along with popular cocktails, including the Cuban Mojo.

This all-encompassing Cuban cookbook is intended as "a first aid manual for those who have tasted and would 'like some more' of the good things partaken of during their stay in Cuba, and a bird's eye view of a new culinary field." In addition to a wonderful collection of recipes, this features what is reportedly the first printing in book form of a Cuban mojito—here titled a "Rum Cocktail (Cuban mojo)" (p. 139). Author Blanche Zacharie de Baralt, a widely respected diplomat and historian, was the first woman to receive a doctorate from the University of Havana. First published in Havana in the virtually unobtainable 1931 edition by Editorial Hermes. Noling, Beverage Literature, 50. Not in Cagle & Stafford.

A fine copy.