Hunting for Rare Cookbooks in New Mexico Continued

Searching Across the State for Treasured Recipes, Las Cruces Trip Continued

I’m continuing my story about my trip to Las Cruces, New Mexico, for the Feminist Border Arts Film and Zine Festival at NMSU and my search for local cookbooks.

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Being a fan of frozen desserts, I’ve been eager to try Caliche’s Frozen Custard in Las Cruces. Their social media posts caught my attention with their mouthwatering frozen custard treats, lively retro lights, and nostalgic drive-in and ice cream parlor looks. I couldn’t wait to experience it in person.

When we arrived in Las Cruces on Friday, Rene and I tried Burger Nook, but we weren’t hungry for dinner a few hours later. We ended the day with Caliche’s custard. I chose a Rocky Road, while Rene chose the Fudge Brownie Bliss.

Since we moved into Chama Street, I’ve been using the summers to teach myself the art of making ice cream and experimenting with different flavors. I adapted a mint-chip ice cream recipe that turned out amazing. Our garden overflows with mint, which motivated me to make some.

Rene’s grandma used to ask him to gather mint in the front yard and brew tea from it. He picked some leaves from our plants to make tea. I was curious to see what I could do with it, too. I rarely prefer mint chip over other flavors, but homemade is unmatched.

Despite not being my favorite Christmas cookie, I couldn’t stop craving Blake’s bizcochito shake. Blake’s Lotaburger is a state-wide burger chain in small-town New Mexico, like Bayard, where my grandparents lived.

Please note that the image is inaccurate. It depicts star anise, which is not part of the cookie recipe. Many people make this mistake. Aniseed is the correct ingredient, but it may not appear as visually appealing in a graphic.

The bizcochito is a lard-based cookie flavored with anise and cinnamon. It has been a part of New Mexican holiday traditions for generations. In 1989, New Mexico marked its significance by designating it as the official state cookie.

Growing up, I knew these cookies as bizcochos. Only after our move to Albuquerque did I refer to them as bizcochitos. The bizcochito became a state symbol when I was just nine years old. We just moved from Las Cruces, and I’ve lived in Southwestern New Mexico for most of my life.

My dad and most of my family are from Bayard, just an hour from Hatch, the self-proclaimed Chile Capital of the World. My Nana and Popo would take me with them to purchase chile, and then I would help them process it by standing on a step stool at their kitchen counter.

We enjoyed a table full of traditional favorites during Christmas at their Bayard home, including a stack of my great aunt’s bizcochos. While they may not be my top choice for holiday cookies, they make a delicious shake, and I wondered if they could be an even more fantastic ice cream flavor.

In 2018, I was curious if Blake’s would reintroduce their bizcochito shake. Why wait to find out? I could do the next best thing: create an ice cream flavor. I could examine the cookie, analyze its ingredients, and make my recipe for bizcochito ice cream.

There was a creamery in Santa Fe that had the flavor seasonally. I found a few additional instances of an ice cream flavor influenced by the cookie but only found a single recipe. Based on my knowledge of ice cream making, I could tell that the recipe was no good just by looking at it. I was sure I could do better.

I imagined creating it and selling pints to loved ones during the holiday season. It would keep me busy and be a delightful treat. Halloween had just ended, and I was already thinking of Christmas.

Once I came back home from being a caregiver and by my mom’s side after her bone marrow transplant, I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to arrange or host any holiday events this year and that it would be a quiet holiday. While I expected I could feel sad about my mom gone, I was determined to keep myself occupied and create my moments of celebration.

My mom is a good cook, but her baking skills are exceptional. She is also very generous. I only now realize how devoted she was to ensure she made a wide selection of treats every holiday, with ample quantities to give as gifts to friends and family.

As I’ve discovered, it’s not always easy. During my usual check-in with my mom, I asked her to guide me to her cookie recipes. I knew she had a selection of recipes specifically for Christmas cookies.

While at her house to pick up the mail and check on things, I found her cookie recipes at the bottom of a kitchen drawer. She had two bizcochito recipes with enough differences that I was unsure which one to follow. I could distinguish the primary flavors of the cookie to develop the ice cream flavor, but I was still eager to find the right recipe to crumble into the ice cream or serve as an accompaniment.

I contacted Rene’s mom, hoping to get her bizcochito recipe. As I compared the three recipes, I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the subtle variations between them. The recipes used various liquids, from wine to orange juice. I gathered more recipes and did some research to understand each ingredient better.

Over the past few years, I have recorded the experiences that led me to immerse myself in cookbooks—from the initial searches to the research and writing process. This passion didn’t emerge suddenly or all at once. Instead, it all came together as the focus of my attention when my mom was recovering from her bone marrow transplant.

When I returned home from Arizona, I was anxious and worried. I needed an outlet. It was the beginning of fall, and my mom had just marked her birthday in the hospital. With her expected to be in recovery for the rest of the year, a quiet period lay ahead.

Before I left for Scottsdale, I had to unload pints of peach ice cream to the newsroom at KUNM and gift them a freezer full because I would be gone for several weeks. By then, I had some confidence in my ice cream maker and amateur confectioner skills. I had even more confidence in my skills as an investigator. I began my search for other recipes not by looking at the newest cookbooks but by the oldest, and eventually, I looked at everything in between.

I have been observing the popularity and prevalence of Mexican and New Mexican cuisine since I could pay attention. However, as an elder millennial, I’ve observed how it has spread on the internet since the early 2000s.

Even after all these years, I still have printouts from Bueno Foods from 2005. At that time, that was one of the few places to find New Mexican recipes online.

While living in Maine, I tried making carne adovada with powdered red chile. I didn’t have a New Mexican cookbook, and I didn’t know which one would have recipes from a generational New Mexican with familiar tastes. Finding one from an Anglo writer or cook might have been easy, but that wasn’t what I needed. I wanted something more authentic to what I ate at home.

With bizcochito recipes, my search began at the Bernalillo County Special Collections Library. Initially, I only looked at all the books on the shelves. However, the librarian was helpful the following year and gathered some of the oldest, which were not on the shelves. I sat and excitedly read through all of them.

I currently own about half of these cookbooks. The others, however, have been difficult to find.

As I’ve collected and researched New Mexico cookbooks, I've become increasingly worried about their well-being and whether people will properly appreciate them instead of discarding them. I also felt that some might not be available for much longer after the oldest generation’s possessions are gone to the cruel dustbin of time and second-hand sales.

I still go back periodically, but the last time I tried to look at a specific cookbook the previous month, it was closed, so I went to look at a copy at the Center for Southwest Research at UNM. These cookbooks are so rare that you can’t check them out, and there aren’t many copies; you can only visit them. I’m afraid they will only become increasingly rare and hard to find.

I’ve been to NMSU to look at rare cookbooks when things opened up again after COVID shut down many things, like in-person library visits. This time, I wouldn’t be going to the University library; I would table my own publications at the Feminist Border Arts Film and Zine Fest on Saturday, June 29th.

I woke up with plenty of time to have coffee at our Airbnb while I organized some t-shirts I brought. After Rene got up and got ready, he drove me to campus and helped me unload. He planned to play golf while I had fun talking to folks and hanging out at the film and Zine Fest. He was “already bored” before he left, so that’s fine with me.

With book shopping, we both love to look. We had dinner when the day was over around six and headed to Andele’s for dinner. I judge many restaurants with their chips and salsa alone. They have a salsa bar, so you have many choices. The salsa was hot and addicting; the chips were delicious but a little thicker, so I had to try not to fill up on them.

After dinner and a brief rain shower, we headed to Old Mesilla for a walk around the plaza. The Bowlin’s Mesilla Book Center wasn’t open, but we went back the following day to visit before we headed back to Albuquerque. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that there was a dispensary in Old Mesilla; the next day, I noticed there were several.

One is next to the Billy the Kid Gift Shop, which used to be the old Courthouse.

There are two fantastic new and used bookstores in Las Cruces called COAS Books. They offer trade credit for donating gently used books and media that can apply to purchasing other store items. I wish Albuquerque had something similar. I always get outstanding books at COAS, and this time was no different.

On Sunday, before we headed home to Albuquerque, we had coffee and a pastry at Nessa’s after checking out of our Airbnb.

We stopped by a small thrift shop across the street and checked out Savers. On Friday, we visited the COAS Book location in South Solano. At our last stop, we went to the other location on Main Street downtown on Sunday.

I search many stores for New Mexico cookbooks, but I also search and buy them online. A week before visiting Las Cruces, I found a long, narrow recipe book specifically for red chile with a drawing of a ristra on the cover. I’d never seen it before and wondered if there was a matching book for green chile. Would you believe I found the companion book by the same author at COAS in Las Cruces?

I felt justified in shopping for them online and offline. I aim to discover and document as many as possible to ensure the preservation and research of their authors and origins. The challenge will be to find a place for them among my existing ones when we get home.

While I don’t make homemade ice cream frequently, I haven’t given up on finding and documenting bizcochito recipes. My interest in New Mexico food and cookbooks has only increased. The rich history of New Mexican cuisine reveals its ties to colonization, Manifest Destiny, gender roles, women’s work, and state politics. I am committed to delving deeper into its history and sharing it with others.

I had an incredible trip and am grateful for the connections I made at Zine Fest. I also purchased a bunch of outstanding literature there. I can’t wait to see what they do next. It was a pleasure to return to Las Cruces for a delightful event and the perfect excuse to hunt for books.

Savers finds:

For Rene

Illustrated by El Paso Artist Zeke Pena

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Thank you for reading about my trip to Las Cruces, my inspiration for creating bizcochito ice cream, my quest for cookbooks, and more.