Every cook knows that the more worn a cookbook is, the more of a staple it is in the kitchen. Each tattered, scorched, dripped-on or torn page indicates a well-loved recipe. “It is Scotch taped together and the cover fell off,” says Margaret Ann Waldrop, pulling out one of her cookbooks. “It opens to my children’s favorite recipe on its own.” The cookbook in question? The Junior League of Mobile’s “Recipe Jubilee!”
Since being published in 1964, the cookbook has become synonymous with local, Southern cooking. Pages upon pages of seafood dishes, appetizers and everyday staples make it a must-have on any shelf. “This is sort of like my Southern version of the Good Housekeeping cookbook that everybody used to own,” says Waldrop. “I don’t think there’s a recipe in there that I haven’t tried.”
Originally from Montgomery, she came to Mobile after marrying her husband and was unfamiliar with Mobile’s traditional fare and how to prepare it, especially seafood dishes. “I had no life experience with seafood, and there’s so much good seafood in this cookbook,” she says. “It really was a Bible for me at first. I learned how to fry oysters through that cookbook. I learned how to do all kinds of things that I never thought I would do.”
When she was an active member of the Junior League of Mobile and served as its 1983-1984 president, she became even better acquainted with Junior League cookbooks. Junior League chapters across the country commonly released cookbooks as a fundraising effort. “I left here so many mornings at six o’clock, going to some Junior League somewhere to do community research and planning,” says Waldrop. “I trained other Leagues who were trying to start projects like the cookbooks. Every Junior League I went to — there must have been 40 or 50 of them — gave me a cookbook. I have a very interesting collection.” She says, however, that her copy of “Recipe Jubilee!” that she received as a wedding present almost 60 years ago reigns supreme in the kitchen.
Junior League of Mobile’s 1993-1994 President Marietta Urquhart remembers her mom contributing to “Recipe Jubilee!” during her time in the League. “She helped with testing recipes,” says Urquhart. “I know the members’ families enjoyed that part!”
Her mom also contributed to the book herself, submitting a cheese wafer recipe that was Urquhart’s grandmother’s. “My mother and father used to make them for friends and we would deliver them,” she says. “I remember as a child running to their doors with the cheese wafers. We would also take a tray of cheese wafers to sit down and visit with relatives.” To this day, Urquhart makes them at every holiday, family gathering and special occasion. They even found their way onto a catering menu at one point. “When my oldest daughter married, Clifton Morrissette was the caterer, and he made them for the wedding,” she says.
Ruth Austill is pictured at upper right in the above photo.
Over the years, The Junior League of Mobile released three cookbooks and a compilation cookbook, with members on the recipe committee and throughout the League developing the overall concept years in advance, sourcing recipes and putting the books together. “My first placement here was on the cookbook committee for ‘One of a Kind,’” says Urquhart of The Junior League of Mobile’s second cookbook.
For her part of the cookbook committee, she and other members were tasked with going to events to cook the recipes and promote the book. “We would usually make desserts because those were easy to take places,” she says. “I got very familiar with cookies and muffins in the ‘One of a Kind’ cookbook.”
And she was active when JLM’s third cookbook, “Bay Tables,” was being put together. She says that creating “Bay Tables” as a coffee table cookbook, with a sleek look and editorial-looking photos, was a more innovative move for a Junior League cookbook at the time. “It was probably one of the first coffee table books that a League published,” she says, “so it was a big deal.”
1992-1993 Junior League of Mobile President Austill Lott also had experience working on “One of a Kind” as the business manager; she is also credited as the Sustaining advisor on “Bay Tables.” “At that time, there were some publishers who specialized in Junior League cookbooks, which got to be a really big thing for a while,” she says.
Community cookbooks have deep roots, with some even dating back to the mid-1800s. They were oftentimes a way fundraise for worthy causes — be it for the war effort, charitable undertakings or community projects — while preserving the recipes and palates of the local area in the process.
The first-ever Junior League cookbook was printed in 1930, and they soon became a popular way to raise money for League chapters across the country. Lott would travel to seminars and meetings that would teach members how to work on cookbooks in their own Leagues.
A recipe from her husband, Vic, was published in the book. “We call it Big Vic’s Shrimp,” she says. “Big Vic is Vic’s daddy, who got the recipe from New Orleans. It’s easy to cook for 12 people, and I always like making it for out-of-town guests, because we have no trouble getting good seafood here.”
Lott credits her aunt, Ruth Austill, as being a highly influential reason why she joined Junior League of Mobile. President from 1977-1978, Austill remembers helping promote “Recipe Jubilee!” in her early days in the League. She still has quite the collection of Junior League cookbooks. “I have every one there ever was from all the Leagues as far as I know that were around during my time,” she laughs. Her sister-in-law was recipe chair for the “Recipe Jubilee!” “She gave me one the year it came out,” she says.
Austill would make an appearance on “Woman’s World” with Connie Bea Hope and Estella Payton once a month to cook recipes from “Recipe Jubilee!” promoting it on television to local viewers and giving a sneak peek into its contents. “I would get a friend, and we would pick out a recipe for that month and make it in the studio,” she says.
More than just testing her skills, Austill credits “Recipe Jubilee!” with teaching her to cook. “When I got married, this is what I could make: chicken breast with cream of mushroom soup on top,” she laughs. “Period. I turned to the book and thought, ‘All right, what else can I make?’” The first recipe she made from the cookbook was chicken and broccoli casserole. “It became a staple, and I cooked it for everybody,” she says.
As it turns out, “Recipe Jubilee!” was a go-to resource for several young women newly tasked with making meals and hosting guests. “When my husband was in medical school, I gave my first dinner party,” says Urquhart. “We were having some of our med school friends over and I was trying to figure out how to host in this little, teeny 700-square-foot apartment. All of my recipes for that party came out of ‘Recipe Jubilee!’” Urquhart made beef stroganoff, a salad and nut crisp, an old dessert recipe that she remembers being served at the Country Club of Mobile. “When I was a young married woman, I made a lot of recipes from ‘Recipe Jubilee!’” she says. “Because my mom helped with it and cooked from it, and I knew who had submitted the recipes, there was a familiarity there where I could say, ‘Oh, yes, I’ve had that before.’”
Waldrop’s go-to JLM recipe was chosen by her children with the cookbook opening to the previously mentioned page that contains her son’s all-time favorite recipe: rice casserole. Specifically, Rice Casserole II (not to be confused with Rice Casserole I right before it). “My son has been the best eater since the day he arrived,” she says. “If he liked a recipe, I put a star or check by it in ‘Recipe Jubilee!’” To this day, the rice casserole is requested at every holiday and family get-together.
However, what lasts beyond beloved cookbooks and treasured recipes are the lessons and opportunities gained through The Junior League of Mobile. For the past presidents, being a part of — and leading — the organization was instrumental in their lives. “Something that really appealed to me was the community service aspect,” says Lott. “Junior League International was a very forward-thinking organization, and it filtered down to us. I was honored when they asked me to be president, but I thought about it because it is a commitment. You’re very busy — it’s like a job. But I love working with people and it is very rewarding.”
Waldrop says the first thing she did when she agreed to be president was taking a time-management course, which taught her skills she still uses today. “To try to manage being a mother and president of the Junior League and a wife at the same time, it’s a lot,” she says. “I am so much better at time management and public speaking and community research.” Her skills served her well in her role on various committees, boards and organizations, including on the board of Junior League International for two years. “The thing with Junior League is, if you’re not already organized when you get there, you will be when you leave, for sure,” she says. “It’s a great model and it’s good for the community, but it’s great for the members, too. It served me for the rest of my life.”
Urquhart, too, credits her years in JLM with shaping her leadership style. Just a few of her titles include being the chairman of the board of UMS-Wright Preparatory School, president of the Community Foundation of South Alabama, vice-chair of the board of the National Maritime Museum of the Gulf, board member for the Alabama Business Hall of Fame and recently retiring from the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System after 20 years. “I wouldn’t have been as effective if I had not had that Junior League training,” she says. “Having a seat at the table where decisions were being made about the community, that was a big deal. It started my career in public service.”
Other past presidents agree. The Junior League of Mobile’s projects — which include founding and staffing the first Mobile Public Library Bookmobile, and establishing the United Cerebral Palsy Center, the Preschool for the Sensory Impaired and The Exploreum, to name a few — speak for themselves and still shine as an example of the organization’s impact. “What the Junior League of Mobile did was start something and then give it to the community,” says Austill. “It was very fulfilling for me, and it was great what we gave to the community.”
More than just regular cookbooks, the Junior League of Mobile cookbooks serve a dual role: a resource for quintessentially Southern recipes and a reminder of the impact and heart behind the organization. Of them all, “Recipe Jubilee!” has proved to be one of the most enduring. “My other Junior League cookbooks are beautiful, and every now and then, I sit down and look at them for fun,” says Waldrop. “But if I’m going to cook, it’s going to be from ‘Recipe Jubilee!’”
The book has been out of print for years, but that does not deter devotees, who have spent hours trying to obtain copies at thrift shops and resale websites. “When my daughter-in-law married my son, which was 19 years ago, I turned the United States upside down looking for a ‘Recipe Jubilee!’ for me to give at her kitchen shower,” says Waldrop. Who knew that the decision to put out the first JLM cookbook in 1964 would lead to over 164,000 copies sold and a spot in many Southern kitchens? “It was a big deal to put that first one out,” says Urquhart. “I love the illustrations that Barbara Ann Guthans did. It’s so retro now, but the recipes and everything hold up.”
4 Junior League of Mobile Cookbook Recipes
Vic’s Oven Shrimp
From “One of a Kind”
Austill Lott often makes her shrimp for a crowd, using it to showcase our bountiful supply of local seafood. It was already a family favorite by the time she submitted it to “One of a Kind.”
SERVES 12
Ingredients
1 pound butter
1 pound margarine
1 teaspoon rosemary
6 ounces Worcestershire sauce
5 tablespoons black pepper
4 teaspoons salt
4 lemons, sliced thin
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
10 pounds washed, headless shrimp in the shell (medium to large size)
Directions
1. Heat the first 8 ingredients to the boiling point. Pour over the shrimp in a large, shallow pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
2. Serve with a green salad and French bread. The juice is delicious with the bread.
Cheese Wafers With Pecans
From “Recipe Jubilee!”
Marietta Urquhart often makes the cheese wafer dough in double batches, freezing it for a quick appetizer later. She often gets her pecans from B&B Pecans in Fairhope, the perfect size for topping.
YIELDS 15 DOZEN
Ingredients
1 stick butter minus a portion equal to a pat served in restaurants (Do not substitute margarine)
1 pound New York State cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper
1 cup flour
Pecans
Directions
1. Set butter out to soften. Grate cheese into large bowl. Cream cheese and butter together by hand. Add salt and pepper and cream well. Add flour to mixture a little at a time. Work mixture by hand until it is smooth and can be rolled into a ball.
2. Divide the dough into three portions. Roll each portion of the dough back and forth on a piece of waxed paper until you have a long slender roll about the diameter of a 50-cent piece. Wrap in waxed paper. Store in refrigerator until hard or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 225 or 250 degrees. With a sharp knife slice the cheese into thin wafers.
4. Place on aluminum foil covered cookie sheet. Place a pecan half in center of each wafer. Remove from oven when only a few bubbles remain on tops, about 30 minutes. Yields 15 dozen wafers.
* Cook’s Notes: Mixture keeps well in refrigerator for at least two weeks. Marietta lines the sheet with parchment paper.
Rice Casserole II
From “Recipe Jubilee!”
Margaret Ann Waldrop put a star or a check by every recipe her family especially liked from “Recipe Jubilee.” The rice casserole is her contribution at every holiday.
SERVES 10-12
Ingredients
1 cup rice (Margaret Ann likes to use Basmati rice)
1/2 stick butter
1 can chicken consommé
1 can onion soup
Garlic salt
2 teaspoons Parmesan cheese
Dash of Cayenne
Slivered almonds
Directions
1. Stir rice and butter together over low fire until light brown. Add remaining ingredients.
2. Bake in covered dish in 325-degree oven for 1 hour.
Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
From “Recipe Jubilee!”
SERVES 8
Ingredients
2 packages frozen broccoli or
1 bunch fresh broccoli
4 chicken breasts, cooked and boned
2 cans cream of chicken soup (undiluted)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 cup shredded sharp American cheese
2 cups toasted breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon butter or margarine, melted
Directions
1. Cook the broccoli and drain, arrange in a greased baking dish. Place the chicken on top. Mix the soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry powder together and pour over chicken. Sprinkle with cheese. Combine breadcrumbs with melted butter and sprinkle on top of cheese.
2. Bake in 350-degree oven 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. This dish can be fixed the day before and kept in refrigerator. Allow a little extra heating time in this case.
