Author Entertainment Series – Valerie Frey

Georgia’s Historical Recipes

An exploration of Georgia’s culinary heritage and how it connects us to our present tastes, Georgia’s Historical Recipes is an exploration of our state’s oldest recipes from the antebellum period through World War II, as painstakingly researched by Georgia archivist Valerie J. Frey. This volume begins with a discussion of old recipes as primary sources and what they can tell us about the history and culture of their era and how to bring them to life in modern kitchens. Frey then moves into fifty sections that can be read alone yet allow readers to build an understanding of how foodways evolved over time.

Some sections highlight a single recipe, illustrating how changes in technology, agriculture, transportation, communication, and social patterns led to changes in Georgia kitchens. Most of the recipes are previously unpublished, waiting in archives to be rediscovered. Other sections explore our oldest cookbooks, offering biographical and cultural background information that makes them more meaningful. For the first time, Georgians have a list of the state’s early cookbooks and its cooking experts. Readers will learn where to find Georgia’s oldest recipes and discover many examples to whet their appetites literally and figuratively for a taste of Georgia’s past.

Meet The Author

Valerie J. Frey is a writer and archivist.  Her projects focus on genealogy, historical foodways, folklife, and the everyday home life of our ancestors.  Sapelo Island, Georgia was Valerie’s first home, and she considers Athens, Georgia to be her hometown.  She spent many fine childhood hours there rooting through the library, building tree forts, and foraging for wild plums.

During her early career, Valerie earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in art education from the University of Georgia.  Her master’s thesis, Folk Art in North Georgia:  A Model Curriculum, wove together art, local history, and personal narratives.  Her thesis experiences and a love for her grandparents’ stories lured her into pursuing a master’s degree in information science from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where she concentrated on historical research and archives.  Her second thesis is entitled Personal Information Systems: Journals and Diaries as Process and Product.  After graduate school, she served as a Junior Fellow in the Manuscripts Division of the Library of Congress and then became Manuscripts Archivist at the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah and Archivist of the Savannah Jewish Archives.  During that time, she co-authored two books focusing on historic photographs and oral histories:  Images of America:  The Jewish Community of Savannah (Charleston:  Arcadia Press, 2002) and Voices of Savannah (Savannah:  Savannah Jewish Archives, 2004).

In 2003, Valerie became Education Coordinator of the Georgia Archives where she spent her time developing public service programs as well as creating resources for educators and their students.  She won a grant from the Georgia Humanities Council to create Down Home Days, an annual event to help kids develop a love of history.  In 2007, marrying an Air Force officer took Valerie away from the South and she became a full-time writer as well as a consultant, contract archivist, temporary Californian, and mother to one lovable boy.  After returning to Georgia, Preserving Family Recipes:  How to Save and Celebrate Your Food Traditions was released in 2015 through the University of Georgia Press.  In 2025, UGA Press released her newest book, Georgia’s Historical Recipes:  Seeking Our State’s Oldest Written Foodways and the Stories Behind Them.  During her research project, Valerie rediscovered an 1885 cookbook from Marietta entitled House-Keeping in the Sunny South that was subsequently reprinted in 2025 by UGA Press with a foreword and indexing by Valerie.