Laurie Snider
Notes from the Nest
Do you ever find yourself stumbling aimlessly, around your kitchen, opening the fridge and cupboards, staring blankly ahead and wondering just what kind of culinary delight you will whip up for your family’s dinner tonight? Cooking is one of my favourite pastimes — that is, when I have the time. What I find exasperating is trying to come up with nutritious, palatable, easy to prepare meals on the fly, which is where my cookbooks come in.
There are probably as many cookbooks around, as there are people to read them. This is considering humans have been documenting recipes since ancient Mesopotamians began recording their foodie formulas, on tablets, dating back to 1,700 B.C. I find this rather impressive, since they not only had to chop, dice and boil but they then had to immortalize it on granite, for posterity!
The first cookbook I ever owned, was a Christmas gift from my Mom, in 1980, Joy of Cooking, by Irma Rombauer. This is one of the most published cookbooks in America and was originally published privately in 1931. What I was unaware of was, that Rombauer wrote the book after her husband’s suicide, after being encouraged by her children to do so, as a means of healing. It has remained continuously in print since; the latest edition being published, in 2006.
This gem of a work is so much more than just a cookbook. It contains fascinating sections on the nutritional make-up of the foods we eat, calorie counts, entertaining, including how to set a proper table and just where one should place, all of those extra forks. It also contains menu plans for everyday, as well as for formal occasions.
It advises you, in an entire section called “Know your ingredients” on the ins and outs of stocks versus bouillons, vinegars, creams, fats, flours and even how to make your own maple syrup or plant an herb garden. You can’t get much more diverse than that. A full page and a half are dedicated to the always-captivating subject, “water” including how to purify it, if necessary.
Not daring to leave any stone unturned, it also deals with freezing, canning and preserving food. Once you’ve planned for the food, cooked it and frozen or preserved the rest, you may end up with a few leftovers. Luckily, she addresses those to, where she shares a delightful little anecdote, of a minister’s bride lolling over her casserole, waiting for grace. Her husband murmurs: “It seems to me, that I have blessed a good deal of this material before.” What’s not to love about this engaging tome, as it is good humoured, as well offering my favourite recipe for pancakes?
Cookbooks were once only for upper-class households and royal palaces. Partly they were for chefs and partly to demonstrate, who was hosting the best banquets. With the invention of the printing press, in the 15th Century, they became available to those less well off too. The English Housewife, published in 1615, was full of guidance, on everything from cooking, brewing, baking, preserving wine, making butter and cheese, dyeing textiles and managing household medicines.
Eliza Acton’s, Modern Cookery for Private Families was published in 1845. She’s credited with the contemporary format, of listing ingredients and suggested cooking times. Her book also contained the first known reference, for “Christmas pudding” instead of “plum pudding.” Her work was a great influence on Isabelle Beeton, who wrote, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management. In fact, Beeton apparently liked her work so much, she plagiarized a great deal of her recipes, as well as those of others.
Beeton’s book, was the most consulted cookery book, between 1875-1914 and is still in print today. In answer to questions, about why she wrote the book, she noted in her preface, “I have always thought that there is no more fruitful source of family discontent, than a housewife’s badly cooked dinners and untidy ways.” Oh, heaven help us. Thankfully, Mrs. Beeton “we’ve come a long way baby!”
No matter your taste in food, almost certainly, there’s a cookbook out there to match your favourite flavours. If you’re in the mood for some “flaming peacock,’ then look no further, then the 15th Century Libro de arte coquinaria.
Perhaps you’d prefer some “fried kangaroo brains,’ splashed down with a tasty little rum cocktail called, ‘Blow my skull,’ well then, Australia’s first cookbook is the one for you. Is space travel your thing? Then may I suggest, the Astronaut’s Cookbook, I hear it’s out of this world.
Truthfully, I enjoy flipping through my cookbooks, imagining all of the marvelous dishes I’ll prepare one day, almost as much, as creating them. As for tonight, since we’re fresh out of flaming peacocks and kangaroo brains, I think that Irma’s pancakes, seem perfect.