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Trading Tastes: The United States Regional Cookbook
By Ann | March 21, 2008
Welcome to another edition of Trading Tastes, in which guest bloggers write about their favorite cookbooks. Today, we are thrilled to welcome back ma belle-mere, bon vivant Victoria Klein (have you checked out her website yet? It’s gorgeous). She suggests:
The United States Regional Cookbook
Another vintage cookbook I had picked up at a library book sale is called, very straightforwardly, The United States Regional Cookbook, published in 1939. I would have assumed that the writer, or “editor” of the book to have picked up a smattering of assimilated versions of American regional cooking, but this book is actually an amazing document of very authentic recipes. The regions represented include New England, Southern, Pennsylvania Dutch, Creole, Michigan Dutch (!), Wisconsin Dutch (!!) and many, many more.
The “editor” takes an extremely scholarly view and under each region lists numerous names of those who’ve hunted down these recipes. I picture in my mind the visits to toothless octogenarians and hermits in log cabins with no inside plumbing as in the movie Song Catcher. In addition, she separates out a final section called “Cosmopolitan American Cook Book: Recipes from many Lands That Have Found an American Home.” These include a remarkably inclusive selection of dishes from immigrants who established themselves so forcefully in the United States from the Revolution to the time of the book’s publication. It makes one realize that, to an American in 1939, Italians, Jews, Poles, and many other cultures were still seen as newcomers. The dishes represented here are as varied as Chicken Cacciatori (her spelling), Gulylas, Gefullte Fish, Calves Feet A La Poulette, etc. etc.
As for authenticity, I can vouch for the New England and Pennsylvania Dutch recipes. In both cases they are encyclopedic, delightfully old fashioned, redolent of the old homestead.
Julia Child and Alice Waters may have lit bombs in the kitchens of American cooks but this book proves there was a very interesting and varied cuisine here right under our noses.
Thanks, Victoria!
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Topics: Trading Tastes |
2 Responses to “Trading Tastes: The United States Regional Cookbook”
Comments
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March 21st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
What a totally fascinating piece, Victoria. One of my favorite experiences is tasting regional cooking around the United States. The chicken fried steak of the southwest. The key-lime pie of Florida. The sourdough loaves of California. And there are surprises. I had no idea Chicago was such a bastion of Mexican food. And being in Washington, we are exposed to a terrific blend of north and south. Chesapeake crabs are ubiquitous … but you can’t imagine what a kick I get out of seeing grits on offer in the State Department cafeteria every morning! Massachusetts this ain’t!
March 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Chris-Last summer the NY Times had a piece on authentic clam shacks in New England, something you and Ann may want to try out while driving up the coast on #95. And a question about cuisine in DC? Is there a lingering sense of Southern Cuisine?