Books

Bean Cuisine
James McNair's Rice Cookbook
Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber
Gloria's Glorious Muffins: Gourmet Muffin Recipes
The Garden of Earthly Delights Cookbook: Gourmet Vegetarian Cooking
Arrowhead Mills Cookbook
Mes Tartes: The Sweet and Savory Tarts of Christine Ferber
Cooking with Japanese Foods: A Guide to the Traditional Natural Foods of Japan
The Joy of Juicing Recipe Guide
The Shopper's Guide to Fat in Your Food
The Simple Soybean and Your Health
The Sensuous Vegetarian Barbecue
Lemon Tree Very Healthy Cookbook
Fat-free Holiday Recipes
The NutriBase Guide to Sodium, Calories and Fat in Your Food (The NutriBase Nutrition Counter Series)
The NutriBase Guide to Fat and Fiber in Your Food (The NutriBase Nutrition Counter Series)
The Garden of Earthly Delights Cookbook
A Celebration of Wellness
Brand Name Fat Fighter's Cookbook
Simply Delicious Recipes for Diabetics
Healing Teas: How to Prepare and Use Teas to Maximize Your Health
Diabetic Dream Desserts: 101 Simple and Delicious Low-fat Diabetic Desserts
James McNair's Pasta Cookbook
Macrobiotic Home Remedies
Gloria's Gourmet Low-fat Muffins: Easy-to-make, Easy-to-bake, Healthy Gourmet Recipes

Beans, Greens, and Sweet Georgia Peaches: The Southern Way of Cooking Fruits and Vegetables

Average customer rating:

Don't Let the "Booklist" Review Scare You
So much more than collards and grits!
YUMMY!!!

Beans, Greens, and Sweet Georgia Peaches: The Southern Way of Cooking Fruits and Vegetables
Damon Lee Fowler
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Damon Lee Fowler's New Southern Kitchen: Traditional Flavors for Contemporary Cooks
Fried Chicken

ASIN: 0767901282
Release Date: 1998-03-02

Book Description

Think of Southern fruits and vegetables, and tomatoes, corn, okra, and watermelon come to mind. But what about grapefruits, oranges, and key limes from Florida? Or peas, beans, and greens from the fields of Mississippi? Damon Fowler, who is passionate about preserving Southern culinary traditions, offers recipes for transforming Vidalia onions, sun-ripened tomatoes, field peas, butterbeans, okra, Georgia peaches, plump figs, watermelons, key limes, and Florida citrus into the fruit and vegetable glories of the Southern table.

Customer Reviews:

Don't Let the "Booklist" Review Scare You.......2001-01-17

This book is a treasure. I was so pleasantly surprised that it wasn't "weird" and un-southern like "Booklist" led me to believe. Now I can almost cook like my great-grandmother did. (I need more practice.) Not only is this a great cookbook and reference, it's full of very enjoyable reading. I find myself picking this up for my recreational reading and getting hungry. It also tells me all I want to know about the vegetables themselves, like how to choose a ripe cantalope, and why sweet potatoes are sometimes called yams. However, it's very well organized and laid-out if you need to get a recipe and skip the conversation. (But that's not very southern of you.) I can't get enough of that braised cabbage!

So much more than collards and grits!.......2000-12-18

Damon Lee Fowler's "Beans, Greens, and Sweet Georgia Peaches" is a follow-up to his successful "Classical Southern Cooking", concentrating this time on the Southern cook's way with fruit and vegetables. It is, however, much more than merely a book of recipes. Instead, Fowler serves up a delightful treatise on the philosophy and outlook of Southern cooking, in which the recipes act more as examples of his principle arguments, rather than the book's main raison d'être. It is clear that the author is more interested in explaining the `why' of Southern cooking than the `how' - something that is very useful when you find yourself needing to make substitutions because of problems of availability! In addition, his enthusiasm for his subject shines through on every page. In all, this makes for a fascinating read. The book also contains some really wonderful recipes!

Throughout, Fowler concentrates on Southern traditional ways, always aiming for the authentic touch to his dishes and methods of preparation. Consequently, even though this book is mainly about vegetable dishes, prepared Southern-style, it is by no means a vegetarian cookbook. Traditional Southern pork dripping or ham, as well as seafood features prominently throughout the book. Nevertheless, Fowler remains sensitive to the fact that its title and subject matter may well draw the attention of those seeking vegetarian recipes and so he thoughtfully (and tastefully!) provides true vegetarian (and even vegan) alternatives wherever possible. While these may not be totally true to their origins, the results are every bit as tasty.

My copy of this book was given to me by my wife, as a memento of our first trip to Atlanta. Even though some of the ingredients are a little hard to come by the UK, it has nevertheless come to be one of my favourite sources of inspiration in the kitchen. And it is a wonderfully mouth-watering way to be reminded of the hospitality the Southern States!

YUMMY!!!.......1999-07-12

Southern cooking is more than pork fat and collards (though these are good things). Southern cooking is--like any other important cuisine--making the most out of nature's bounty. Damon Lee Fowler knows that. He takes the natural abundance of Southern gardens and creates (or in many cases) recreates recipes that make eating your vegetables the best part of the meal.

If you grew up in the South and/or (like me) had a Southern mother or grandmother who cooked lots of seasonal vegetables. This book is chock full of recipes and memories.

I have tried about 2/3 of the recipes so far and I haven't found one that I disliked.

Average customer rating:

A perfectly delightful book of Italian Bean Recipes. Super

Fagioli: The Bean Cuisine of Italy
Judith Barrett
Manufacturer: Rodale Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Saved By Soup: More Than 100 Delicious Low-Fat Soups To Eat And Enjoy Every Day
Beans: More than 200 Delicious, Wholesome Recipes from Around the World
Risotto
The Daily Bean: 175 Easy and Creative Bean Recipes for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner....and, yes, Dessert!
More Easy Beans: Quick and Tasty Bean, Pea and Lentil Recipes

ASIN: 1579547249
Release Date: 2004-09-09

Book Description

From thick, rich minestrone with beans and vegetables, to delectable chickpea fritters, here are 124 easy-to-prepare, delicious, authentic favorites-in the only cookbook devoted solely to the glories of Italian bean cookery Satisfying, nutritious, wonderfully adaptable, and one of the least expensive forms of protein, beans are an integral part of the cuisines of cultures all over the globe. This is especially true in Italy today, where you can find hundreds of bean recipes from nearly every region and where, for most families, eating beans is as fundamental as eating pasta. In Fagioli, the co-author of the best-selling cookbook Risotto celebrates the bean cuisine of Italy in all its splendid variety and versatility. Here you will find: Bean Basics-everything you need to know to cook and enjoy beans, including a guide to the most common beans in Italy and their American counterparts Ingredient Guide-information on the special Italian or hard-to-find ingredients, what they are, and how you can purchase them through mail-order and online resources124 authentic dishes-both traditional and new-providing flavorful and creative ways to prepare beans: in antipasti and salads; in soups; with grains including polenta, barley, and faro; with pasta; and in hearty entrees prepared with meats, including sausages, game, beef, lamb, and pork.

Customer Reviews:

A perfectly delightful book of Italian Bean Recipes. Super.......2004-12-14

`Fagioli' by professional cookbook writer Judith Barrett is quite clearly subtitled `The Bean Cuisine of Italy', as it is all about cooking with Italian beans.

This book immediately succeeds at the first and most important task of a special purpose cookbook in that it has made be really care about and be interested in its subject. It accomplishes this feat first by being a very attractively designed hardcover book with a very well sewn binding which nicely lays flat where you want it to. Next, it's modest artwork and typography complements its presentation so that it is simply a pleasure to read. No eye strain here. Congratulations to the Rodale Press for packaging a very nice volume. Finally, the all the introductory material is accurate to the best of my knowledge. There are no lingering myths about the risks of salting cooking beans, there is no doctrinaire approach to having to soak beans, and there is a tolerance, with warnings, about using a pressure cooker to cook beans, as the sine qua non of bean cookery is like barbecue, `low and slow'. The only hint of elitism I detected was the statement that somehow, the Italians have mastered a secret to a tasty cooking of beans which is beyond we poor New World neophytes who have been cooking beans for less than 400 years. I will concede that the knowledge of good bean cooking is probably a bit harder to find outside of Boston, but I think we have the hang of it.

One of the most liberating revelations was the fact that Italians actually cook a lot with dried beans imported from the New World, as North America exports much more than it consumes, and Italy consumes all it produces, so no dried Italian beans sit on the grocery shelves beyond a year of harvest, especially as date of production is stamped on the bean packages just as we do for bread and milk.

While my hero, Alton Brown has remarked that bean cooking is remarkably uniform, far more consistent across species than with grains, he certainly did not take into account the variety of beans covered by this book, which deals with at least fifteen (15) different species of beans, some of which have no substitutes if the real thing is not available. Fortunately, the unique varieties of beans, the chickpea and the fava are commonly available in the United States. Every other type of bean has more than one commonly available substitution, which is important since there are some beans which are available only in Italy and which do not travel well.

The recipes are organized in exactly the way one would expect from an Italian cookery subject, with chapters on:

Primi Piatti, divided into sections on Antipasti, Insalate, and Contorni (Side Dishes)
Zuppa di Fagioli, divided into sections on Minestre, Zuppe (Thick Soups), and Passali (Creamy Soups)
Pasta e Fagioli, of course
Secondi Piatti, divided into Fagioli e Farinacci (Grains), Fagioli con Carne (Meat), Fagioli con Selvaggina (Poultry), and Fagioli con Pesce (Seafood)

I have never, up until today, been quite clear on the difference between Minestre and Zuppa. I always thought of Minestre as a relatively thick soup, especially as prepared in Florence, for example, but the Tuscan bean soup recipe trumps all visions of soupy thickness by including six different varieties of beans.

This division of recipes does not mean there is no seafood in the salads or antipasti. In fact, the salads include tuna, shrimp, and octopus as co-conspirators in the salad recipes.

This book gives an excellent discussion of non-bean ingredients for its size and does the especially good service of telling us where we can get these ingredients at the same place where their use is discussed. This may not be the best arrangement when we pick up the book later as a reference, but it gives a very good sense of how easy or how hard it is to get some of these things such as bottarga, guanciale, and porcinis.

One could argue that if you have a library full of books by Marcella Hazan, Lydia Bastianich, and a platoon of other Italian cooking writers, what do you need with this book? My first answer is that unlike most general works written for Americans, it tells you what kind of beans are actually used in these recipes. Next, like every special subject book, it is simply a lot easier to find a recipe to fit your need for beans than rummaging through the index of six other books.

As expected from a professional cookbook writer, all the recipes are exceptionally well written and there is a delightful variety in the selection. I cannot guarantee that this book will remove the pasty flavor of beans from your preparations (especially since we have no way of knowing how old our dried beans are), but it will make every effort to do so. The rest is up to you.

Very pleasant, very informative, and very tasty read. Recommended.

Lean Bean Cuisine: Over 100 Tasty Meatless Recipes from Around the World

Average customer rating:

Kitchen Crutch
Not Lean for these Beans
This should be called "Lean Bland Cuisine"
Spicy and exciting
Bon Appetite, To your Health, B'tayah-vone

Lean Bean Cuisine: Over 100 Tasty Meatless Recipes from Around the World
Jay Solomon
Manufacturer: Prima Lifestyles
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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150 Vegan Favorites: Fresh, Easy, and Incredibly Delicious Recipes You Can Enjoy Every Day
Vegetarian Rice Cuisine: From Pancakes to Paella, 125 Dishes from Around the World
Easy Beans: Fast and Delicious Bean, Pea, and Lentil Recipes, Second Edition
The Global Vegetarian
The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen

ASIN: 1559584386
Release Date: 1994-06-06

Amazon.com

The bulk of these recipes are vegan dishes with a Caribbean/Latin American flavor, but there are some Middle Eastern, Greek, Italian, and French dishes, and a few recipes from Africa, India, America, and Asia.

"Solomon's recipes are truly imaginative." --Vegetarian Times

Book Description

Meatless Recipes for the World’s Most Perfect Protein!
Discover recipes that are healthful, lean, and sophisticated. Here, Jay Solomon transforms beans into exciting an adventurous meals. The humble legume inspires a delicious array of soups, salads, entrees, and side dishes. From the shores of the Mediterranean to the islands of the Caribbean, from the American Southwest to South America, and from Africa to Asia, these updated and delicious meatless bean dishes include:
·Jamaican Red Pea Soup
·Saint Lucian Pumpkin and White Bean Soup
·Creole Veggie and Red Bean Jambalaya
·Mediterranean Couscous and Lentil Salad
·Pesto Navy Bean Soup with Red Bell Peppers
·Warm Quinoa, Corn, and Cranberry Salad
·Native American Posole
·West African Groundnut Stew
Each recipe includes a complete nutritional breakdown.

Customer Reviews:

Kitchen Crutch.......2003-12-18

I've had this book for nearly 2 years and I use a recipe from it at least once a week. I love the wide range of cuisines presented - from Jambalaya to Sambar to Groundnut Stew to Pasta e Fagioli. I haven't tried a recipe, yet, that I didn't like.

Not Lean for these Beans.......2002-01-13

Very few of these recipes are lean. Many recipes have up to 30 grams of fat. When I fix bean dishes, I want to improve my health not give myself a heart attack. This recipe book has adequate recipes for beans, but the title is very misleading, most every recipe is very fattening and not too good for your heart.

This should be called "Lean Bland Cuisine".......2000-04-14

Despite his generous use of herbs and spices, the four recipes I tried all tasted generic and dull.

Spicy and exciting.......1999-11-19

These recipes are spicy and exciting -- just the thing to prove that vegetarian food is ANYTHING but boring! I love spicy food but I truly hate dishes that are pure heat with no flavor. Not true of these dishes -- Jay's recipes literally sing with flavor. Wonderful fare!

Bon Appetite, To your Health, B'tayah-vone.......1999-02-03

This book reminds us all that is wealth when you have your health. To you, this book gives an alternative diet that has been proven to be creative and healthful awakening for connoisseurs of healthy choice meals as well as for vegetarians and non-vegetarians acrooss the globe. This book also recommend that cooks use high quality, natural products to ensure that your recipes meet the high standards and optimum taste they have set for each dish.

Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin' Joe Butter Beans, Ol' 'Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites

Average customer rating:

Wonderful Country Cooking
Ms. Robinson ALWAYS washes her greens in WARM water,
easy and awesome
Purchased as a gift.
Charming Picture of Life and Food on Carolina Coast Island

Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way: Smokin' Joe Butter Beans, Ol' 'Fuskie Fried Crab Rice, Sticky-Bush Blackberry Dumpling, and Other Sea Island Favorites
Sallie Ann Robinson
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia
The New Low-Country Cooking: 125 Recipes for Coastal Southern Cooking with Innovative Style
The Pat Conroy Cookbook: Recipes of My Life
De Nyew Testament (The New Testament in Gullah)
The Water is Wide

ASIN: 0807827835
Release Date: 2007-01-02

Book Description

"If there's one thing we learned coming up on Daufuskie," remembers Sallie Ann Robinson, "it's the importance of good, home-cooked food." In this enchanting book, Robinson presents the delicious, robust dishes of her native Sea Islands and offers readers a taste of the unique, West African-influenced Gullah culture still found there.

Living on a South Carolina island accessible only by boat, Daufuskie folk have traditionally relied on the bounty of fresh ingredients found on the land and in the waters that surround them. The one hundred home-style dishes presented here include salads and side dishes, seafood, meat and game, rice, quick meals, breads, and desserts. Gregory Wrenn Smith's photographs evoke the sights and tastes of Daufuskie.

"Here are my family's recipes," writes Robinson, weaving warm memories of the people who made and loved these dishes and clear instructions for preparing them. She invites readers to share in the joys of Gullah home cooking the Daufuskie way, to make her family's recipes their own.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Country Cooking.......2007-03-11

I have tried to catch Ms. Robinson's t.v. shows when I was able. Having grown up poor and having to make ends meet by stretching the food, you appreciate any attempt to liven up the meals. Ms. Robinson has done this very well. I enjoy her, and I enjoy the book.

Ms. Robinson ALWAYS washes her greens in WARM water,.......2006-09-18

One of my favorite episodes of Sara Moulton's cooking show featured the author and included a visit to her childhood home. I was THRILLED that Ms. Robinson washed her green leafy vegetables in warm water. What a shame such wisdom (do Americans even know the term "nightsoil" anymore???) has been disregarded in the wake of carnival barkers who demonstrate their cooking ability by ripping open a bag of greens (prewashed, My Aunt Fanny!) and cooking raw meat straight from their styrofoam and plastic packaging. Ewwwww, you know no amount of cooking heat can clean that up. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Thank you, Ms. Robinson.

easy and awesome.......2006-06-19

I grew up in St. Helena Island (Frogmore). Having and using this book brings back those memories

Purchased as a gift........2005-08-13

This was the perfect gift for my sister who lived on Dafuskie island for several years. She personally knew Sallie Ann and was sad to leave her east coast home and the lovely people she met there. The book brought back memories of a delightful period in her life.

Charming Picture of Life and Food on Carolina Coast Island.......2004-01-17

This book of recipes and remembrances by a woman, Sallie Ann Robinson, who grew up on South Carolina's Daufuskie Island is much more a work of social and culinary history than it is a work of culinary interest. The first thing which most impressed me about the book was how fascinating and charming it was to read about the author's life with her many siblings, parents, grandmother, and neighbors. The second thing, which impressed me, was how dull her recipes were from a strictly culinary point of view.

An example of the monotony is the eleven salad recipes in the first chapter. The first recipe is a simple version of the Waldorf salad and the second salad is a simple cole slaw. The remaining nine recipes are simply variations on the same mayonnaise, pickle relish, celery, and sweet pepper salad combined with a protein and appropriate spices. The recipes for sweets and pastries are similarly very common versions of recipes we have all seen a dozen times over.

This is not to say the recipes had no interest. As a case study of culinary anthropology, it is fascinating to compare this cuisine with the rustic Italian cuisine, which is heavily based on `the fifth quarter' of the pig plus cured pork products. The differences are even more interesting. In spite of a life based greatly on subsistence farming, fishing, hunting, and gathering, there is no mention of curing, preserving, or cheese making or any other activity which would come to elevate Italian food to it's high place in the world's cuisines. This is not to belittle this rural South Carolina cuisine, but to point out the genius behind food in Italy.

The industry, pride, and ingenuity involved in the collection of raw foodstuffs on Daufuskie are truly amazing in light of the slim resources available. Fishing nets were made by hand. Wooden hoe, shovel, and rake handles were made and placed in their metal parts by hand. Tilling was done with a plough worthy of a museum of 17th century agriculture, drawn by a steer. All cultivation and harvesting was done by hand. Iron tools were all sharpened by hand.

All this takes place against a backdrop of the local business, oyster canning, being destroyed by pollution from modern industry befouling the waters of the Savannah River. A second theme is how the natives of this backwater island succeeded in living by their wits in the enforced absence of decent education up until the success of the civil rights movement of the late 1960s.

I was expecting a bit more from these recipes, especially after seeing the author demonstrate some of her recipes on Sara Moulton's Food Network show. But, I will give Ms. Moulton's producers full credit for filming segments on Daufuskie Island itself, showing up that the way of life on that island is the real hero of this book. I would buy it for it's effective evocation of this way of life and it's snapshot of an unvarnished poor rural subsistence living cuisine.

Confessions of a Coffee Bean: The Complete Guide to Coffee Cuisine (Square One Classics)

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Confessions of a Coffee Bean: The Complete Guide to Coffee Cuisine (Square One Classics)
Marie Nadine Antol
Manufacturer: Square One Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Coffee & Tea | Drinks & Beverages | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0757000207

Book Description

Confessions of a Coffee Bean first provides a fascinating history of coffee and details the bean's journey from crop to cup. It then looks at the uniqueness of coffeehouses found around the world, details the types of coffee available, discusses brewing methods, and presents over sixty enticing recipes that celebrate the very taste that is coffee.

Average customer rating:

I have used this book for 10 years
A useful intro to Beans

Bean Cuisine
Janet Horsley
Manufacturer: Avery
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 089529446X

Customer Reviews:

I have used this book for 10 years.......2004-08-16

I have used this book for about 10 years.

The recipes taste good and it is one of my favorite cook books.

All of the recipes are vegetarian and most of are vegan( or easily adapted to being vegan ).

I liked that the recipes had serving suggestions for making complete meals.

The book has an interesting history of legumes in addition to helpful information on identifying, preparing, storing, and cooking beans.

I would buy this book again if a revised edition came out with only vegan recipes.

The only other thing I would like to see is nutrition information with the recipies

A useful intro to Beans.......1999-08-26

This isn't a glamorous book but I did enjoy the recipes I made from it

From the produce isle: The cuisine of greens, fruits, grains, and beans from an island kitchen

Average customer rating:

From the produce isle: The cuisine of greens, fruits, grains, and beans from an island kitchen
Eileen M Towata
Manufacturer: NeoNeko
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 0967229103

America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking

Average customer rating:

A New Angle on New England History
Cuisine and History
The Meaning of the Menu
A well-told corrective to some common myths
Only two librarians could write such a boring book on such an interesting subject

America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking
Keith Stavely , and Kathleen Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Food in Colonial and Federal America (Food in American History)
A Revolution In Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America (Arts and Traditions of the Table)
Loosening the Bonds: Mid-Atlantic Farm Women, 1750-1850
The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

ASIN: 0807828947
Release Date: 2003-11-01

Book Description

From baked beans to apple cider, from clam chowder to pumpkin pie, Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald's culinary history reveals the complex and colorful origins of New England foods and cookery. Featuring hosts of stories and recipes derived from generations of New Englanders of diverse backgrounds, America's Founding Food chronicles the region's cuisine, from the English settlers' first encounter with Indian corn in the early seventeenth century to the nostalgic marketing of New England dishes in the first half of the twentieth century.

Focusing on the traditional foods of the region--including beans, pumpkins, seafood, meats, baked goods, and beverages such as cider and rum--the authors show how New Englanders procured, preserved, and prepared their sustaining dishes. Placing the New England culinary experience in the broader context of British and American history and culture, Stavely and Fitzgerald demonstrate the importance of New England's foods to the formation of American identity, while dispelling some of the myths arising from patriotic sentiment.

At once a sharp assessment and a savory recollection, America's Founding Food sets out the rich story of the American dinner table and provides a new way to appreciate American history.

Customer Reviews:

A New Angle on New England History.......2006-05-27

My New England bookshelf groans under the weight of historical studies focusing on the politics, theology, intellectual life, industry, and notable people of the region. These are all worthy if well-worn subjects. Then there's the New England tourism industry, selling "ye olde" Boston baked beans, clam chowder, and Indian pudding as vaunted, almost sacred, symbols of the region. Here, finally, is a book that explains the connection between the two, taking both the history and the food seriously.

There are many surprises here, for instance that turkeys were often boiled and garnished with oyster sauce when served for special feasts, and that the first English to settle the region grew corn because their wheat crops mostly failed. This is a careful, food-oriented story, with lots of detail on what people ate, and how it was processed and preserved as well as cooked. It's also interesting to learn what average families wanted to eat when they were dining on their daily pottage.

The authors use memoirs, letters, and novels as well as cookbooks to uncover what New Englanders thought about the foods they ate. This is a compelling account and a detailed study, with lots of good stories to leaven the Boston Brown Bread. Whether you're interested in the ways gingerbread recipes changed from the court kitchens of the Middle Ages to the farm kitchens of New England, or in the reasons why a wallflower cuisine like New England cooking became enshrined as American food, there's something here for you.

Cuisine and History.......2006-05-20

Although we know that armies march on their bellies and that the search for food has played a crucial role in building societies, the writing of history has often neglected this important subject. Only recently has food history taken its place alongside more conventional approaches to history-writing. This book is a fine example of the new interest in food history.

What impressed me as I read it was how little I had known before, and how much I was learning about what New Englanders ate throughout the region's history. We've all heard about Boston baked beans and Indian pudding, but I didn't know about the gingerbread that colonial militamen nibbled on muster days. Nor did I know that bear was considered even better eating than venison by the Massachusetts Bay colonists. One nineteenth-century writer asserted that cod fish was to New England what roast beef was to England. What struck me most, however, was how the authors discuss the colonial revival of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how that period shaped our ideas of "historic" New England. What we think of as New England's historic foods--the "first" Thanksgiving meal, those Boston baked beans--were partly based in fact but were mostly the invention of the colonial revivial.

The ways that people use their traditional foods to represent their culture are described in fascinating detail in America's Founding Food. There's a wealth of detail here, but also a great story about what food meant, from the settlement of New England to the revival of the region as a destination for those interested in America's roots. This is a substantial, thoughtful book.

The Meaning of the Menu.......2006-05-18

Americans still think particular New England foods and menus, like Thanksgiving dinner, Boston Baked Beans, and boiled Maine lobster, are important parts of our American identity. This highly informative book tells us why these and other New England dishes were important to many generations of Americans, and continue to be part of our American heritage.

With wit and erudition, the authors separate fact from fiction through careful analysis of some hoary traditions. Along the way, they left me chuckling over such food-lore gems as the Adams-Jefferson dispute on when to serve pudding and the controversy concerning the "authentic" way to make Rhode Island Jonny cakes, with one side declaring that the other's was "hick feed."

There's something here for just about everyone interested in American history or the history of food. From a discussion of the economic motivation for setting up those quaint New England fishing villages to the environmental implications of animal husbandry (which the English colonists introduced into New England), we learn to think somewhat differently about New England's past. Along the way, we get a glimpse of American home life as it was lived, particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, in New England--the houswife who worries that she's too late bottling her plums and the little boy whose mother's "fire-cake" is such a treat. This book makes you feel like you are in those kithcens. Boiling a hundred oysters to make Oyster Ketchup, helping to butcher a 280-pound hog, these New England cooks were really something!

While it is a history and not a cookbook, this book gives both cooks and history buffs the solid information we need to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of New England food lore. It offers a chance to see what New Englanders ate, and why, and most tellingly, what they thought about their food.

A well-told corrective to some common myths.......2006-03-30

This is a fascinating story that uses food to debunk many of the myths about New England that we learned in school. Here you will find the real story behind the English reliance on Indian corn, the origins of chowder, and the ways dishes such as baked beans were used to promote one social group over others. This is history at its best--fun, factual, thoughtful, coherent, and readable.

Only two librarians could write such a boring book on such an interesting subject.......2006-03-29

Yes, a scholarly book, with illustrations. Yawn. If you seek anything more than research and the occasional black and white illustration, look elsewhere. I'm sure the authors are being "celebrated" within their communities, but the hype is just that; hype. The cover of the book is the only colorful, exciting thing about it.

Not that I was expecting a cookbook, but it does not appeal to a wide range of people, and that is a flaw. The authors therefore come across as if they must be glad to be part of such an "elite" group of people who "get it," while the rest of us are simply ignorant.

Also, this is definitely not for the foodies.

Cooking Chinese Over 50 fresh and innovative recipes for modern Chinese cuisine

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Cooking Chinese Over 50 fresh and innovative recipes for modern Chinese cuisine

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1840813008

Product Description

oversized book, with picture of each recipe. step by step method instructions

Pulses: Peas, Beans and Lentils (In 60 Ways)

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Pulses: Peas, Beans and Lentils (In 60 Ways)
Marshall Cavendish Cuisine
Manufacturer: Marshall Cavendish Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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