Food Books
Aug. 27th, 2010 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI realize that this icon is probably going to turn off anyone who doesn't know what it's from, but it's the perfect illustration of this post. Which is, on the basis that my flist encompasses foodies, cooks, and readers, a list of all the history-of-food books in my To Read queue. (I seem to be troping to them this year.) This is not an endorsement of any of them, but simply a list of some of the more interesting-looking ones out there, for anyone who might want to dig up their own copies.
FOOD OF A YOUNGER LAND by Mark Kurlansky. Writer discovers treasure trove of WPA writings about American regional food before the Eisenhower highways and megacorporations homogenized everything. Some recipes, some opinion, some discussion of behind-the-scenes attitudes, esp. racial ones.
SOMETHING FROM THE OVEN: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro. About the shift from homemade to ready-made & frozen and then the bombshell that was Julia Child telling everyone to put down the powders, pick up the butter, and cook real food. (To show the other side of the equation, Peg Bracken gets a chapter too.)
SWEETS: A History of Candy by Rim Richardson. Exactly what it says on the label.
MILK: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Medelson. Half history, half multicultural dairy cookbook.
A THOUSAND YEARS OVER A HOT STOVE: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances by Laura Schenone. "American Women" are defined as any women in the US, including native tribes and all the successive waves of immigrants.
97 ORCHARD: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenament by Jane Ziegelman. Taking the census info from 97 Orchard, NYC, Ziegelman builds a foundation on how successive waves of immigration have changed American attitudes towards food. The general thesis is that immigrants may give up home, language, and native dress, but they don't drop their comfort foods ever - and this is how German, Irish, Italian, and multiple groups of Jewish food were mixed into the melting pot.
To display the full range of the melting pot, particularly in a port town like NYC, there are these cookbooks:
- The NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK (get the latest, it's always the most wide-ranging)
- NEW YORK COOKBOOK by Molly O'Neill
- IT'S ALL AMERICAN FOOD: The Food We Really Eat by David Rosengarten (the point being that we really eat -- and find readily available -- everything from fried chicken to fried rice, with stops at spaghetti, quacamole, & gumbo)
And then there are two cookbooks that I'm going to recommend less for the recipes than for the pleasure of the authors' gloriously opinionated voices:
THE FRENCH-KOSHER COOKBOOK by Ruth and Bob Grossman (all recipes authenticated by Rabbi Norman Siegel) "From French food you can get heartburn too... For your sauces you should have a big wire whisk. You could maybe live without one, but this looks very French in the kitchen. But what you can't live without is a good sieve."
FRENCH COOKING IN TEN MINUTES by Eduard Du Pomaine (I rush to explain this was written in the 20s - before much processed food, but not before working people wanted a fast, hot meal.) "First of all, let me tell you that this is a beautiful book. I can say that because this is its first page... [on white sauce] This is a horrible sauce. Fortunately, you can add whatever you like to it and transform it into a very nice one."
FOOD OF A YOUNGER LAND by Mark Kurlansky. Writer discovers treasure trove of WPA writings about American regional food before the Eisenhower highways and megacorporations homogenized everything. Some recipes, some opinion, some discussion of behind-the-scenes attitudes, esp. racial ones.
SOMETHING FROM THE OVEN: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro. About the shift from homemade to ready-made & frozen and then the bombshell that was Julia Child telling everyone to put down the powders, pick up the butter, and cook real food. (To show the other side of the equation, Peg Bracken gets a chapter too.)
SWEETS: A History of Candy by Rim Richardson. Exactly what it says on the label.
MILK: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Medelson. Half history, half multicultural dairy cookbook.
A THOUSAND YEARS OVER A HOT STOVE: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances by Laura Schenone. "American Women" are defined as any women in the US, including native tribes and all the successive waves of immigrants.
97 ORCHARD: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenament by Jane Ziegelman. Taking the census info from 97 Orchard, NYC, Ziegelman builds a foundation on how successive waves of immigration have changed American attitudes towards food. The general thesis is that immigrants may give up home, language, and native dress, but they don't drop their comfort foods ever - and this is how German, Irish, Italian, and multiple groups of Jewish food were mixed into the melting pot.
To display the full range of the melting pot, particularly in a port town like NYC, there are these cookbooks:
- The NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK (get the latest, it's always the most wide-ranging)
- NEW YORK COOKBOOK by Molly O'Neill
- IT'S ALL AMERICAN FOOD: The Food We Really Eat by David Rosengarten (the point being that we really eat -- and find readily available -- everything from fried chicken to fried rice, with stops at spaghetti, quacamole, & gumbo)
And then there are two cookbooks that I'm going to recommend less for the recipes than for the pleasure of the authors' gloriously opinionated voices:
THE FRENCH-KOSHER COOKBOOK by Ruth and Bob Grossman (all recipes authenticated by Rabbi Norman Siegel) "From French food you can get heartburn too... For your sauces you should have a big wire whisk. You could maybe live without one, but this looks very French in the kitchen. But what you can't live without is a good sieve."
FRENCH COOKING IN TEN MINUTES by Eduard Du Pomaine (I rush to explain this was written in the 20s - before much processed food, but not before working people wanted a fast, hot meal.) "First of all, let me tell you that this is a beautiful book. I can say that because this is its first page... [on white sauce] This is a horrible sauce. Fortunately, you can add whatever you like to it and transform it into a very nice one."
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-27 11:49 pm (UTC)Excuse me, got to go help make the tacos.
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Date: 2010-08-28 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 01:01 am (UTC)Randomly,
Date: 2010-08-28 01:16 am (UTC)Because he is a sexy sarcastic bastard.
I can't wait to get the follow-up to Kitchen Confidential.
Remember, don't cook the eyes for more than two minutes because they explode.
Re: Randomly,
Date: 2010-08-28 01:35 am (UTC)don't cook the eyes for more than two minutes because they explode
Citation needed. :)
a rape victim who never got justice
Date: 2010-08-28 02:05 am (UTC)You want to read Kitchen Confidential. Really. You do.
Eyeballs - eggs and grapes will both explode if overheated in the microwave for more than two minutes (I blew up an egg once) The eyeball is speculation.
Maybe when the anatomy teacher does her dissection of cow eyeballs I can run an experiment in the teacher's lounge.
(Dear Angela, can you get me a couple cow eyeballs? I want to blow them up in the lunchroom, love and kisses Sally)
As though my reputation for weirdness isn't bad enough!
As though my reputation for weirdness isn't bad enough!
Date: 2010-08-28 02:06 am (UTC)now.
Duh.
Re: a rape victim who never got justice
Date: 2010-08-28 02:24 pm (UTC)Doooooo iiiiiiiittt. Now I'm all curious.
The book with the rape was one of his travel books; he was talking about something that happened in Vietnam. I do have Kitchen Confidential, but have only skimmed it so far.
can you get me a couple cow eyeballs?
Date: 2010-09-01 03:27 am (UTC)I LOVE BEING THIS WEIRD!!!!!!!
Think I should ask on SherlockBBC how long THEY think eyeballs should be nuked?
Actually, I will nuke them at home. And I will film it.
Re: can you get me a couple cow eyeballs?
Date: 2010-09-01 10:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 07:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-28 02:22 pm (UTC)