A University Is Turning Historical Mexican Recipes Into Free E-Books

The project is meant to inspire home cooks
during the pandemic

“In February, Gastro Obscura broke the exciting news that The University of Texas at San Antonio was digitizing the largest collection of historic Mexican cookbooks in the United States. While the spread of COVID-19 has since brought that project to a screeching halt, the university is now releasing recipes from the collection in free e-books.

The UTSA Libraries released the first of the mini-cookbooks earlier this month. Postres: Guardando Lo Mejor Para el Principio, or “Desserts: Saving the Best for First,” brings recipes in English and Spanish from generations of Mexican cooks to foodies at home looking to whip up some historic sweets.

The e-book series, Recetas: Cocinando en los Tiempos del Coronavirus/Cooking in the Time of Coronavirus, is the culmination of a 20-year collection effort by the UTSA Libraries Special Collections. What started with a 500-book donation in 2001 grew into a 2,000-plus collection of Mexican recipe books, some dating back to 1789. Special Collections Librarian Stephanie Noell has sought to make the collection more accessible. “I want anybody with an internet connection to be able to see these works,” she said to Gastro Obscura in February. Her team managed to digitize 55 cookbooks before the pandemic forced university staff to work remotely.

Releasing the e-books is something of a stopgap until the librarians can continue their digitization project. “People can’t come in to look at the cookbooks, and we’re limited in the number of cookbooks we had scanned, so we just wanted to provide people with another way to access them,” says Noell.”

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