Shirley Broussard looks through a 1955 Cajun - Creole Cookery Cookbook. The New Iberia resident enjoys thumbing through older cookbooks for old favorites.

Generational family recipes can be captivating and revealing of the food choice, nutrition, health and signature products of an era. The flavors and old food favorites leave a hint of life’s enjoyment in days gone by.

Volumes of the Cajun Creole Cookbook, now presented by Cajun Sugar Co-op and The Daily Iberian, are among the many nostalgic cookbooks that have a found a rightful place on the shelves of cookbook collectors. For more than six decades, cooks have referred back to the cookbook for traditional and nontraditional recipes.

As Cajun Sugar Co-op and The Daily Iberian collect recipes to publish the 62nd volume in September, the cookbook stands as a reminder of the many time-honored Cajun and Creole recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation and the various ethnic groups that have influenced the local cuisine.

The Daily Iberian’s first publication in 1952 served as souvenir to the Sugar Cane Festival celebration with pictures and stories of the festival’s parades, queens and activities. In addition, hundreds of recipes reflected the rich cuisine of the area.

Shirley Broussard has been contributing recipes for the publication for the past 15 years. Although the cookbook’s name took on a slight change over the years from “Cajun and Creole Cookery” to “Cajun / Creole Cookbook,” Broussard said she gets as much enjoyment from looking through the older publications as the newer ones.

“There are so many of the older recipes that have been put aside and we sometimes forget about them,” she said

Broussard said the older cookbooks provide more than just recipes — often furnishing a glimpse back into time.

“The recipe ingredients, recipe names and cookbook advertisements tell a lot about each era. Back in the day, more high calorie and fatty ingredients were used in recipes. Some of the older recipes now call for ingredients that are on the healthier side. So many of the older recipes called for bacon drippings or lard, but that has been replaced with healthier substitutes,” said Broussard.

Catherine Wattigny, guest food columnist for The Daily Iberian and longtime contributor to the cookbook, said cookbooks are a good way to refresh the mind of days gone by.

“I keep as many of the Cajun / Creole Cookbooks as possible and refer back to them. There are so many oldie but goodie recipes that we forget about. It is interesting to see how the products and recipe ingredients have evolved over the years,” said Wattigny.

In the early 1950s, McIlhenny Tabasco Co. was touting its spicy sauce synonymous with four generations as more than just a seafood and condiment sauce. It was the sauce to give zip and zest to plain and inexpensive budget foods. It guaranteed to take food out of the ordinary or commonplace and make it fit for the epicure. The Tabasco recipes varied from simple to gourmet with such recipes as “Two Ways to Change the Hotdog,” “Tabasco Bean Special” and as an elite condiment used in a “Guineas a La Creole” recipe.

A reprinted newspaper filler showed the unusual requests from the U.S. Eighth Army Quartermasters from foreign units for special rations. Thailand troops were asking that one standard table-sized bottle of Tabasco be included in their rations per man, per week. Their request reflected their love of spice. The article referred to a comparison that one bottle of Tabasco would last an American family a couple of months.

The 1950s cookbooks reflected the Cajuns love for fish and fishing with recipes such a Creole Bouillabaisse, Courtbouillon and fish gumbo made with catfish, crawfish, shrimp and gaspergou.

Many of the seafood recipes featured pompano, considered the crowning glory of the fish of New Orleans markets. It was a time when “Les Ecrevisses (Crawfish) for Sale” appeared on chalked blackboards in front of markets and restaurants as a true indication of spring in south Louisiana.

The cookbooks always offered a diverse group of recipes ranging from the gourmet such as “Filet of Beef A La Bearnaise” with fine tenderloins broiled rare to an old-fashioned Cajun recipe of “Brain Timbales” prepared with 1 pound of brains cooked in well-seasoned vinegar and served in crispy pastry pie shells or over dry toast.

The 1954 Cajun Creole Cookery included a dash of French headings added to honor the excellent cooks of French background and also included a roundup of nationality recipes.

It was a time when “Viens boire use tasse de café” — the French invitation to have a cup of coffee — was the prelude to may friendships and many secrets shared in the Creole-Cajun kitchens.

Coffee made the Creole country distinctive. The brew was not only strong and flavorsome, but coffee-drinking was a ceremony to be observed frequently during the day with friends. It was made in a small French drip pot, distinctive to the area. It was always served in small delicate cups since the brew was so strong and little was needed to fill the cups.

Luzianne signet blend pure coffee was advertised as a “full bodied real honest to goodness cup of coffee” and with every package came valuable coupons worth thousands of beautiful prizes. Varied coffee flavors and blends were limited in the 1950s. Café Au Lait was the favorite and easily prepared by mixing 1 quart of hot milk, 1 pint Creole coffee and 3/4 cups sugar.

For frying, blending and baking, cooks would turn to LouAna shortening packaged in blocks and made from 100 cottonseed oil. Acadian Couch-Couch was a favorite breakfast dish served with milk and sugar as a cereal or with cane syrup and crisp bacon. The couch-couch was fried in hot lard, with little regards to the high calorie count.

In later years, the cookbook expanded into a cookoff competition to help raise funds for United Way. Some of the recipes were put to the test with judges selecting a first-place winner from four finalists in each of the cookbook’s featured categories.

“The Cajun / Creole Cookbook serves to flatter many talented cooks in our area by the delicious family recipes it contains. After preparing many recipes of past editions, I became personally involved by submitting some of my own recipes in 2006 and have enjoyed the experience every year since,” said Wattigny.

“I am always in awe of the wide range of culinary skills brought t the competition by women and men alike, and of the generosity of our community which supports this competition benefiting the workings of the United Way in our area.”

Joanie Kraker, a cookbook collector who has participated in numerous cookoff competitions, frequently refers back to old cookbooks for recipes.

“It is good to keep recipes. I am a hoarder of recipes and I can never have enough recipes books. I always have fun submitting recipes, especially if I’m invited to the cook off,” said Kraker. “I am always surprised at the new recipes that people come up with.”

Deadline to submit recipes for the 2013 cookbook is Monday. Recipes are needed for eight categories including Vegetables, Rice & Jambalaya, Salads, Appetizers, Soups/Gumbos, Desserts, Meats/Fowl and Seafood. In addition, a drawing will be held among all who submit recipes for a chance to win a portion of $250 in free groceries. Submit one or more in each category.

Besides a good recipe, we’d love to hear about any story that goes along with it. Tells us if it is a family recipe that has been passed down through generations, how the recipe originated or if its a new recipe that may be destined to soon-become a handed-down favorite of your family and why it is a favorite.

We’re also interested in any cooking tips you have to offer to improve the taste of a recipe or make cooking easier. It can be a secret ingredient for a family recipe or a tip passed on down from your mother, grandmother or great-grandmother that has helped to improve a recipe.

Recipes and cooking tips can be emailed to dailyiberian@cox.net, mailed to P.O. Box 9290, New Iberia, LA 70562. Recipes can also be dropped of to The Daily Iberian, 926 E. Main St. or faxed to 367-9640.