“…Mobile has developed a unique personality… Perhaps you will find some evidence of her history reflected in these recipes; a delightful delicacy of the French, a specialty of Spain, an old Southern recipe. You will discover that what is good from the past has been skillfully adapted to today. So we give to you a ‘RECIPE JUBILEE.'”
– an excerpt from the introduction in “Recipe Jubilee!”
The Junior League of Mobile (JLM) printed “Recipe Jubilee!” in 1964. The name for their first cookbook was chosen two years earlier, and JLM members helped test recipes and put the book together in advance of its launch; an unidentified JLM member is seen in the photograph above with copies of the book.
The book was a huge success, selling 7,000 copies in its first printing in September 1964. The cookbook was famously the first place Bill Bayley’s recipe for West Indies salad was published, and it became an icon in Southern cooking. In 1999, The Tabasco Company inducted “Recipe Jubilee!” into the McIlhenny Hall of Fame. “Recipe Jubilee!” sold more than 164,000 copies over the course of its printing.
By the Numbers
1930 The year the first recorded Junior League cookbook was printed. It was titled “The Junior League Recipe Book” and was privately printed by the Junior League of Los Angeles.
4 The number of cookbooks JLM has published: “Recipe Jubilee!,” “One of a Kind,” “Bay Tables” and “Best of the Bay” (a compliation of the top recipes from The Junior League of Mobile’s prior cookbooks).
95 The number of years that The Junior League of Mobile has served the South Alabama community.
10,000 The number of copies “Recipe Jubilee!” sold during its second reprint in December 1964 and third reprint in September 1967. By 2002, it had reached a total of 13 reprints.
