Recipes of Youngstown – Community Cookbooks & Giveaway

We have written about community cookbooks a few times for our members: Community cookbooks make a comeback and A not-so-guilty pleasure: Community cookbooks. Today, I would like to share a little about a community that banded together to create cookbooks to help their town and its residents.

Recipes of Youngstown’s first book was first released in 2014 to help replace the wheel at historic Lanterman’s Mill in Mill Creek Park. In 2015, their second book was published with the proceeds to benefit the Mahoning Valley Historical Society (MVHS). In 2017, a third volume was published with proceeds to continue to support MVHS and a new purpose was to establish a scholarship for veterans at Youngstown State University

In November 2018, Recipes of Youngstown was honored to receive a National Philanthropy Day award.  At that point, they had raised almost $200K in 4 ½ years. The amount for the park was at “$82,000 and growing,” and for MVHS at that point, it was $73,000. The goal for the veterans’ scholarship: $100,000.  In the 18 months since then, funds have continued to grow.  Now the vast majority of sales go toward that scholarship.

Youngstown, Ohio has a rich ethnic history and below you will see a listing of the types of recipes included:

Also, the organization has provided us with one recipe from each volume to try now.




The organization is now taking preorders on an entire set of the cookbooks which includes all three volumes for $75.00. EYB members can use the code EYB5 for $5.00 off one set or EYB10 for 10% off multiple sets. These codes expire on July 31st, 2020.

To help spread the news about these great community cookbooks and Youngstown’s good work, they are offering one set of the books in our giveaway open to US only. Entry options include answering the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Do you enjoy community cookbooks and if so do you have a favorite?

Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won’t be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post and this forum post. Once you log in and enter your member name you will be directed to the next entry option – the blog comment. After that, there are additional options that you can complete for more entries. Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on August 13th, 2020.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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39 Comments

  • matag  on  July 13, 2020

    A Slice of Paradise… Palm Beach Florida

  • Shelley.b  on  July 13, 2020

    Capital classics the junior league of washington

  • riley  on  July 14, 2020

    Lady Liberty’s Celebrity Desserts from the Telephone Pioneers of America
    to raise money for repairs to the Statue of Liberty.

  • LeMinou  on  July 14, 2020

    I like community cookbooks. The only one I can recall at this moment are local ones that the towns my parent’s towns created.

  • ravensfan  on  July 14, 2020

    I like community cookbooks. I cherish the one from the church where I grew up.

  • dbranigan27  on  July 14, 2020

    The best recipe books I had from community based projects were from Civil Engineer Corps Wive’s Club. Those ladies could cook!

  • kmn4  on  July 14, 2020

    I do like community cookbooks – my high school published one for its 50th anniversary a few years back.

  • milgwimper  on  July 14, 2020

    NATO community recipes in Germany. I can’t remember the names of the titles.

  • nvernon  on  July 14, 2020

    The Tastes and Tales of Moiliili

  • pattihaskins  on  July 14, 2020

    River Roads Recipes
    The Junior League of Baton Rouge Louisiana

  • hbakke  on  July 14, 2020

    I love looking through my grandmother’s church cookbook.

  • sarahawker  on  July 15, 2020

    I have and use Atlanta Cooknotes by the junior league of Atlanta.

  • fmd518  on  July 15, 2020

    I find community cookbooks great .

  • jenmacgregor18  on  July 15, 2020

    Food to Die For: A Book of Funeral Foods (Old City Cemetery, Lynchburg VA).

  • crichard  on  July 16, 2020

    The only community cookbook I have is the Junior League of Nashville. My roommate at college had it & we made the best chicken spaghetti recipe from it, great flavor & great memories. My father grew up around Youngstown & graduated from Youngstown State University with a Bachelor Degree in Engineering. My uncle owed the Mahoning Wine Shop. I am familiar with Haluski, stuffed cabbage, kolache, stuffed peppers, pierogi & other Slovakia dishes. I only know how to make haluski.

  • MarciK  on  July 17, 2020

    I have several community cookbooks, some with recipes from family and friends.

    My favorites are my Grandma’s cookbooks from Redeemer Covenant Church, where she was a member. Besides recipes, there are cute poems and sayings, browned pages from cooking spills, notes and recipes tucked in the pages, and some of her recipes including the pistachio cake I grew up with.

  • Siegal  on  July 17, 2020

    I love old hadassa cookbooks

  • mpdeb98  on  July 17, 2020

    I like community cookbooks when they really focus on recipes from the region. I have a great Junior League cookbook from Tampa that really captures the flavors of Florida.

  • jluvs2bake  on  July 18, 2020

    I love community cookbooks! They preserve the food histories and heritage of an area. They give extra insight to a place you can’t get from just a visit and allow you to have a certain familiarity with a place you’ve yet to experience in person. I also like that they typically support local churches, charities, and causes. I particularly like those from places I’ve lived in, visited, or have some other connection to. Before I had the Recipes of Youngstown books it would have been hard to pick a favorite, but they are now the top of my list. I love that stories and memories of the area are included with many of the recipes. (Full disclosure — I grew up in the area and became heavily involved in the publication of the 3rd book. However, I did buy 3 copies each of the first two books, one each for me and my two children, when they came out, which was long before we ever knew there would be a third volume.) If I had to exclude these, some of my other favorites are Hellenic Cuisine (Philoptochos Society of Detroit), Grecian Plate (Saint Barbara Church, Durham, NC), Charleston Receipts (Jr. League, Charleston, SC), River Roads (Jr. League, Baton Rouge), With Great Gusto (Jr. League, Youngstown), Saint Louis Days Saint Louis Nights (Jr. League, St. Louis).

  • laureljean  on  July 18, 2020

    One of my favorites is the Colorado Cache Cookbook, but I also love the Iowa State Fair cookbooks I have started to collect and those from herb societies.

  • mcrimmins  on  July 18, 2020

    I like the Junior League cookbooks from South Carolina.

  • t.t  on  July 18, 2020

    I love reading community cookbooks–more for what they reveal about the community than the recipes (though those can be fun to try as well)

  • aacrowe  on  July 19, 2020

    I love all cookbooks especially community cookbooks because they give their reader much more than a recipe – a glimpse into the heart of a community, its cooks. When I left South Africa two years ago to come live with my daughter and her family in San Diego I could not bring all my cookbooks with me. I chose to bring my lifelong collection of local community cookbooks. My favorites are two produced by Springfield Convent of the Holy Rosary, Cape Town in 1977 and 1997, respectively, My daughter attended this school for 13 years and I taught there for 11 years. When I feel homesick I page through these books and remember the special people that were a part of our lives. My collection of USA community cookbooks is growing – I always buy at least one when I visit a Goodwill or resale store. I am considering passing along a few of my South African community cookbooks in the hope that they give someone else a view into another food culture that seems so far away, and share the joy that they have brought me.

  • virjeania  on  July 19, 2020

    Ropin the Flavors of Texas

  • LaurenE  on  July 19, 2020

    Charleston receipts

  • nebby  on  July 19, 2020

    I have a few community cookbooks in my collection and they’re great, they’re a fun way to see what people in a certain area or tine period ate and cooked.

  • AngelNewsi  on  July 19, 2020

    I do like community cookbooks, though I don’t have a particular favorite

  • Dhasenkampf  on  July 19, 2020

    I love the River Roads recipes from Baton Rouge.

  • debbiehb  on  July 20, 2020

    I do like community cookbooks. I frequently use one by the Junior League of Austin

  • HomespunHouse  on  July 20, 2020

    I love church cookbooks with recipes submitted by friends. I feel a connection to people I have not seen for years when using their recipes.

  • NaomiH  on  July 22, 2020

    I love community cookbooks. My favorite is one put together by my elementary school 40 years ago!

  • jmay42066  on  July 22, 2020

    The Southern Living Community Cookbook: Celebrating food and fellowship in the American South

  • dprice  on  July 24, 2020

    Not Just Chicken Soup – Aberdeen, nj

  • vhfvhf  on  July 31, 2020

    butter balls

  • vhfvhf  on  July 31, 2020

    I dont have one

  • orchidlady01  on  August 1, 2020

    Have used recipes out of a cookbook my grandmother gave me. It’s a community recipe book from her church parishioners.

  • TammyDee  on  August 3, 2020

    I do like community cookbooks. They offer recipes that normal people like to cook/eat, as opposed to the recipes that seem designed for 4 star restaurants, which take forever to put together and offer tiny servings. Mt favorites are local ones that come out every Christmas.

  • Gup  on  August 9, 2020

    My husband is from Youngstown – would love this book!

  • Su2cool  on  August 10, 2020

    Youngstown is right around the corner from us. those butterballs look yummy

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