Melissa Goldthwaite - Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal

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BOOKS THAT COOK

The Making of a Literary Meal

Edited by

JENNIFER COGNARD-BLACK

and

MELISSA A. GOLDTHWAITE

With a Foreword by

MARION NESTLE

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
2014 by New York University
All rights reserved

All images Sue Johnson and provided courtesy of the artist

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Books that cook : the making of a literary meal / edited by Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa A. Goldwaite ; with a foreword by Marion Nestle.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4798-3021-3 (cloth)
1. Cooking. 2. Cooking in literature. 3. Food in literature. I. Cognard-Black, Jennifer, 1969editor of compilation. II. Goldthwaite, Melissa A., 1972 editor of compilation.
III. Nestle, Marion, writer of preface.
TX714.B64128 2014
641.5dc23 2014006080

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To our Books That Cook students, who share our
consuming passion for the literatures of food.

One wants
in a fantastic time
the certainty of
chicken popping in grease
the truth of potatoes.

from Sunday Dinner by Lucille Clifton

by Marion Nestle

Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa A. Goldthwaite

Bill Kloefkorn

Recipe: Porkchop Gravy

Amelia Simmons

Recipes: Various Meats

James Beard

Recipes: Superb Chicken Jelly and Versions of Clam Soup

Thomas Fox Averill

Recipes: Pawpaws and Yucca Soup

April Lindner

Recipe: Full Moon Soup

E. J. Levy

Recipe: Creamed Morels on Chive Butter Toast

Michael S. Glaser

Recipe: Coriander and Carrot Soup

Terry Tempest Williams

Recipe: Avocado with Salsa and Chilies

Lydia Maria Child

Recipes: Various Breads

Karen Leona Anderson

Recipe: Gingerbread

Fannie Flagg

Recipe: Sipseys Buttermilk Biscuits

Sharon Olds

Recipe: Yeast Bread

Caroline M. Grant

Recipes: Polenta and Lemon Polenta Cookies

Peter Elbling

Recipe: Mint and Spinach Ravioli

Fannie Merritt Farmer

Recipes: Various Egg Dishes

M. F. K. Fisher

Recipe: Aunt Gwens Fried Egg Sandwich

Howard Dinin

Recipe: Fried Egg Sandwich

Ntozake Shange

Recipe: Turtle Eggs and Spices

Tenaya Darlington

Recipe: Quail Egg Omelet

Irma S. Rombauer

Recipes: Various Fowl and Game Dishes

Ravi Shankar

Recipe: American Liver Mush

Ellen Meloy

Recipe: Riparian Roast

Gary Snyder

Recipe: Beef Stew and Dumplings

David James Duncan

Recipe: Pan-Fried Trout

Paul Hanstedt

Recipe: Thai Pork Cakes

David Citino

Recipe: Chicken Breast with Fettuccine

Teresa Lust

Recipe: Roast Chicken

Sara Roahen

Recipe: Turkey Bone Gumbo

Shirley Geok-Lin Lim

Recipe: Soy-Boiled Chicken Feet

Sherman Alexie

Recipes: Canned Meals

Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck

Recipes: Various Artichoke Dishes

Alice B. Toklas

Recipes: Green Pea, String Bean, Lettuce, Peppers, and Various Vegetable Dishes

Melissa A. Goldthwaite

Recipe: Summer Salad

Kathy Fagan

Recipe: Insalata Pomodoro

Nora Ephron

Recipes: Swiss Potatoes, Potatoes Anna, and Mashed Potatoes

Laurie Colwin

Recipe: Rsti

Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor

Recipe: Hopping John

Deborah Thompson

Recipe: Moong Dal

Ketu H. Katrak

Recipes: Ketus Rice and Yellow Potatoes

Alice Waters

Recipe: Lindas Chocolate Cups

Caitlin Newcomer

Recipe: Baked Apples

Kate Moses

Recipe: Tomato Soup Cake

Cheryl Quimba

Recipe: Suman sa Ibos

Judith Moore

Recipes: Rhubarb Pie, Cherry Pie, and Apple Pie

Michael Lee West

Recipes: Lemon Chess Pie and Lemon Squares

CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective

Recipe: Whipped Cream Pie

Jennifer Cognard-Black

Recipes: Roman Punch and Mango Cake

Maya Angelou

Recipe: Caramel Cake

Ted Kooser

Recipe: Rhubarb Wine

Sparking an avalanche of interest in writings about food is the simple fact that everyone eats. Years ago as a young biology teacher, I quickly discovered that students are willing to study anything if it relates to food. I could use food as an entry point to teach the principles of digestive physiology, the biochemistry of metabolism, and how nutrients function in health. And I could also use food to teach how governments regulate, the principles and practices of democratic societies, and anything else I wanted to about history, sociology, anthropology, or just about any other disciplinary area of study. Food, as my NYU department likes to explain, is a lens through which to view and analyze the most important political, economic, and cultural problems facing todays globalized world. And students, we professors soon find out, eat it up.

In 1996, a far-sighted dean at New York University took a leap of faith and allowed my department (known, amazingly, as Home Economics until 1990) to begin offering undergraduate, masters, and doctoral programs in Food Studies. Only one other such program existed at the time, the Julia Childinspired Gastronomy program at Boston University. Rather than Gastronomy, we chose to name our program Food Studies in a deliberate effort to command the academic respectability afforded to other NYU studies programsWomens Studies, Liberal Studies, Media Studies, French Studies, and Africana Studies, for example.

A set of programs in hotel management had just been transferred from the department to another school at NYU, leaving a large tuition gap. I had been traveling for some years with a group of food writers, chefs, and academics and could feel their hungera frequent and appropriate metaphor in