Cookbooks - Recent Titles from Ohio University Press

Rare Bits

Sat, 10 Oct 1998

Rare Bits (1998)
Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes

By Patricia Bunning Stevens

In terms of geological time, good cooks are a young species. They've been evolving for a scant half a million years, since fire was first tamed and tended. Rare Bits is a delightful and illuminating account of humankind's progression from skewering meat to whipping up a batch of Strawberries Sarah Bernhardt.

The range is wide, from Bismarcks to Green Goddess dressing. Stevens provides much food for thought as she delves always deeper, brushing aside spurious anecdotes to find the truth. This is culinary history at its most appetizing.

Stevens brings serious historical research to a neglected field, her lively prose underscoring the fact that cooking may be one of the most civilized and civilizing of human activities. Understanding the serendipitous, eccentric, or historic origins of famous recipes deepens appreciation for the loving gestures they represent. The beautiful cakes that mark the milestones of our lives, the Chicken Divan prepared by the smiling young couple, Mom's hearty Beef Stroganoff, and the Oysters Rockefeller consumed by candlelight are a precious legacy. Rare Bits indeed.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Rare+Bits.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

America’s Collectible Cookbooks

Sun, 01 May 1994

America’s Collectible Cookbooks (1994)
The History, the Politics, the Recipes

By Mary Anna DuSablon

America's Collectible Cookbooks is a wonderful concoction of gossipy morsels and serious reflection about cookbooks and cookbook authors. Although the names Fannie Merritt Farmer, Eliza Leslie, Sarah Josepha Hale, and Irma Rombauer are familiar to generations of American books, few know how really extraordinary these women were. In Mary Anna DuSablon's look at the two hundred-year evolution of American cookbooks, these authors receive their due—not simply as recipe peddlers, but as shapers of American culture. The book describes how government and industry joined forces to woo women back into the kitchen after the world wars. And it hails the role of the cookbook as a fund-rasier during the many years of social reform.

Some other tantalizing topics include:

• What did New York's “Inelligence Offices” have to do with cookbooks?
• Where can one find John Steinbeck's recipe for “Tortilla Flats,” or Joan Crawford's “Surprise”?
• Graham crackers are a descendant of which important New England cookbook author?
• Which famous chef (who was not a chef) wrote a cookbook but could not cook?
• What cookbooks still found in many American homes are collectible treasures?
• Who were the women (and men) behind Betty Crocker, the most successful, but nonexistent, cookbook autor in America?

The reach is invited to savor twelve-course dinners, Pork Chops with Truffle Sauce, “Pompkin” Pie, and the wholesome gourmet delicacies of Molly Katzen (The Moosewood Cookbook) and Marian Morash (The Victory Garden Cookbook). In America's Collectible Cookbooks, we find that DuSablon convincingly reclaims American cuisine as the invention of, who else? American women.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/America%E2%80%99s+Collectible+Cookbooks.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

Cincinnati Recipe Treasury

Tue, 15 Aug 1989

Cincinnati Recipe Treasury (1989)
The Queen City’s Culinary Heritage

By Mary Anna DuSablon

What better way to discover Cincinnati’s culture than by its recipes? From daily fare to savoir faire, the kitchens of this tri–state area have been producing a unique cuisine throughout its 200-year history.

The finest old and new “secret formulas” have been collected from many sources including club and church cookbooks and handwritten notes. Who can resist perusing these instructions for pheasant presented in a bed of red, yellow, and green peppers and nasturtium flowers; or finding out what the Beatles ate while staying at the Vernon Manor Hotel?

Every page speaks of the book’s authenticity, containing historical anecdotes, celebrity comments, and collectible line drawings of the city. For Cincinnatians–at–heart living elsewhere, for visitors who enjoyed the city’s hospitality, for all genuine Cincinnatians, what better way to remember the Queen City than through her friendly and surprisingly imaginative kitchens.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Cincinnati+Recipe+Treasury.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.

Chuck Wagon Cookbook

Thu, 01 Jan 1970

Chuck Wagon Cookbook (1970)

By Beth McElfresh

No chuck wagon feed is complete without its basic ingredients of beans, beef, hot biscuits, apple pie, and lots of coffee. Beth McElfresh shows you how to host the all–time chuck wagon feed with easy–to–follow recipes.

Included are original recipes for boiled apple dumplings, lima beans baked with steak, and general, everyday useful tips, all from the renowned Western cook, Hi Pockets. She describes various health remedies learned from the old–timers on the range, that are as useful today as they were then.

Also included are recipes showing you how to create actual hand lotion and soaps like those used in the rugged west; wines, tea, punch, even candy and ice cream are included.

For more information about this book visit ohioswallow.com/book/Chuck+Wagon+Cookbook.
For a look at new releases from Ohio University Press visit ohioswallow.com/new_releases.