Cooking History Books

I purchased this book from the little special exhibit store at the Atlanta Fernbank Museum special exhibit on choloate. I believe that many of the photographs come directly from the exhibit. This is a sensual book with beautiful illustrations. It gives the history of chocolate and has details of manufacturers and particular brands.

What particularly interested me was the discussion of the way that chocolate has gradually been discovered and planted around the world. The largest export was first Central America, now it is Africa.

Whether you are a chocolate lover like myself or not, you will enjoy this veritable opus on the history and business of this wonderful gift from the New World.

The narrative is bracketed by these two first and last sentences of the book: "The lush, tropical rainforest is home to the cacao tree....It is possible that chocolate may be a critical ingredient in the fight to save the world's rainforests." Written as an accompaniment to a Chicago musuem exhibition on chocolate, this book is full of pictures and photos which complete a well-written text on the historical origins of this major global product, the chocolate business, and even the future of chocolate.

This is a wonderful book for young and adult readers. It will grace any living room bookshelf. Don't be disappointed by its lack of recipes.

THIS BOOK ON GRASS IS A REAL GOOD BOOK FOR PEOPLE INTERESTED IN LEARNING A LOT OVER IDENTIFICATION OF GRASSES.

This book has excellent detailed drawings of the whole plant, and the bloom or seed head. The descriptions of the grasses are thorough and include fair-excellent ratings on wildlife and or cattle grazing. For a native grass enthousiast or a rancher, this book is excellent.

Many grasses have similar visual attributes, though. For the average person who has no previous knowledge of grasses and no alternate source with actual photos, this resource could be confusing by itself.

The Complete Book of Spirits by Anthony Dias Blue is a marvelous guide for a retail store. It is an easy read, incredibly informative, and can make you an instant expert on all spirits, even includes barware and glasses. I bought it for our liquor managers in each store and they have found it to be an excellent storehouse of knowledge from beginning to end about all types of spirits. I needed this 35 years ago when first became a liquor retailer. Awesome book!!!

I was recently hired as spirit sales person and needed to learn more about the subject i was selling. This book was very useful for me and contains a lot of great information about the history of spirits and how they came about for today's consumption.

This book is another interesting contribution to this series. The teacher may want to conduct a series study by having students look at the collection of books, for example. Students could compare recipes, for example, and draw conclusions about the availability of foods during certain periods in US history. They could make a comparison chart, for example. Each book would facilitate talk about history, actively engage students in a learning activity, practice the use of math, facilitate discussion kitchen safety, prompt talk about hygiene, enable use of maps and geography, and facilitate discussion of availability of crops and meat. Even if the class couldn't cook the items, the students could mix the items and the teacher could provide ones cooked at home. This book gives the opportunity to discuss practical math, history, safety, metric conversation, teamwork, and fruits and vegetables.

Gunderson, M. (2000). Cowboy Cooking: Exploring history through simple recipes. Mankato, MN: Blue Earth Books.

Gunderson, M. (2000). Pioneer farm cooking: Exploring history through simple recipes. Mankato, MN: Blue Earth Books.

Gunderson, M. (2000). Oregon trail cooking: Exploring history through simple recipes. Mankato, MN: Blue Earth Books.

Gunderson, M. (2000). Southern plantation cooking: Exploring history through simple recipes. Mankato, MN: Blue Earth Books.

Cute book which adds interest to any Lewis and Clark lesson. Recipes are interesting. Very nice book.

I did not buy this book for the recipes. I thought, and was correct, that perhaps this book might offer photographs of the Royal Family I had never seen in print before. The story of how this book came about is a wonderful story by itself. Read it and find out who the man was behind it's creation. There are private photos of the Queen Mother, the Queen, and a young Prince Charles that are ready for framing. And that is what I plan on doing this weekend. While I must purchase another copy to keep, I am going through my copy to remove the wonderful shots and frame them. My kitchen is decorated with numerous photos of the Royal Family. And yes, I have Union Jack rugs on the floors as well. The recipes are wonderful, but the photographs and stories are worth buying the book for. If you are an Anglophile as I am, or a huge fan of the Royals, this is the book for you.

This is a wonderful book, full of history from Queen Victoria to the present, with lovely photos of the Royal Family- A MUST for Anglophiles, and cooks alike! Included are dinner services for Royal Formal dinners, and all the dishes served. There is also a food glossary- very helpful.
This book is from the diaries of a former Butler, a man who grew up in service with his father under the reign of Queen Victoria. A very interesting read- I loved it!

...this book is a culinary and historic gem. I am fortunate enough to own a first edition of this highly entertaining collection of recipes and folklore, not to mention the copious illustrations, and believe me, I don't keep in the kitchen with the workaday cookbooks! It is my personal favorite among my many books about food (which are different than cookbooks) Yes, it is surely politically incorrect, but that's the way it was, and we can't change history. Those of us who delight in the wonders of Maryland ccoking and the eccentricities of the Maryland (Baltimore) personality will be higly rewarded. And the recipes are good, too! To quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes, to whom Stieff dedicated his book, "Baltimore...the gastronomic metropolitis of the Union... Why don't you put a canvas-back duck on top of the Washington column?...Why ask for other glories when you have soft crabs?..." Any lover of culinary lore will treasure this work.

I can't believe that this book is coming out in reprint. This is a marvelous look at the food of Maryland in the 1930's. From this, however, some of the foods to be found in here - like terrapin (turtle) - are not to be found in the Maryland restaurants today, but some - like the Crab Cakes Baltimore - are made just as they are nowadays. I lived in Maryland for 20 years and reading these recipes gives me fond rememberences. These recipes were gathered by Stieff by talking to people he met in his travels and writing down what they had to say. These were never published before, and hence are an important historical document from the times. The reason I can't believe this book is being reprinted is that it would never pass the politically correct standards of the '90's if being printed as a new book. It (at least the original hardcover edition) is printed with cartoons to make it entertaining to read. Here's 3 of them: (Picture of an old woman talking to a fish merchant at his counter) Woman: "I don't like the looks of this 'ere 'addock." Merchant: "Well, if it's looks ye're after, lydy, ye'd do better by the goldfish !" (Picture of an old black gentleman in glasses and a beard) Man: "Chickens, suh, am de usefulles' animal dey is. Yo' can et dem befo' dey's born and after dey's daid". (Picture of a middle aged black woman with a corn cob pipe talking to a black preacher) "Parshon, Ah'd like to kill dat low-down husban' o' mine." "Why, Car'line, what he done ?" "Done ? Why, dat hunk o' black trash lef' de chicken-house do' open and all de chickens has gone." "Why, Car'line, dat ain't nothing to get worried about. Don't you know dat accordin' to de gospel of Luke and John dat 'Chickens Come Home to Roos'!' " "Come home ! Why, Parson, dose chickens'll go home." I know this is authentic because this is exactly how my grandfather used to talk. In spite of, or maybe because of, this down homeness, I still love this book. The recipes are authentic and good, and reading it will send you back to the time of the 30's. Just remember to take a deep breath before re-entering the '90's

"The Essential Olive Oil Companion" isn't about oil only. It also explains the steps needed the convert those hard green fruit on your olive tree in delicious snacks and ingredients in Mediterranean recipes. If you've got an olive tree in your yard, orchard or garden, get this book.

I very much enjoyed the stucture of the book. The historical introduction on olive oil is splendid. The chapters on processing, tasting, etc are the best yet on this subject in books of wide readership. Throughout the book one gets permeated by the author's contagious enthusiasm. The chapter on Spanish oils is accurate and fair.Illustrations are also of fine quality. The only blemish I was able to find was the frequent spelling mistakes in the original language of different recipes:"ajo blancho", "carne machada", "bagna calda" etc

This is really more of a history book, to my reading. It has wonderful little known facts that I would never have learned otherwise. There is a lot of research that went into this book, and she obviously worked long and hard to get this book and the history into order. This is a wonderful book for anyone who is interested in Poland or Slavic areas, and the recipies, to me, almost seemed as an afterthought, though I do not doubt they are correct and proper for Poland. Enjoy!!!

This book is filled with a wealth of educational material. This book is comprised of mostly history regarding the culture, the food, and the people. The recipes are well written with measurements in english and metric, temperatures are also given in standard and celcius degrees. Most recipes are from the peasant folk with a few meat dishes sprinkled in. Some recipes are common to today's standards while a few of the others would not typically be seen served in today's kitchen. There are approximately 30 recipes or so in this book. Each recipe has its history in terms of how it was served, to whom it was served, and when it was served. The book is a worthwhile read.

A very interesting and entertaining book tracing back Chinese history through food. It does not only show you the information about the subject but also picture us the way Chinese people ate in the old days. My favorite part is about food in Han dynasty when the author vividly described the way Han people preparing their food through the Han Dynasty carved stone plaques.

Published in the late 1980s, The Food of China remains one of the key modern works on Chinese food history. This was the first book I read on Chinese food. That was a mistake, if only because the book is so dense with information that the reading experience was quite overwhelming at the time. So if you are a novice like I was, start with something lighter such as Francine Halvorsen's The Food and Cooking of China before taking the deep plunge with this more academic book. But E. N. Anderson remains on of the two or three authoritative references in my bookshelf that I know I will be reaching for many years to come.

I read this book on the plane during a recent trip to Europe and thouroughly enjoyed it. It contains insightful information to the evolution of American cooking over the past 100 years or so for anyone curious about why we eat what we eat. A good buy!

Author Betty Fussell proves that the way to America's heart is through its stomach in I HEAR AMERICA COOKING. In addition to a section-by-section review of the cuisine of every region of the U.S.with a tempting array of recipies to try, this book shows how the many different cultures that are part of this country have, like the elements of a good meal, maintained their unique flavor while making up an exciting and memorable whole. This is one cookbook that will interest even people who don't cook but love U.S. history or sociology. It's similar to Jeff Smith's FRUGAL GOURMET ON OUR IMMIGRANT ANCESTORS, in highlighting "Grandma's Recipes"--regardless of where Grandma's ancestors came from--but Fussell adds more spice to her presentation by putting regional specialties in the overall context of American cuisine.