Culinary
History
Enthusiasts
Wisconsin
Book Reviews by CHEW Members
CHEW is looking for your culinary history book reviews! If you have read a book or article that addresses an aspect of culinary history, you can send your musings about it to Traci Nathans-Kelly at tracikelly@hotmail.com, and she can post it to the website. We have particular interest in reviewing culinary history books, but reviews of cookbooks or other food books are fine. Please keep your review to under 250 words or thereabouts. We will print your name with the review unless you ask us otherwise. CHEW reserves the right to do light editing for length or other minor needs. No press releases.
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Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna Sass. Reviewed by Joan Peterson.
Years ago as a newly married, utterly inexperienced cook, I often used a pressure cooker because my mother had used one, but then I moved on to other methods of preparing meals. Lorna Sass’ excellent 20th anniversary edition of Cooking Under Pressure, however, has rekindled my interest in using a pressure cooker to prepare meals.
I'm impressed that an amazing range of dishes can be done to perfection in the pressure cooker. It's not just all about old-fashioned pot roast! How about Moroccan lamb tagine or Rock Cornish hens stuffed with apricots and prunes, just two of the many appetite-inspiring recipes contained in Cooking Under Pressure. Indeed, the cookbook contains many delicious preparations I wouldn’t have dreamed could be made in a pressure cooker. Imagine risotto, for example. This divine preparation of rice is done in 4 minutes without stirring. It is also worth pointing out that there are other reasons for pressure cookery besides minimizing cooking time. The conservation of fuel it allows is vital in today’s environmentally conscious world.
Lorna Sass' 20th anniversary edition of Cooking Under Pressure not only brings back to print the popular first edition, its recipes have been adjusted to reduce their fat content. In addition, the amount of liquid required has been reduced because technology has made it possible for today’s cookers to come to pressure with less water. And if you are still a holdout, there are electronic pressure cookers available.
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The Blue Grass Cook Book (1904/2005). Reviewed by Traci Nathans-Kelly. This facsimile re-release of a compiled cookbook by Minnie Fox is a wonderful insight into turn-of-the-20th-century southern foodways. With the new Introduction for the 2005 edition by Toni Tipton-Martin, this book is a true resource for recipes and historical contexts. See full review here in PDF form.
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Writing at the Kitchen Table: The Authorized Biography of Elizabeth David (Ecco) by Artemis Cooper. Reviewed by Terese Allen. David introduced England to Mediterranean food and became one of the world's most influential food writers, but here we learn that she wasn't exactly a nice person. She married for convenience, held grudges and was an unwavering perfectionist. In other words, she was human. It's doubtful that David, who was intensely private, would have liked this book, but Cooper is sympathetic, even loving, and her book is as thoroughly researched and honestly written as David's own works.
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Jasmine in Her Hair: Culture and Cuisine from Pakistan. Reviewed by Terese Allen."We can be culinary tourists without actually leaving home," writes folklorist Lucy M. Long in Culinary Tourism (University Press of Kentucky). "Cookbooks...offer mental and emotional journeys to other food worlds. Jasmine in Her Hair: Culture and Cuisine from Pakistan (White Jasmine Press, 2004) is proof of that pudding. It's a memoir by Huma Siddiqui, a Madison, Wisconsin-based CPA who grew up in Islamabad. She wrote this collection of family stories, foodways descriptions and recipes as a heartfelt means to an end--that is, keeping Pakistani food traditions alive. The book is inadequately edited (I'm a stickler for things like listing ingredients in the order which they're used), but it's a beauty to behold, with photos of rural scenes, table settings and completed dishes. Most of the recipes are easy to follow, but if you're a novice at such things as making samosa dough or deep-frying shaaker paras, consider taking one of Siddiqui's cooking classes to watch and learn (visit whitejasmine.com for a list of classes).
What I like best about Jasmine in Her Hair is how well it illustrates that foods--and other customs--considered alien by some are dearly familiar and deeply personal to others. Siddiqui's vignettes have a guileless, almost haunting tone, as she recalls everything from the choori wali (woman with bangles) fascinated by the contents of a refrigerator to the meaning of food and family in Pakistan.
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Eat Smart in India(Ginkgo Press, 2004) is the latest in Joan Peterson's brainy food travel series (seven in all). Like her previous guides, it's small enough to slip into a carry-on and dense with wisdom about how to eat and drink like a local. Peterson and her Indian-born co-author, Indu Menon, neatly handle the history and development of a very complicated cuisine, provide useful food and phrase glossaries, and walk readers through the culinary regions of India dish by dish. Reviewed by Terese Allen.
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Check out Everybody Loves Ice Cream (Emmis Books, 2004), written by Shannon Jackson Arnold, the former editor of Ohio magazine who now lives in Delafield, Wisconsin. Arnold is mad about America's favorite dessert. "In the beginning," she writes, "there was light. And then, on the eighth day, there was ice cream." That's one of several theories about ice cream's origins in this edifying romp through its history, lore and culinary pleasures. Arnold sees ice cream as a metaphor for the United States, embodying "a sense of democracy and pluralism, equal opportunity and a steadfast belief in the inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness."
In one section, she defines a full array of frozen treats."The beauty of ice cream is that it's as unique, varied and ethnically rich as we are as a society." Another chapter is a guide to regional specialties--like Wisconsin's beloved frozen custard--and the country's best ice cream shops. There's lots of technical fun, too, including the ten commandments of making excellent ice cream ("Thou shalt put only chilled ingredients into the ice cream maker") and how to make ice cream from snow, plus recipes from vanilla ice cream to stracciatella gelato.
One hole in Everybody Loves Ice Cream is its lack of an index. If you're looking for something specific, say, how to select the best ice cream maker or a recipe for peach frozen yogurt, you'll have to cross your fingers and slog through the appropriate chapter. There is, however, a recipe index to the book on Arnold's web site (www.everybodylovesicecream.com), along with ice cream facts, links and upcoming events. Reviewed by Terese Allen.
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The Other Side of Russia. Reviewed by Joan Peterson, Ph.D. and author of EAT SMART series. "Foodies in particular will relish award-winning author Sharon Hudgin’s magnificiently rich book about Siberia and the Russian Far East, The Other Side of Russia published by Texas A&M University Press (ISBN 1-58544-404-9). Teaching assignments took Sharon and her husband, Tom, to Asian Russia in 1993 as part of a new program established by University of Maryland University College. This book is an engaging personal narrative about life in the challenging early years following the fall of communism. The author discusses in fascinating detail her social, political and economic environment, but she is at her very best when recounting her extraordinary culinary experiences with Russian friends. Dinners, by necessity often pot-luck, were cobbled together under difficult and often harsh conditions. Ingredients were obtained piecemeal from numerous shops and vendors, following rumors of availability, and with luck were purchased after tedious waits in long lines. All goodies had to be trudged up many flights of stairs, typically in tall concrete apartment monstrosities with defunct elevators. Rarely were basic amenities—water, electricity and heat—simultaneously available for the comfort of the guests. Despite the hardships, the meals were amazingly sumptuous. This engrossing, informative book is a valuable resource and a great read."
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A Literary Feast: Recipes and Writings by American Women Authors from History. Reviewed by Terese Allen. "The book takes a unique approach to culinary history: it juxtaposes nineteenth-century recipes with passages about food preparation and dining from literature written by women of the time. By pairing the “food-talk” of women’s literature with recipes, A Literary Feast, authored by Yvonne Schofer offers an entertaining and illuminating way to experience the culture of a by-gone era." See full review here, a version of which appeared in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal, October 22, 2003.
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Bread and Oil: Majorcan Culture’s Last Stand. Reviewed by Terese Allen. "The most effective culinary escapes are not just recipe collections; they incorporate memoir or travel stories, history or even social commentary. Take Bread and Oil: Majorcan Culture’s Last Stand, by Tomás Graves, which has all of the above. This new release from University of Wisconsin Press is the English edition of a work first published in Catalan, Majorca’s major language. Written by the son of British poet and classicist Robert Graves (of I, Claudius fame), Bread and Oil has the makings of a fine novel: a strong sense of place, a genuine voice, vibrant characters and a metaphoric focus." Read the full review in Word format here.
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Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie. Reviewed by Terese Allen. "In Jack Finney’s classic time-travel novel, Time and Again, the protagonist immerses himself in the study of a bygone era, 19th-century New York. By saturating his consciousness with its culture, language, objects and scenery--by becoming one with the environment of the past--he finds himself literally “there.” It’s an arresting notion, one that I very much wished were true recently as I pored through Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie, the 2002 reprint of a nineteenth-century German cookbook that was adapted for German immigrants to America. (Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie is a project of the University of Wisconsin’s Max Kade Institute for German American Studies and is distributed by University of Wisconsin Press.) Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, as I read about turn-of-the-century specialties like potato dumplings, herring salad and eel soup, if recreating the smells and flavors of historical recipes could transport you there? The book is so vividly authentic it almost seemed possible." Read the full review in Word format here.
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America's Kitchens by Nancy Carlisle and Melinda Talbot Nasardinov. Reviewed by Joan Peterson. This is a compelling homage to the beloved room within the home that is central to our lives in so many respects. The authors recount the history of the kitchen in American life in six time segments covering over four hundred years and encompassing much of the country from New England to the Rio Grande. The book is the second in the remarkable Historic New England series of titles presented by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. It is so richly embellished with paintings, photographs and historic drawings that one might want to begin what will surely be a nostalgic exploration of the topic by first perusing the visual images and many captions and sidebars before settling in to read the informative text, while at the same time savoring the inevitable flashbacks of special moments that were spent in our own kitchens in the past. Pub info: Historic New England, Boston, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-88448-308-3.
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Books Reviewed
By Title
A Literary Feast: Recipes and Writings by American Women Authors from History
Pickled Herring and Pumpkin Pie