Image Buffet: Red Meat

The Republican Woman's Cookbook: Meats
National Federation of Republican Women, Montgomery, Alabama, 1969.

I don't imagine Maine was voting Democratic, so I'll assume it was on principle that the GOP promoted apartheid South Africa's lobster industry.

Another sponsor: the Florida Citrus Commission. Though it wasn't until the late '70s that anti-gay rights agitation by a newly political religious right would become associated with Florida orange juice—or that a boycott would then target the product.

Interesting that the group was based in Montgomery, even before the full-blown Southern Strategy. At the time, racists could still run as Democrats and be elected to offices across the South. During most of the 1960s, for instance, George (and later, Lurleen) Wallace held the Alabama governorship as Democrats. Wallace was re-elected in 1972, then ran in Democratic presidential primaries.

If Nixon's plan for the South was not yet in evidence, the little woman puts in an appearance (cloth coat not in evidence, either)...

Also (from the Introduction): "No matter how involved Republican women become in the local and national scene, we are primarily interested in our homes and families." So it was then as it is now— at least for purposes of public consumption and culture war branding.

Some recipes set out to maintain the brand—

There are proletarian meals, and it's even possible to believe some of these people weren't faking ("Governor Romney's Favorite Bean Soup").

The senator wasted no time or fuss in the kitchen.

Hers was one of only a handful of attributions under a woman's own name. Some are names they just don't make anymore...

Fern R. Uglick, Corr. Sec.
16th and 17th Wards WRC 7
Toldedo, Ohio

Florence P. Toothaker, Sec.-Treasurer
Platte Valley RWC
Encampment, Wyoming

Shirley B. Hassdenteufel, Prof. Chm.
New Windsor WRC
New Windsor, New York

Male officeholders and cabinet officers offered recipes under their own names, but submissions from the womenfolk all stress their being wives of ("Black Walnut Stew," courtesy, "Mrs. Barry Goldwater, Wife of Senator From Arizona").

Now there's a name inspiring genuine terror that anti-Commie belligerence would get us all blown up.

... Yet Goldwater's later criticism of fundamentalist crazies—and the fact that his wife helped found Planned Parenthood—would get him drummed out of their party today.

Srom Thurmond shows up here, but so do Edward Brooke (Mrs.) and two Rockefellers (Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Winthrop). Once upon a time, there were actual moderates in their party. And compared to the ones about to take over DC, the racist wingnuts of yesteryear's GOP may come to seem like pikers.

To be fair, the oddest recipes are no odder than what's found in other fund-raising cookbooks of the period. So, we see here "exotic" jello molds, fried chicken coated in crushed Ritz crackers, and "chow mein" made with tomato soup.

We also have—