Books That Cook

Whether a five-star chef or beginning home cook, any gourmand knows that recipes are far more than a set of instructions on how to make a dish. They are culture-keepers as well as culture-makers, both recording memories and fostering new ones.Organized like a cookbook, Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal is a collection of American literature written on the theme of food: from an invocation to a final toast, from starters to desserts. All food literatures are indebted to the form and purpose of cookbooks, and each section begins with an excerpt from an influential American cookbook, progressing chronologically from the late 1700s through the present day, including such favorites as American Cookery, the Joy of Cooking, and Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The literary works within each section are an extension of these cookbooks, while the cookbook excerpts in turn become pieces of literature?forms of storytelling and memory-making all their own.Each section offers a delectable assortment of poetry, prose, and essays, and the selections all include at least one tempting recipe to entice readers to cook this book. Including writing from such notables as Maya Angelou, James Beard, Alice B. Toklas, Sherman Alexie, Nora Ephron, M.F.K. Fisher, and Alice Waters, among many others, Books That Cook reveals the range of ways authors incorporate recipes?whether the recipe flavors the story or the story serves to add spice to the recipe. Books That Cook is a collection to serve students and teachers of food studies as well as any epicure who enjoys a good meal alongside a good book.

ContentsForeword by Marion Nestle xv
Acknowledgments xix Cooking the Book: An Introduction to Books That Cook 1
Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa A. Goldthwaite
Invocation
1 Porkchop Gravy: An Invocation (Poem) 15
Bill Kloefkorn
Recipe: Porkchop Gravy
Part I: Starters 17
2 From American Cookery (Cookbook) 21
Amelia Simmons
Recipes: Various Meats
3 From Delights and Prejudices (Nonfiction) 29
James Beard
Recipes: Superb Chicken Jelly and Versions of Clam Soup
4 Puffballs: Finding the Inside: From Secrets of the
Tsil Café (Fiction) 33
Thomas Fox Averill
Recipes: Pawpaws and Yucca Soup
5 Full Moon Soup with Snow (Poem) 43
April Lindner
Recipe: Full Moon Soup
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x • Contents
6 To Cèpe, with Love (or, The Alchemy of Longing)
(Nonfiction) 45
E. J. Levy
Recipe: Creamed Morels on Chive Butter Toast
7 Coriander and Carrot (Poem) 63
Michael S. Glaser
Recipe: Coriander and Carrot Soup
8 An Unspoken Hunger: From An Unspoken Hunger:
Stories from the Field (Nonfiction) 64
Terry Tempest Williams
Recipe: Avocado with Salsa and Chilies