Recipe Exchange: Our readers know how to pass the plate

When the community comes together, the environment shifts from existence to experience. Creativity and culture filled the air Saturday at the PA Regional Black Cultural Heritage Fair, where we hard launched The Philly Download’s new recipe exchange at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Through this exchange, we’re welcoming readers to request recipes they have a taste for and to submit recipes for publication. Saturday, we invited fair attendees to share their inquiries and recipes in person. Our table displayed a vibrant collection of Black recipes and cookbooks for everyone to enjoy and explore. Some rediscovered recipes that they hadn’t seen in years, while others found fresh inspiration for creating new ones.

The PA Regional Black Cultural Heritage Fair, hosted by the North Philadelphia-based cultural heritage organization Friends of the Tanner House, featured live performances and food from Down North Pizza. At our table, community members at all stages of their cooking journey took part in our recipe exchange, creating a shared collection of recipes that recognize, honor, and celebrate the culinary culture of Black Philadelphians.

We've spent the last week looking over the requests we collected; below are just a few of the requests we received. We’ll be sharing even more in the coming weeks, but first, here are two recipes we were able to track down. 

Mac and Cheese 

Macaroni and cheese is a Black history on a plate. It stands among the classic dishes that legendary chef James Hemings popularized (Hemings was famously enslaved by Thomas Jefferson, who was technically his brother-in-law.)

We don’t think Suplee, or any of our readers, will go wrong if they follow Toni Tipton-Martin’s mac and cheese recipe. This recipe was originally published in the 2019 cookbook Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking. Jubilee celebrates the culinary history of African Americans across all social backgrounds and classes.

Tipton-Martin is a renowned author, culinary journalist, and activist. She broke barriers as the first Black food reporter at the Los Angeles Times and as the first Black food editor of a major newspaper at The Plain Dealer. She was awarded the prestigious 2025 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to culinary history. This macaroni and cheese is just one of her many delicious recipes we think you’ll love.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Serves eight to 10

Reprinted with permission from Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin, copyright © 2019. Published by Clarkson Potter, a division of Penguin Random House, Inc.

Ingredients

• Softened butter, for the baking dish
• 1 pound elbow macaroni
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 2 cups shredded Jack cheese
• 1 stick (4 ounces) butter, melted
• ½ cup sour cream
• 3 large eggs, well beaten
• 1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk
• ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper
• 1⁄8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Paprika

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously butter a 13 × 9-inch baking dish.
2. Bring a large pasta pot or saucepan of generously salted water to a boil. Add the macaroni and cook until al dente. Drain.
3. In a large bowl, combine the Cheddar and Jack cheeses. Measure out 1 cup of the cheese mixture and set aside for the top of the dish. Layer the remaining combined cheeses and macaroni in the buttered baking dish, beginning and ending with the macaroni.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sour cream, eggs, evaporated milk, ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste), white pepper, and cayenne. Pour the cream sauce over the macaroni and cheese. Top with the reserved 1 cup cheese and sprinkle generously with paprika. Place the dish on a rimmed baking pan to catch any juices that spill over.
5. Bake until the cheese is bubbling and the top is browned and crusty, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Hummingbird cake

The hummingbird cake was first created in Jamaica, where it was originally called Doctor Bird Cake, named after the island’s national bird. In the 1960s, the cake reached the United States when the Jamaica Board of Tourism mailed press kits containing the cake’s recipe, aiming to attract American tourists. 

The cake initially received little attention, but in 1978 it gained widespread popularity after it was submitted by L.H. Wiggins, of Greensboro, North Carolina, into the February issue of Southern Living, a magazine focused on southern cuisine and culture. Later that year, it won the Favorite Cake Award at the Kentucky State Fair, and in 1990, Southern Living recognized the cake as the most requested recipe in the magazine’s history. Although the cake is less commonly baked today, the recipe remains beloved by many in the culinary community. 

We encourage Shelton or anyone looking for a good hummingbird cake, to try Jocelyn Delk Adams’ recipe. Adams is the popular baker behind the brand Grandbaby Cakes. Check out her recipe here.

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A post shared by Jocelyn Delk Adams (@grandbabycakes)

Requests we have for you 🫵🏾

In a traditional newspaper recipe exchange, journalists research recipe requests and ampify requests for readers to answer, if they please. So we’re inviting our community to help answer these next two recipe requests:

• Southern collard greens with smoked turkey  
• Nigerian Egusi soup 

Your recipes will help other locals cook these dishes with care, confidence, and cultural accuracy! Please send your recipes for southern collard greens and egusi soup to info@thedownload.news. Any and all recipe requests or submissions are welcome. Happy Cooking and Happy Black History Month!

Note: The Friends of the Tanner House advertised this event through the Philly Download. However, the Friends of the Tanner House were not involved with producing this coverage. Of course, all advertising inquiries are handled separately from our journalism.