Book Board Chat

ahahaha! You people are cracking me up re: Rachel! Don't you think they would get smart and have Sally call since we all know who it is when we hear Rachel!

Sent this article to @bookleaves Ellen. Thought she might be interested in it given the couple of books that she has written, Learning to Cook in 1898: A Chicago Culinary Memoir (2007), based on Irma Rosenthal Frankenstein's manuscript cookbook, and set into the socio-cultural and economic context of 19th century German-Jewish community in Chicago, and From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways (2011), the inaugural volume of the Heartland Foodways series at the University of Illinois. It is ironic that Ellen , who doesn't like to cook wrote these books and also published two articles on culinary-related topics: "A Menu and A Mystery: The Case of the 1834 Delmonico Bill of Fare"( Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture (Spring 2008), and a lengthy book review on Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History.

The "Menu and A Mystery: The Case of the 1834 Delmonico Bill of Fare" is a great article! It really reads like a mystery and she solves it! Swifty's place is right in front of Delmonico's and I sent him the article to read so that he wouldn't be fooled by any claims that he might hear about it. LOL A food critic from the New York Times contacted Ellen about the article and thanked her for getting to the bottom of it because he never thought the story rang true and a professor at a university contacted her to ask her permission to use the article as an example of what scholarly research was really all about. She (and her DH) lay things out so well and take you every step of the way. I fully understood why the professor wanted to use it as an example of fine research that was not only in-depth but not at all dull but exciting. The abstract doesn't do the article justice as it is such a fun read!

" Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture
Abstract: The one document in the history of American cuisine that is probably cited more frequently than any other is the so-called “1834 Delmonico menu” that situates an early Delmonico restaurant at 494 Pearl Street in Manhattan. Allegedly printed in 1834, this bill of fare is often touted as the first restaurant menu printed in America. It has been mentioned in a variety of other contexts, too: in histories of Delmonico's restaurant and of that quintessential “American” food, the hamburger, in discussions about the semantics of menu language, and as an illustration of early menu design. The prices it quotes have been used to illustrate historical food costs and inflation, and it has even been co-opted to tout restaurants aspiring to the standards set long ago by the famed restaurateur Lorenzo Delmonico. Our investigation suggests the so-called “1834 Delominco menu” was never issued by the celebrated Delmonico family. Rather, it was a handbill for a “cheap dining hall” called “Small Delmonico's,” at 494 Pearl Street, in New York City, owned and operated during the late 1880's by an Italian immigrant named Barnabo."

The subject of the two books written by this writer/bookseller make for fun topics to discuss re: what you find in books. I find a lot of recipes, both handwritten and newspaper clippings, in the cookbooks that I sell. And in other books, the usual bookmarks, invoices, notes, etc. No money yet however...reminds me of one of Satnrose's hints that as usual could be read two ways.

So anyway, I thought people here might be interested in reading this book review (summary also linked).

In Book News . . .

Handwritten Recipes: A Bookseller's Collection...
from "Fine Books & Collections by Rebecca Rego Barry, Oct. 18, 2012

What are the fine pairings of food and book? Is Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano a perfect complement to matzo balls? Are baked chicken legs best served with Catch-22? This is one of the delicious distractions to consider while paging through Michael Popek's new book, Handwritten Recipes: A Bookseller's Collection of Curious and Wonderful Recipes Forgotten Between the Pages (Perigree, $20). [Summary of book: http://tinyurl.com/cg9otsn ]

Apparently a closeted vegetarian was reading 365 Ways to Cook Hamburger (Doubleday, 1960) because she left a recipe for zucchini bread inside. Was a Betty Draper-type housewife reading Frank Edwards' Strange People whilst she whipped up macaroni loaf and apricot bavarian cream? Sour cream coffee cake with Less Than Zero is an odd combination, but two different kinds of pickle in The Spy Who Loved Me (NAL reprint, 1963) seems understandable.

Because some of the recipes are untested--let's call them vernacular--Popek goes the extra step and brings in experts for some of the more interesting dishes. Blogger Shannon Weber of A Periodic Table, for example, provides professional measurements and advice for a pineapple chiffon cake recipe that seems thoroughly worth trying out.

Many of these "found recipes" turned up in cookbooks, for obvious reasons. So for cookbook lovers, there's the added bonus of finding interesting new titles. Slenderella Cook Book by Myra Waldo (Putnam's, 1957) contained a recipe for Boston Prune Cake and Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Dainties by Janet M. Hill (Little, Brown, 1914) offered okra gumbo.

Popek, who runs Popek's Used and Rare Books in Oneonta, New York, seems to have a found a recipe for success in scrapbooking the paper ephemera he finds between the pages and among the stacks in his daily business. His first book, Forgotten Bookmarks (reviewed here last year- http://tinyurl.com/d4razbq), focused on letters, postcards, photographs, and other bookmarks he has uncovered. The handwritten recipes here were culled from the nearly 5,000 he has found in the past few years and are now published in color alongside the book (with a basic bibliographical entry) that each was in found in. For daring home cooks, food historians, lovers of paper and ephemera, this book is altogether satisfying. Bring one to your Thanksgiving host.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/cn7xtas

and ACK that should be "Take one to your Thanksgiving host!" The difference between take and bring seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent years.