On Food and History: Celestine Eustis and Her Classic

Cooking In Old Créole Days
La Cuisine Créole À L'Usage Des Petits Ménages.
By Célestine Eustis, with an introduction by S. Weir Mitchell.
New York, R. H. Russell, 1904.

Celestine Eustis (1836 - February 11, 1921)

Célestine Eustis was born in Paris, the daughter of George and Clarisse Allain Eustis of New Orleans. Her father, nephew of Massachusetts governor William Eustis, was a prominent Louisiana attorney who became chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, and was a founder of the Pontchartrain Ra-ilroad Company and Tulane University. Her mother was from a prominent French-speaking Creole family. Though little is recorded concerning Celestine Eustis, she was an influential member of a prominent family. Her brother George Eustis Jr. (1828 - 1872) was a U.S. Congressman, Confederate diplomat to Paris, and expatriate who lived in France after the Civil War with his wife, Louise Morris Corcoran (her father founded the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C.), and their children. Celestine Eustis spent much of her time in France with her brother's family, living in elegance. One account states, "The hotel of Mr. Eustis at Paris, like his villa ['Villa Louisiana'] at Cannes, was the chosen rendezvous of the best French and foreign society." Louise Corcoran Eustis died of tuberculosis in Cannes in 1867, the same year her youngest daughter Louise was born. Five years later, when Eustis' brother George died in Cannes, Eustis was appointed guardian of her niece and two nephews. She was especially close to young Louise, who married New York financier Thomas Hitchcock. Celestine Eustis and the Hitchcocks spent much of their time in Aiken, South Carolina. Considered the founders of the winter colony there, they helped make the town a fashionable place - it became known in the late nineteenth century as a health resort, winter retreat, and polo center for wealthy, prominent families. Eustis helped plan city parks featuring plants and trees from diverse climates, and Eustis Park was named in her honor. A member of St. Mary's Church in Aiken, in 1878 she was instrumental in replacing the church, demolished in a hurricane, with a new, sturdier building, and commissioned French stained glass paintings to adorn the windows. Her other brother, James Biddle Eustis (1834 - 1899), an attorney, leading post-Civil War Louisiana Democrat, and ambassador to Paris under Grover Cleveland (1893) also wintered in Aiken.

In 1904, when Eustis was in her late sixties, she wrote Cooking in Old Créole Days. La cuisine créole à l'usage des petits ménages. Like the stories of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable that were popular at the time, this cookbook was part of an interest in the exotic regional culture of Louisiana and an interest in the Old South. A reflection of her Creole heritage, New Orleans background, French living, and privileged lifestyle, the recipe book celebrates the culinary traditions and dinners produced in the well-staffed kitchens of wealthy Southern society. Eustis frequently pays tribute to particular servants who once prepared the recipes. "Calf's Liver a la Celeste Smith," was originally prepared by "Mme. Eustis Mere's Cook,' and the recipe for "Pot Au Feu" was given to Eustis by "an old colored cook brought up in James Madison's family." Eustis also mentions Mme. Josephine Nicaud, who served in Ambassador Eustis' family for over forty years. The introduction sets the tone for this nostalgic, "noblesse oblige" approach to cookery, recalling the old black cooks of the south, and the delicious food that appeared when they were in charge. The book includes quaint illustrations and old-time song lyrics, which bring to mind Lafcadio Hearn, author of La Cuisine Creole (1885)(included in this collection) and his fascination with the city of New Orleans and its Creole culture.

Eustis died in Aiken, South Carolina at the Hitchcock home, in 1921. Though accounts vary on her birth year, she was approximately eighty-five years old.

This is a handsome book and offers an excellent overview of Creole cooking in and around New Orleans at the beginning of the 20th century. It is considerd one of the classic expositions of this cuisine. [See also La Cuisine Creole.] The book itself contains a series of fine illustrations by Harper Pennington, some of street food sellers. The illustrations have tissue guard sheets printed with words (in French) and music. The book is bilingual, a larger section of recipes in English, the rest in French.

And what splendid recipes; every aspect of Creole cuisine is covered: Jumballaya, Oyster and Peanut Soup, Crawfish Bisque, Pot au Feu, New Orleans Veal with Oysters, Couche Couche, Grillades, Gombo Zherbes - and so much more..

A large number of the recipes are attributed, many to African American cooks. As with so many of the books in this collection, careful perusal of the text will offer much pleasure and information.

Around The American Table:
Treasured Recipes and Food Traditions
from the American Cookery Collections of
The New York Public Library
by Michael Krondl

Eustis, Celestine. Cooking in Old Creole Days: La Cuisine Creole a l'Usage des Petits Menages. New York: R.H. Russell, 1904.

· First Edition, 112p; illus.

· Index

· Holdings: New Orleans Public Library.

· Annotation: It is suprising that this book is not better known as Miss Eustis was descended from a prominent Creole family, and held sway at various times over the social scenes of New Orleans, Paris and Aiken, S.C., a fashionable turn-of-the-century winter retreat. Her book comprises two sections, one in English, the other in French. There are many more recipes in English, and the French versions are not always the same. The English introduction is by S. Weir Mitchell, a prominent doctor and writer of the time, while Miss Eustis saves her thoughts on cuisine for those who read French.

She writes that gumbo, which could be made with "du gibier, de la volaille, de la dinde, de veau, des rogatons, a la rigueur meme un hibou,"* was reserved by the Indians for their feast days, while Creoles ate it at small gatherings following a dance. Miss Eustis is most enthusiastic on the subjects of tomatoes -- "Perhaps no other (vegetable) is capable of appearing in so great a variety of palatable and satisfying dishes." -- and the proper composition and seasoning of salads. There are some unusual puddings. Porcupine pudding is baked apples with a sort of meringue studded with almonds and monkey pudding is a bread pudding baked "until it looks like an old monkey."

She credits some recipes to various elegant hostesses and unusually enough to the cooks, often former slaves. Mme. Josephine Nicaud, who worked for Ambassador Eustis (Miss Eustis's brother) for 40 years is one of those named, and her oyster and peanut soup is an interesting souvenir. The unnamed "cook, born in (President) James Madison's family," is one whose name did not enter the record although her pot au feu and bouillion did. There are several "jumballaya" recipes, varying in complexity, daube glacee, New Orleans veal with oysters and hints for housekeepers, i.e., "Waters in which vegetables have been boiled can be used in cooking, except potato water and cucumber water. They have been known to poison a dog."

The book also contains the menu, in French and English, of a small Creole dinner for the delegates of the New Orleans Press Club, held Feb. 19, 1898.

It is illustrated with various line drawings of local and domestic scenes, and musical notations. Miss Eustis explains their presence by writing of the songs she has heard the black cooks singing as they work.

*"...game, chicken, turkey, veal, leftovers, in a pinch even an owl." Submitted by Sharon Stallworth Nossiter on March 7, 2005.