Cooking History Books

I'm told that Mr. Trager's book states that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621. The first Yankee Thanksgiving, perhaps. Others suggest that the first Thanksgiving was near EL Paso TX in 1598 by Don Juan de Onate and about 400 Spanish colonists after they traveled north across the desert and crossed the Rio Grande river. It was celebrated a full 23 years prior to the Pilgram Thanksgiving in Plymouth MA.

Utterly comprehensive, fantasically informative and an utter delight. If you like food, you'll love this! How anyone else gave it less than five stars I can't imagine

I agree with other reviewers that Trager's book contains numerous errors. Nevertheless, there's nothing I've read quite like it for breadth of coverage of food history. The book is a resource for food writers like me, or anyone who wants a good source of ideas about food. I can check my facts elsewhere. I particularly enjoy Trager's treatment of food processing and industrial food history, as well as his analysis of food and nutrition fads over the past few centuries. His coverage of food-related and deficiency illnesses is also deep, and has spurred me to further reading. If you read The Food Chronology from cover to cover, as I did over a period of several months, you cannot help but be stimulated and enriched.

Food writer Elliot Essman's other reviews and food articles are available at www.stylegourmet.com

The reviewer from Japan was right in noting mistakes. This book is riddled with them, especially typos, skewed facts and sometimes real gaffes. (But begging your indulgence, fellow reviwer, eggplants are not from the Americas.)

Any serious student of food and food history
will find a lot of errors and inadequacies in
this book. Sometimes the material is just plain
wrong. More often, the brief comments are just
over-simplified: the section on Italy's D.O.C.
laws is an example.Most of the problems are
questions of emphasis: there are 25 entries for
'pasta' and none for 'soba'. None of the entries
about wine mention the development of bottling,
which is surely one of the most important innova
tions. As other reviewers have observed, there
is a disproportionate emphasis on America and
Europe and the curious inclusion of many short-
lived restaurants.

So with all these cavils, what's the point of
this book and why does it rate three stars?
This books great virtue is as a corrective
companion to all those histories that ignore
food. If you believe that people follow their
food and that nutrition and gastronomy often
lie beneath the big topics in history, this is
your book. What was going on in the world of
food in 1776? 1812? How did salt cod and lime
juice change the course of the European
exploration of the rest of the world?

This is history in a blink-without much
sense of context and no report of the ideas
about food that lurked behind the events.
But it is a valuable dose of perspective and
an excellent starting point. It is also, for
those times and places where a quick browsing
read is desireable, irreplaceable.

My copy sits on a shelf near the rocker in
my kitchen. Another chef of my acquaintance
keeps his in the bathroom. As with so many
things, this book is a pleasure if you know
where it belongs.


Lynn Hoffman, author of The New Short Course in Wine
and the forthcoming novel bang-BANG from kunati press.

The author obviously knows his subject, but his presentation wanders and mixes very technical aspects with gross simplifications. That combined with his beer bias detracts from what could be a more useful and informative book.

I am always amazed that people often go for the throat of another human being, rather that stating the positive aspects of what we see and leave the criticism to the individual reader. I have seen Charles Bamforth speak on a few occasions and he is delightfully playful. He jokes about nearly everything, both the beer and the wine industry. In regards to the book, I just get that he wants people to understand that it takes skill to brew beer as well.

I actually prefer the taste of wine over beer, and not being an expert about either, had no idea how each is made in great detail. From all the advertisements I have ever been exposed to however, beer certainly has always been made to look like the lesser form of the two beverages. Now that I have been exposed to more information from Dr. Bamforth, I know that's not true. They both take a lot of skill and expertise to produce a good product.

I mean, when it all boils down to it, just like anything, no one is better or worse than the other and I think Dr. Bamforth would heartily agree it is all about individual preference. I think beer has just gotten a bad rap and the book was intended to give readers a little clearer perspective as to what it is really all about.

I think some of you may be missing the point a bit. The author, I believe, is trying to make the arguement throughout the book that the wine industry has, undeservedly, stolen the moral high ground when it comes to comparing beer and wine. The arguements Bamforth puts forward are really asking why has the wine industry been able to do this, while the beer industry has not (either intentionally or not)? He points out that there really is no proof that wine is any healthier than any other type of alcohol, that the retail mark up of wine is disproportionate to what is costs to produce and he questions the hole notion of "vintage" as an excuse for lack of consistencty. Bamforth just dares to say the beer deserves its place at the table just like wine. A great read.

Relax, K Manning! I think that when the author said he had no idea what a winemaker does "the rest of the year" he was being facetious. I would suggest that you try not to take yourself and your love of wine so seriously and brew up a sense of humor. And by the way, your comment that "it is propaganda like this that has helped lead to so many cases of genocide in the past" is completely ridiculous, offensive and does nothing other than to discredit the rest of your review, because you come across as a bitter, and dare I say pompous, wine snob. This is an extremely well written book, full of humor and while there is no small amount of bias towards beer I would suggest that this be taken with a "grain" of salt. Factual, interesting, informative, funny and it kept my attention throughout. Highly recommended.

Please, take this book for what it is worth. It's written by a brewer, so obviously it is going to be skewed to brewing. The author never denies this. Look at the first paragraph. This books is great at showing why wine has gained the social status that it has and why beer has not, but should have. Wine has always been considered a rich mans drink, and beer is considered to be a poor mans drink. This book goes to show why this is not true. Beer is just as social and respectable as wine and should be considered so.

1. Nearly ever major religion has had some sects that practiced vegetarianism in some form. If you want a lot of details about that, this book has them. Some of the coverage of early vegetarianism, particularly ancient Egyptian vegetarianism, seems excessively speculative.

2. The vegetarian food of 1700-1800s Britain sounds awfully bad and seems to consist almost solely of starches and sugary dishes.

3. The world, or at least the US and Britain, appears to have been having the same arguments about vegetarianism for about 250 years.

4. Post 1700, the book centers on Britain.

I would have preferred more culinary history (for example on the origins of seitan and tofu) and fewer statements of the author's opinions (such as that, for example, a certain writer argues well), but the book is a useful reference of famous vegetarians and vegetarian sympathizers over the last 2500 years. Also, the sections that briefly discuss animal trials and pre-industrial slaughter methods are fascinating.

Colin Spencer does an excellent job of covering the last couple million years of vegetarianism. This book is not an easy read, especially in the sections about the diet of early man, and the analysis of some of the early Christian sects. You'll learn why mainstream society traditionally looks at vegetarians as "cranks" Puritanical, or just plain heretical. This is slowly beginning to change, but I think that in some areas of the world, (esp. where I live) vegetarians are still those weird outsiders who are thumbing their nose at the hallowed institution of eating meat. You'll also learn that early vegetarians weren't vegetarians for animal welfare reasons. For the Greeks like Plutarch or Pythagoras it was all about reincarnation (metempsychosis or transmigration of souls) For the early Christian sects eating meat was a symbol of man's Fall from grace. Some early Christian hermits also abstained from meat & alcohol because they thought consuming these didn't jive with the ascetic lifestyle; you had to deprive yourself of luxuries to become spiritually closer with your God.

My only quibble is that Spencer could've covered the last 100 years in more depth. The last 50 pages is surprisingly lacking in the same kind of detail that Spencer devoted to, (for instance) the Early Christian era. Maybe the last 100 years has been covered better in other books? I don't know, since this is the first book of its type that I've read.

OK, actually I have one other quibble.....In the last 20 pages, Spencer goes off on a rant about corporate farming, the effects of livestock farming on the environment, the dangers of eating meat (salmonella, heart disease, cancer). I thought this was a "history" of vegetarianism??? I mean, I agree with all the things he says about the above topics. I'm an ardent vegetarian myself, but I wish he had devoted more space to the last 100 years of vegetarianism, instead of the polemic.

Another thing to consider is tha Spencer goes go more in detail about vegetarianism in Europe and the UK. If you want a lengthier discussion on vegetarianism in the U.S try somewhere else. This is still an excellent book for a history of vegetarianism. I hope that other authors will take up this topic.

Well written and comprehensive book on the origins of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dietary habits. It is perfect for those vegetarians who want to understand the historical roots of the movement. Also recommended for anyone 'on the fence' about becoming a vegetarian or consuming less animal products. Here you will find concrete facts on the history, health benefits, and compassionate considerations of vegetarianism. You will be inspired by the stories of history's greatest minds choosing to abstain from meat for either health or humane reasons. Vegetarians can count Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Ben Franklin, Shelley, and Gandhi among their historical supporters. This book will motivate readers to consume more healthy non-animal foods and recognize the compassion behind vegetarian choices.
But, you don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy this book. There is a wealth of information on how history, religion, and social development are related to food.

"A reader" says that humans should have priority. I agree with that. That is why I'm vegetarian. By doing so, I make more food available to others, and decrease my chances of degenerate disease in the process.

I thought the book sometime spent too much time on some subjects, and too little on others. But still, overall, a good book.

Lots of people have tried to make an issue about Hitler's claimed vegetarianism. Of course whether he was or wasn't has no bearing on his actions. But since so many people make an issue of it, Spencer had to cover Hitler. What Spencer says about Hitler isn't the same as what I had heard from other sources. Most other sources I thought said Hitler enjoyed meat, but gave up most meat due to digestion problems. Spencer says that Hitler was vegetarian just to be different then everybody else. Which is true, I don't know, but I would assume that Spencer knows what he is talking about.

Som people want to excuse their meat eating on the base of Bible, but theirs attempts are futile,just because quoted often Letters of Paul are simply false ones,introduced to the Bible by clergymen who had been in opposition to true teaching of Jesus. Specially letters to Timothy I,and Timothy II are recognized by modern biblists as forgeries. I didn't know that not harm any creature is...."demonic teaching" It is rather false teaching of the "false apostles" -can be clled

DEMONIC TEACHING.

The product was in the shape you said it was and it also got here in about a week.

This book is a fine work of (unintentional?) self parody. Some of you are probably already familiar with a quote from this book in which Kass condemns public ice cream consumption. Some are undoubtedly tempted to guess that this quote as an aberration, a whimsical flight of fancy in which the otherwise sober Kass lets his bizarre pet peeves override his otherwise serious philosophical investigation. Not so! The Hungry Soul consists of nothing but whimsical rants in which Kass makes no distinction between personal pet peeves and universal moral law.

In some sense, one must admire Kass. He makes his blatant contempt for reason clear, and then follows through with this attitude by abandoning it entirely. Kass does not follow in the footsteps of philosophers like Hume who use rationality to probe the limits and uncover the weaknesses and self-contradictions of rationality. He simply has no truck with reason in any manner.

Thus, when Kass exhorts his readers to purge themselves of scientific, enlightenment rationality when they read his book, warning them of what a difficult task that will be, or claims that cannibalism and vegetarianism are moral equivalents, or that the reason behind the biblical prohibition on eating lobster exists is because their mode of locomotion is improper to their environment (i.e., if they walk on legs, they should be land animals and if they live in the water, they should swim like fish), the most enjoyable thing is not to think of counterarguments, nor to reel at the sheer madness of the doctor's thought, but to simply let the wondrous illogic wash over you.

For first an foremost, Kass's thought is not philosophical, nor Biblical, nor conservative (though it has elements of all of these things), but magical. The laws of magic are pre-rational psychological rules-of-thumb, used in pattern recognition, that are found, to varying degrees, in many, if not all, people: the laws of contagion, association, similarity, sympathy, similarity, and the like. It is these magical laws that underpin Kass's thought. Accepted on its own terms, and properly understood, this is a quite enjoyable book.

Just don't look to it for moral guidance.

This book makes a strong defense of the classical principles of truth, beauty and goodness, jumping from a provoking and very unique starting point: eating. Kass is able to bring the perennial philosophy into the 20th Century, and to create a dialogue between it and modern science, as well as provide a persuasive understanding and defense of traditional ethics, etiquette, and beauty. Kass's analysis of "Babette's Feast" and his speculations on religous ritual are very thought provoking.

One must admire Kass's attempt to pull together so much of traditional philosophy (especially Aristotle) and literature, and still bring this into dialogue with contemporary science (there's reductionism there if anywhere) and culture. His scope is broad, and this book demands a lot of the reader! The argument is purposive, and analysis is difficult--there is so much there, and just about every move is key. (I found summarizing for students very difficult.) Yet Kass's arguments are very much worth considering, and bear more than one reading. To those who are patient, a vision of a very different way of looking at our whole human experience will emerge, one that I believe makes better sense of ourselves than most others offered today.

Martin Buber once wrote that in every animal function human beings are not simply as animals, but instead humanize what they do. In "The Hungry Soul' Leon Kass gives a phenomenological and philosophical basis to the thesis that in eating we can also perfect our nature. Kass is not simply one of the world's senior bioethicists, but a humanist scholar with a medical and scientific background that give his arguments a force in fact and reason. I cannot honestly say I followed the argument of this work throughout but I did understand through it how eating can become a central means of extending our own caring for, and relation to other human beings, a way then of sanctifying ourselves in the world.
I conclude with an illuminating paragraph from Kass' conclusion, a paragraph which I believe gives the true ' flavor ' of the book.
"In the higher animals., the soul energized by hunger gains hunger's satisfaction only through intermediate activities- such as smelling, hearing, seeing, chasing, attacking, capturing, biting, tasting, chewing , and swallowing- activities which themselves become new objects for the hungry soul. Increasingly capable of genuine encounters with the world, with other living forms, and ( especially in birds and mammals) with kith and kin,the souls of the hungry acquire new hungers of their own,and for more nourishment.With the rise of intelligence and especially with the extraordinary development of the upright animal, the hungry soul seeks satisfacgtion in activities animated also by wonder,ambition,affection, curiosity, and awe. We human beings delight in beauty and order, art and action, sociability and friendship, insight and understanding, song and worship. And as self-conscious beings, we especially crave self-understanding and knowledge of our place in the larger whole." pp. 228

I have never read such a neurotic, uptight, angst-filled book as this. The author actually inveighs against the eating of ice cream in public - an expression of his "not only Talmudic view" that "eating in the street is for dogs."

Really. I couldn't make this up.

His detailed review of table manners towards the end is quite interesting, but the book is marred by a long, metaphysical, and wholly irrelevant screed against the materialist, science-driven viewpoint that supposedly dominates our culture. Most authors in the humanities just launch into their subject without apology, but Kass' long justification of Why Science Is Insufficient distracts from, and fatally mars, what might otherwise be a very reasonable (if much shorter) review of the culture of food and eating.

Curiously, the preface contains a detailed explanation of why the author was not qualified to write this book. I'm inclined to believe him on this point.

I bought this book as a gift for a friend who is a great lover of literature. She loved it, and she and her partner enjoyed reading aloud to each other from it. Some of the recipes even look pretty good. The only complaint is that it's so short for the price. Another few recipes would have made it more worth while. This said, I'll probably order it again as a gift for another friend...just not somehting I'd buy for myself.

Very happy with the 2 copies of this book. They arrived safely packed and very prompt. Many thanks.

It is no wonder this $14.95 little book sells new for $3 at Amazon. Once you see how bad it is you couldn't give it away. To anyone who is REALLY interested in authors and their food, this is embarrassingly bad, and a terrible read. It should come with Malox.

this is so much fun for someone who not only loves to read but loves to cook.

Crick has produced a small but rich volume that pays homage to writers from Homer to Raymond Chandler and if there is a false note struck anywhere, I cannot detect it. As an added bonus, the recipes look to be perfectly wonderful all by themselves.

Crick begins with the hilarious Chandler shtick centered on Lamb with Dill Sauce. "It was time to deal with the butter and flour so I mixed them together into a paste and added it to the stock. There wasn't a whisk, so using my blackjack I beat out any lumps until the paste was smooth." Almost makes me sorry I come equipped with three different whisks and not a blackjack in sight.

Speaking in the articulate phrasing of the Marquis de Sade, Crick manages to make fun of politically correct cuisine with its "naive trust in low-fat yogurt" and celebrate the sensuality of food with a story about an innocent maiden forced to observe a hypocritical judge as he lecherously prepares Boned Stuffed Poussins. Makes you quiver, it does.

The Harold Pinter playlet titled "Cheese on Toast" features ciabatta and eggplant and mozzarella and, I swear it, you can taste the results before you've finished reading. My tummy growls in frustration for I have none of the aforementioned ingredients on hand.

So far, my favorite is the gem in the voice of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, titled "Coq au Vin." There is a priest tormented by mosquitos and a mulatta cook who prepares a last meal for a murderer, Fidel Agosto Santiago, and the meal is the tough carcass of the fabled fighting cock, El Jaguaracito, donated by its owner, the Syrian. It's all there -- drama, rich characterization and food so wonderful it will make you weep.

I love to read and I love to cook. It's hard to imagine a single book that combines those two pleasures more perfectly than this one does. This book will hold a place of pride and joy in my cookbook collection. Now -- I wonder if I can find a blackjack on eBay?

Just wanted to give a positive review for this book. Honestly the book isn't that pretty inside (black and white photos). The cover of the book looks wonderful however and shows some of the great recipes the book has to offer.

My son is very picky in what he eats. Being picky combined with food allergies does not mix well because he can only eat certain foods. Well this book does an amazing job at making snacks and meals that my son loves.

Just wanted to give thanks to the author. Its hard for a parent to cope with these allergies in their child. I am thankful that books like this are out there. It is informative and helps ensure my child is not eating something he shouldn't.

I was furious when I found out what they were using in the McDonalds Fries, My son ate those on multiple occasions because I thought they were safe. Who could have known??? Im sure your son is very happy with all the food he gets to test :-)

Leave it to a devoted mother of a child with food allergies to bring a helpful tool like this book to other parents!

Penny does a great job offering tasty, creative meals. "Little Buddy's Shake" is sure to be a favorite among all!

What a wonderful book of hope and help!
It has been tremendous to have a resource available when I've entertained friends with allergies. Recently I was blown away by the gratitude I received from a Mom who brought her son (who has several allergies) to my daughters birthday party. The entire menu was dairy, nut and egg free and on top of that was "yummy" and fun for everyone! The Mom was able to relax and enjoy herself. I feel like I was able to encourage someone, but I couldn't have done it without "Allergy Free For All Ages"

Being the parent of a food allergic child, I truly appreciate what Ms. Webster was trying to do in preparing this cookbook. However, I have not used this cookbook once in the past 7 months that I have owned it. Why not? Because I either did not need a recipe to make the food (such as Garlic Butter, Strawberry Topping for Waffles, Pancakes & Sorbets, Tempting Tacos, etc.) or could find a similar recipe in any all-purpose/non-allergy cookbook (Fresh Salsa, Guacamole, Oven Fries, Apple Pie, etc.).

If a food allergic person/parent did not know anything about cooking or own any cookbooks, perhaps this cookbook would be satisfactory. Even then, I believe that money would be better spent on a good all-purpose cookbook making obvious substitutions (safe margarine for margarine/butter, alternative milk for cow's milk, etc.) If truly looking for an allergy cookbook for some of the more challenging allergy baking, I would reccommend The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal or What's to Eat? by Linda Cross.

What a waste of money! If you already know how to cook...you have most likely already discovered these recipes on your own. Come on! How to make garlic butter, BLT's, and strawberry topping for pancakes? Making a chocolate shake by blending together chocolate syrup, milk subsitute and soy ice cream sandwiches? I think not. This cookbook should be revised with picture directions and marketed as a children's allergy-free cookbook. I would have done better searching for allergy-free recipes with a good internet search engine. Try the recipe collections from Theresa Kingma (www.tkkingma@netzero.net) or What's to Eat by Linda Marienhoff Coss for more useful material to feed your family. Don't waste your money on this one.

This book was excellent. It provided detailed information about the history of the domestication of several members of the Fabaceae. I would suggest it to anyone interested in domestication or beans in general.

This is a wonderful book that is both scholarly and entertaining, a good read as well as a valuable reference work. It consists of a series of "biographies" of beans or groups of related beans by region, including the Middle East, Europe, India, Africa, Mexico, South America, North America, and China and Japan. Each "biography" includes a description of the bean's origin and history, philosophical and political dimensions, methods of preparation, and recipes (nearly sixty in all) with many anecdotes and literary references. I never really thought about it before, but in most parts of the world beans are associated with poverty and low social status with the exception of two civilizations: India and China. In order to truly understand beans, the author resolved to eat beans every day during the book's creation, ideally a new species or variety every day. He has assimilated his subject matter well!

We are a bean eating family, where beans are consumed 3-4 times per week in some form. We used to go to the Bean Festival down in Tracy, CA so we never get tired of eating or learning about beans.

Which makes this book one anyone who loves food archeology, or bean cuisines should at least read if not own. No it doesn't cover everything about beans, but it covers enough to make it worth a read.

After all how many Americans know that virtually every culture has some type of bean dish? Or that beans as a food source goes back thousands of years?

One of the pleasures of reading is to come across a book with subject matter that not only takes you by surprise--but actually defies any expectations you might have based on its title. I mean, who would expect, what would you expect from, a book simply titled: Beans - A History? Well what you get in this instance is an absolutely delightful survey of the role that beans have played in human history. Yes--those beans: baked beans, navy beans, green beans, lima beans, soy beans, fava beans. And then many other familiar foods that we don't necessarily think of as belonging to the bean family--peas, peanuts, chickpeas, lentils. In his wide-ranging and graceful cruise across the millennia and continents, the author manages to combine careful botanical facts with relaxed historical narratives. Almost every page holds some fascinating fact about the role that beans have played in the cultures of the world--some familiar, many unfamiliar. And it's by no means a compendium of curiosities: there are some serious themes and subtle insights running through the book: one such is the way that beans have come to be an indicator of socio-economic classes. It's also right up-to-date on many issues of the day--geneticaly modified food, for instance. Yes, and don't worry--Albala writes with a light touch and doesn't shy away from the inevitable association of beans with flatulence. And as a bonus, you get lots of recipes. In fact, you get your money's worth just treating it as a cookbook, with recipes from many centuries and cultures. In my opinion, Beans--A History takes its place right up there with the best of the recent books that trace a single food through history.

HOME

BEANS ABOUT
BEANS: A HISTORY
Also Beans' Biographies

By Ken Albala

Reviews by Marty Martindale

Review by Marty Martindale

"Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you `toot.'"
(borrowed from an old children's song)

You may be surprised to learn the above reference to fruit is not poetic license. Beans, with their high-fiber, protein-packed nutrition are actually a fruit. All beans are legumes, and legumes include beans, peas and lentils. Their structure is generally a mushy interior surrounded by a firm skin faintly seamed around its middle. Beans are famed for the flatulence they provoke, however, we understand Beano is a good thing. Each chapter concentrates on related beans, "a series of bean biographies," states Albala.

Beans in human culture tend to be geographical markers, as well. Your reviewer once told her kids she could recall the geography of her life in beans: Near Boston "Beantown" where she grew up, every Saturday night, date night, the home meal included canned Friend's Baked Beans, prepared with pork and molasses. The family further lavished the beans with tart, family-centric dousings of assorted condiments. Once married she moved to Texas and New Mexico where it was pinto beans in both places, and never to be eaten without sharp, grated Cheddar. A decade later living on Mississippi's Gulf Coast, it was red beans and rice country, and celery was important in the cookpot. Still another decade later, it was Tampa Bay where Cuban black beans were the bean du jour. These were cooked with green bell pepper and served over rice with a garnishes of raw onion and white vinegar.

Albala also gives us practical advice: For instance, he confesses he feels it is no longer necessary to "sift through beans [before cooking] looking for debris or rocks." He likes the idea of skimming off the foam which rises. Preference as to over-night soaking or the quick "day of" method" is ours and not too important. Both seem okay. He's also from the school of "no seasoning, even salt, until the beans show signs of tenderness." He adds no sure way to judge how long it takes to cook an actual bean. It apparently doesn't exist. Like a good chowder, he feels beans taste better the following day. He does indeed, "Roll that beautiful bean footage," throughout the book, and it pleases.

The biographies begin with ancient lentils, though he offers no recipe for Essau's Mess of Pottage made with brown rice. To my surprise, I learned the tamarind is a bean, so is carob. Jicama and fenugreek are also fruits! These appear in his chapter, "Oddballs and Villains."

Albala takes us totally around the world with bean biography, and he includes 55 recipes. These run from the adzuki bean, its sweetness and versatility in Japanese Bean Paste to Cuban Black Bean Soup. He also spares us not from recipes for Bean Fudge and Pinto Bean Fruit Cake. Any good bean recipe collection contains Brazil's favorite Feijoada, so yummie served from the top of the Caesar Park overlooking Impenema on a lazy, sunny Saturday afternoon.

Humans are blessed for having the lowly bean, because it is often life-saving for the poor and hungry, and its protein-richness coupled with its low cost for mankind in any state of leanness. These caring benefactors also share their valuable nitrogen fixing properties which enriches our soil for growing other crops.

Before his scholarly 11-page bibliography, our bean biographer thoughtfully includes a full page of modern bean cookbooks. Ken Albala is Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He is also author of many books on food including EATING RIGHT IN THE RENAISSANCE and THE BANQUET: DINING IN THE GREAT COURTS OF LATE RENAISSANCE EUROPE.

You can reach Marty at: mm@FoodSiteoftheDay.com.

This book is illustrated masterfully! The instructions are easy to follow and the pictures are outstanding. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn how to make garnish or anyone needing new and fresh ideas. This book is a keeper.

The book was received in excellent condition. However, it was too advanced for the use of teaching a beginners class. I think it will be of use in our kitchen, but not as I had intended.

Not only was the book cheaper on Amazon than the bookstores but I ordered this book for my boyfriend from here and I got it earlier than expected so that was great! He says it has great step-by-step images and that's a positive for him since he learns more from visuals. Also, it has instructions that he's able to follow and understand.

We both just wish it had more "food art" in the book but, overall, it's a great book!

If you were the chef on a cruise ship, these techniques might be useful, but if you're setting out a buffet at home or as a caterer, you'd be insane to bother with this garish and elaborate nonsense. If you want people to actually eat your food, make it approachable; Nobody's going to go near it if they're afraid to ruin your work of "art". Even the photos on the cover of this book look overdone and artificial... not at all appetizing.

I am a caterer "wannabe" who has been doing food art for family and friends for some time and found this book to be a great launching tool for ideas. The carvings I enjoy the most are the potato flowers (very easy), tomato roses, & carrot tulips. Also, the photos of vegetable and cheese and cracker trays have been indispensible and well accepted when I imitated these in my displays. I would definitely recommend this book to both beginner and professional alike.

As a cultural historian of the World War II home front, I find this book, as well as Lamb's companion piece on wartime baking, significantly flawed in numerous ways. For example, in her discussions of the the home front and rationing she twice writes that meat rationing began in late February 1943, when in fact it began on March 29. She asserts that there were never shortages of poultry, eggs, milk, or pork, when numerous articles in Business Week and in advertisements by food producers like Swift and Borden make it very clear that there were periodic shortages of these meat and dairy products. She often contradicts herself or what she quotes; at one point lamb asserts that the government's new nutrition program took all American housewives by storm, yet just a few pages later she quotes a contemporary source that found most war workers were sent to work by their wives with nutritionally-poor breakfasts.

As for the recipes themselves, Lamb variously implies or outright states that most have been modified for the modern cook and kitchen, so in fact many of the recipes in the book are not truly representative of home front cooking during the war at all.

This book brought back many childhood memories for me. I found recipes that my grandma used to make and I enjoyed. I thought of our victory garden and the canning that my mother and grandmother did. We made lots of sacrifices and didn't complain. I wonder why we didn't have to make
any sacrifices for this present war? --like gasoline!

Those of us living in this age of plenty have no idea what it was like to cook during World War II when sugar, butter, meat and oh, so many canned foods were rationed. I was a very little girl then and didn't understand so many of the hardships my mother endured. This book answers so many of the questions left unanswered and for me it is a joy to read. I do remember many of the recipes included here and for old times sake, I plan to give many of them a try. This book is a must for anyone interested in food or food history. We may not cook this way today-- we don't have to. But these old make-do recipes can teach us all a lot.

Recently I served as a cook at a weekend training event. The cook staff tried 7 recipes in this book and everyone loved them. We made several cakes, muffins and the No Knead rolls. The Crybabies were a great hit. The other cooks on the staff are planning to get their own copies.

I am writing a book sent during WW2, and I needed a good sense of day-to-day life in the era. This book provides that with authentic recipes and loads of other information about food purchasing and cooking tips that help to explain the era. I think this would be a useful and fun book for students of the era, regardless of their age.

A good idea. . . writ small. Scads of fascinating old ads for kitschy convenience foods of the past--but reproduced at such a small size that much (if not most) of the copy is unreadable, even with a powerful magnifying glass.

Take the rave reviews with a grain of salt (or MSG): They were apparently posted by friends of the author. . .or some species of humanity with optical powers far beyond that of mortal man.

Just Heat It and Eat It is a wonderful walk down food-memory lane. I'm a few decades younger than the eras covered in the book however I still felt a strong connected with the brand names and food items. I can't tell you how comforting iw was to see Aunt Jemima called out. Campbell's Tomato Soup used to comfort me as a child when I was feeling out of sorts. B&M Baked Beans and franks ties me to memories of my mother. It was one of very few dishes she actually "cooked". The other items in her repetoire included French Onion Soup and Pasta with homemade spaghetti sauce. Just Heat It and Eat It is a feel good book for any foodie. Thanks for the great gift idea!

If you were an average, middle-class kid growing up in the 50's through the 70's or so, chances are you probably had yourself a Swanson TV dinner more than a few times. Funny thing was that we never really considered them to be a cheap eat. We used to think these full dinners in the aluminum trays were the coolest things as we'd whip out the TV trays and plop in our favorite chairs to eat our Turkey, meat loaf, fried chicken, or Salisbury Steak TV dinners, while watching our favorite shows.

"Just Heat it `n' Eat it" by Adeena Sussman traces the history of convenience foods as they began to be produced for the pantry, refrigerator, or freezer, initially after World War II, but particularly into the 50's with families on the go. The first chapter deals with boxed and single ingredient foods, many of which are still around today and relatively unchanged. Nescafe Instant Coffee, Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix, Frozen concentrated juices, Starkist Tuna, Minute Rice, and Lipton boxed soups are just a few of the foods represented, all with period ads or packaging. I still wonder what Underwood Deviled Ham tastes like!

Chapter two gets into the heat and eat foods with a history of the Swanson TV dinner, first invented as a means to use up surplus turkey. The turkey dinner was always my favorite with the slices of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberries (a later addition). Frozen dinners are still around and with greater quality and variety than ever, but sadly the aluminum tray is long gone. Other foods features are canned goods like Franco American spaghetti, Dinty Moore Beef Stew, Campbell's Soups, and Hormel Chili. Again, it's amazing how many of these foods are still around in basically the same style as they were 40 years ago or more, although one that I have never seen is Armour BBQ ribs in a can. I'm assuming that one didn't go over real well.

The third chapter is about everyday products from the pantry that could be used by the housewife to whip up creative and tasty meals such as recipes using Campbell's soups, and Jello molds. One rather bizarre Aunt Jemima ad shows pancakes being used as hot dog and hamburger buns!

The book wraps up with well known gimmick foods, and condiments, described by Sussman as one-hit-wonders. Here you'll find A-1 steak sauce, French's Mustard, and Kraft Cheez Whiz.

Many of these classic ads feature celebrities such as John Wayne hawking Starkist Tuna and Groucho Marx pushing Skippy peanut butter. The book ends up being a wonderful little time capsule of clever ads and promotions of days gone by when times were simpler and we weren't confused by so much variety! A fantastic book!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

This book is a mini treasure trove packed with fun retro-food facts and colorful images from '40-'60s America. Anyone who enjoys vintage advertising, loves food and/or is intrigued by the role food has played in American culture, this is a good addition to the book shelf. Food writer Adeena Sussman has done a brilliant job gathering trivia and facts to bring the graphic material to life, offering up lots of interesting tidbits -- from the man behind the Pillsbury Doughboy voice; to the genesis of Kool-Aid; to alternate advertised uses for Miracle Whip. The book is a reflection of a more wholesome time when food was portrayed as a true pleasure of life to be savored -- a far cry from today's landscape of diminishing nutrition standards and chemically-pumped diet foods. If you have a chef or foodie in your life, this makes for a great gift.

Part social history and part pop-culture-literacy, this little volume is a fun read. Sussman's introductions to the colorful ads strike just the right tone of tongue-in-cheek humor and real reverence for food accomplishments that truly changed lives. Her bits of trivia on every page are priceless -- how can I have gone this long without knowing that the Pillsbury Dough Boy was voiced by the original Boris from The Rocky and Bullwinkle show? These factoid boxes, set against sometimes hard-to-believe-they're-real ads, make this a great bathroom book, where you can get a lot out of a quick flip through the pages.