Gary Allen's Blog, page 6
August 13, 2021
Food Sites for September 2021
Paperback Writer: words—a LOT of words—which, fortunately, are not written in stone.
It’s been bloody hot lately; we’ve tried to go outside only long enough to grill a chunk of some creature for dinner. Otherwise, just sit in front of the laptop—near the air conditioner—and write. Or read. With a cocktail.
Life is hard.
We’ve recently self-published a paperback edition of Prophet Amidst Losses—a book that had previously been available only as a Kindle book. It’s a collection of short stories connected by a common theme. The main characters, who sometimes act as narrators, all have to deal with some form of loss. The situations they face are often painful—but not for you, gentle reader. Some of the stories have their own form of dark humor, because other people’s suffering is so easy to bear.
We’ve also edited and released yet another Kindle book—Ephemera—as a paperback. It’s also a collection of short stories (some them, VERY short). Unlike the Prophet book, the stories are not thematically-connected.
An older book, previously available only in Kindle form—How to Serve Man: On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating is finally out in paper. It’s non-fiction (mostly) and, while it will entertain the curious, it’s probably not ideal reading for the squeamish.
We think we’re finally up-to-date with converting Kindle books to paper—and have, at last, gotten back to actual writing. BTW, all nine of the books have a common design, page size, and cover color.
“A foolish consistency,” as Emerson said in some completely different context.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
From the Some-things-never-change Dep’t, here’s an excerpt from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
When we examine the story of a nation’s eating habits, describing the changing fashions of preparation and presentation and discussing the development of ifs cuisine throughout the ages, then we find an outline of the nation’s history, harking back to those distant days when a scattered tribe lurked in dismal caves, feeding on raw fish and plants and the hot, quivering flesh of wild beasts, lately slain with a rude spear. Auguste Escoffier
Gary
September, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Bob DelGrosso), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again.
— the new sites —
Appetizer: Words, Concepts, Contents
(another trip down menu memory lane, with Jan Whitaker as guide)
Baghdad was in the Limelight of Medieval Arab Cuisine
(Nawal Nasrallah, writing for Inside Arabia, about what we can learn from the earliest Arabic cookbooks)
(a team of scholars studying “early modern foodways and cultures“ at the Folger Library)
DU’s Cookery and Foodways Collection Whets the Appetite for Discovery
(Denver University’s collection of 11,000 titles; not—unfortunately—online)
Everything You Need to Know About French Wine Regions in Under 5 Minutes
(Vicki Denig decants the short version for Taste France magazine)
Evolution of Israeli Cuisine, The
(Joan Nathan reports—at My Jewish Learning—on the culinary changes that have happened since 1948; an excerpt from The Foods of Israel Today: More than 300 Recipes—and Memories—Reflecting Israel’s Past and Present Through Its Many Cuisines)
(Jan Whitaker’s blog—Restaurant-ing through history—discusses food industry jargon that is often “racy, picturesque, humorous [and] only by the initiate”)
How 12 Female Cookbook Authors Changed the Way We Eat
(Lily Katzman’s review, in Smithsonian magazine, of Anne Willan’s book, Women in the Kitchen)
How Freezing Changed the Green Pea
(Veronique Greenwood’s history—and explanation of how frozen can be better than fresh—at BBC Future)
(Anja Madhvani, at Sourced Journeys, corrects the familiar, but “...rather loose interpretation of a somewhat patchily documented history” of the popular brew)
Invention of the Fried Clam, The
(...at least according to the New England Historical Society)
Is the Croissant Really French?
(Amanda Flegl’s answer[s] in Smithsonian Magazine)
(Jennifer Kahn examines the state of GMO crops, and the way they’re perceived by consumers, for The New York Times)
Long Good-bye, The: A Writer’s Plea to Save the Foods We Love
(Keith Pandolfi’s review of Bread, Wine and Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love, for Serious Eats)
Morel Compass—John Cage’s Mania For Mushrooms
(Josie Thaddeus-Johns’s review, in Apollo Magazine, of John Cage: A Mycological Foray—a beautifully-illustrated book from Atelier Éditions)
Mystery of the Lost Roman Herb, The
(Zaria Gorvett discusses silphium—or laser—for BBC Future)
Obsessed: Finding Your Food in the Field
(Sho Spaeth’s interview, at Serious Eats, with forager Tama Matsuoka Wong)
Oddly Autocratic Roots of Pad Thai, The
(Alex Mayyasi’s GastroObscura article about how Plaek Phibunsongkhram got Thailand to eat more noodles)
Origin and Art of Japanese Rice, The
(Dan Q. Dao’s Saveur article)
Real Reason Jack Daniel’s Is Called Old No. 7, The
(Travis Gillmore adds to the speculations at VINEPAIR)
Revealed: The True Extent of America’s Food Monopolies, and Who Pays the Price
(exposé in The Guardian, by Nina Lakhani and Alvin Chang)
Understanding Black Southern Funeral Food Tradition
(Robin Caldwell’s article, in Black Southern Belle, on current and historical practices)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
6 Relics of Forgotten Fast-Food Dynasties
18th-Century Cookbook That Helped Save the Slovene Language, The
Black Food Heritage: Wild Game Receipts (Recipes) from the Past that Live On
Cancel “Curry”? Why South Asian American Chefs Say It’s Time for the Word to Go
Growing Eggplant: A Complete Guide
How Vittles Is Revolutionising Food Writing
Is Soft-Serve Healthier than Ice Cream? Chemistry Debunks a Common Myth
Lilac Syrup and the Underrated Art of Eating Flowers
Meat and Pets: A Double Feature
Meat Marketing: The Truth About Food Labels
Nach Waxman, Founder of a Bookstore Where Foodies Flock, Dies at 84
New Evidence Busts New Haven’s Claim as “Birthplace of the Burger”
Rome Finds There’s No Accounting for Taste, Artistic or Culinary
Singapore’s Last Traditional Coffee Roasters May Soon Disappear
Sold: Sylvia Plath’s Rolling Pin and Recipes
Tamales de Tia Tila: Steamed Comfort
This Writer Is Tweeting Everything Sylvia Plath Ever Ate
What Did the Ancient Romans Eat?
Why Are Restaurants’ Cheapest Bottles of Wine Becoming So Expensive?
Why I Won’t Self-Publish a Cookbook Again
— another blog —
— podcasts, etcetera —
Baking of the Legendary Samarkand Bread
Food Chain, The: What’s the Appetite for Gene Edited Food?
History of the Legendary Delmonico’s & New Delmonico’s Cookbook, The
— changed URL —
Buzz on Our Forgotten American Tea Plant, The
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Paper)
(Kindle)
How to Write a Great Book
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #251 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
July 18, 2021
Food Sites for August 2021
Onions: the original social-distancing tool.
It almost feels like post-pandemic: we’ve been able to travel, dine in restaurants, and stroll through crowded farmer’s markets—thinking only of the kitchen potential of the fresh ingredients there, instead of the possibility of catching the plague. The photo, above, was taken at a farmer's market in Chicago, this weekend.
We’ve recently self-published another little book. This time, it’s Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen, a collection of nineteen (sort of) fairy tales with very different endings and narrators than the ones your parents told you. They are funny, in a dark and unsettling way—and several of them have culinary content. Don’t expect to be cooking up any recipes from it, though. (Aside: it’s also available as a paperback)
We’ve recently edited and released some of our other Kindle books as paperbacks (for those, like us, who prefer to fondle physical books):
Cenotaphs, a novel about the urge to disappear;
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions, an annotated collection of essays that pretends to be a kind of memoir;
How to Write a Great Book, a humorous non-fiction look at how writers actually work;
Terms of Vegery, an album of photographs and punning taxonomy;
and, finally:
Future Tense, a novel about a bunch of hippies, in 1968, who have strange encounters with things that happen far in their future lives.
We still have a couple of Kindle books to convert to paper editions. Maybe next issue...
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
As if you didn’t have enough to read, already—here’re some excerpts from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
All the best cooking is simple. There is really nothing new in it. I have 4,000 cookbooks dating back to 1503, and everything that is in nouvelle cuisine was there 200 years ago. Anton Mosimann
Americans, more than any other culture on earth, are cookbook cooks; we learn to make our meals not from any oral tradition, but from a text. The just-wed cook brings to the new household no carefully copied collection of the family’s cherished recipes, but a spanking new edition of Fannie Farmer or The Joy of Cooking. John Thorne
No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers. Laurie Colwin
Anyone who eats three meals a day should understand why cookbooks outsell sex books three to one. L. M. Boyd
Gary
August, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Dianne Jacob), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again.
— the new sites —
Ancient Table Scraps Offer a Fresh Twist on Jewish Culinary Heritage
(Leviticus aside, recent archaeology reveals that the rules of kashrut have not always been the... ummm... rule)
Can America Save Its National Dish?
(Meghan McArdle airs her fear—in The Washington Post—that Americans have forgotten how to make pie crust)
(archived articles about cookbooks at Atlas Obscura)
(an index of over 11,000 digitized cookbooks from multiple university and public libraries)
(magazine, and blog, on all culinary aspects of the African diaspora—recipes, interviews, book reviews, news, etc.)
Deep Roots of the Vegetable That “Took Over the World,” The
(Gemma Tarlach’s article, in Gastro Obscura, about the genetic history of a species that eventually became all the members of the cole family)
(a literary early history of wine, from Thomas O’Dwyer At 3 Quarks Daily)
How James Beard Invented American Cooking
(Adam Gopnik’s New Yorker article)
In the Beginning, There Was Ice, Snow, and Science
(a brief history of ice cream, at Trivia Genius)
Life, Death, and Barbecue Sauce
(an excerpt from Adrian Miller’s Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue)
Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why It Matters
(PDF of Gordon M. Shepherd’s 2012 book)
(Eater’s articles on the evolution—and current status—of American specialty coffee in the Pacific Northwest)
What Did Italians Eat 2,000 Years Ago?
(Sara Wells reports, for Inverse, on recent archaeological findings)
What’s the Difference Between All the Types of Tomatoes?
(Brette Warshaw answers, in Bon Appétit; an excerpt from What’s the Difference?)
(Tedium’s history of the ubiquitous shrink-wrapping that encloses so much of our food)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
Authors to Earn Royalties on Secondhand Books for First Time
Cooking Has Gone from Chore to Inspiration
Day in the Life of a King Arthur Recipe Tester, A
Deborah Madison Is Done with Cookbooks. Now, She’s Making Corn Dogs and Fried Chicken.
Dirty Secret of “Secret Family Recipes,” The
Eleven Extraordinary Foods We’ll Be Eating More in the Future
Food and Drink in Medieval and Renaissance Europe: An Overview of the Past Decade (2001-2012)
F&W Game Changers: A Kinder Publishing Model
Good Taste Is Not About Detecting Aroma Notes
How Good Grammar Saves Lives and Other Reasons It’s Still Important
Those Old Cookbooks Are a Great Recipe for History
What 1984 Tells Us About Eating Under a Totalitarian Regime
What’s Your Beef? An Ethicist’s Guide to Giving Up Meat
Why Work from Home Professionals Should Publish a Book
— other blogs —
— podcasts, etcetera —
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(
(Kindle)
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Paper)
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
How to Write a Great Book
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Backstories: As retold by Gary Allen
(Paper)
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #250 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
June 8, 2021
Food Sites for July 2021
That’s true love & homegrown tomatoes.” Guy Clark
With this issue, we’ve completed twenty-one years of these updates. Who knew there would be so much constantly-changing verbiage about food floating about on the interwebs?
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
A few love apples, plucked from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato. Lewis Grizzard
A world devoid of tomato soup, tomato sauce, tomato ketchup and tomato paste is hard to visualize. Could the tin and processed food industries have got where they have without the benefit of the tomato compounds which colour, flavour, thicken and conceal so many deficiencies? How did the Italians eat spaghetti before the advent of the tomato? Was there such a thing as tomato-less Neapolitan pizza? Elizabeth David
The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can’t eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as “progress,” doesn’t spread. Andy Rooney
A number of rare or newly experienced foods have been claimed to be aphrodisiacs. At one time this quality was even ascribed to the tomato. Reflect on that when you are next preparing the family salad. Jane Grigson
Gary
July, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Bob DelGrosso), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again.
America’s Finest Restaurant, Revisited
(the story of Delmonico’s—from Jan Whitaker’s blog, Restaurant-ing through History)
Cocktail Science: All About Foams
(Kevin Liu gets physical—and a little chemical—at Serious Eats)
CSA’s Roots in Black History, The
(it’s more than forty-acres-and-a-mule; Shelby Vittek’s article in Modern Farmer)
Flavor Science: How We Taste Sweet, Sour, Salty, and More
(Daniel Gritzer’s explanation, at Serious Eats)
(PDF of the 2012 book, edited by Yehia El-Samragy)
Gatekeepers Who Get to Decide What Food Is “Disgusting”, The
(Jiayang Fan’s New Yorker essay about The Disgusting Food Museum, in Malmö, Sweden)
Gum Arabic. The Golden Tears of the Acacia Tree
(PDF of Dorrit van Dalen’s 2019 book about an ingredient used, commercially, in everything from candy, to chewing gum, to fillings, icings, soft drinks, and assorted other sweeteners and flavorings)
In Praise of Pastrami, The World’s Sexiest Sandwich
(Josie Dunlap will have what she’s having, in The Economist)
(Ernie Smith’s history of frozen pizza, at Tedium)
Meet the Appalachian Apple Hunter Who Rescued 1,000 “Lost” Varieties
(Eric J.Wallace’s profile of Tom Brown in GastroObscura)
Quiet Rescue of America’s Forgotten Fruit, The
(Anne Ewbank’s GastroObscura article about C. Todd Kennedy and the rare stone fruits being grown at Morgan Hill, CA’s Arboreum Company)
Tracing the African Diaspora in Food
(Helen Rosner’s New Yorker article about the making of the Jessica B. Harris Netflix special)
Welcome to Vegetable Produce Converter!
(measurement tool for recipe writers)
Who Were the First Humans to Start Cooking Meat? And Why?
(Alex Bezzerides stirs the hot coals for Literary Hub)
Wine and Romance: The Eternal Connection
(Dwight Furrow waxes rhapsodic in his valentine to wine, at Edible Arts)
Alice Waters Says People Who Call Her Elitist Just Don’t Get It
Eating Your Way Through Art History
Introducing “Food Grammar,” the Unspoken Rules of Every Cuisine
On Ideas; and the Business of Being an Independent Writer
Pitch Guidelines for the VICE Culture Desk
Snacks That Get Us Through the Work Day
Honoring Your Heritage—and Improving Your Health—Through Food
Rachel Laudan on Cuisine, Culture, and Empire
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
(Hardcover)(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #249 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
May 13, 2021
Food Sites for June 2021
Salad Days are here again!
“What is so rare as a day in June?” Well, technically, a day in February—since there’s never more than twenty-nine of them. Of course, “June is bustin’ out all over” is more in the spirit of the thing—right?. Besides, who wants to waste these glorious days thinking about February?
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
Bon appétit from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
My fare is really sumptuous this evening; buffaloe’s humps, tongues and marrowbones, fine trout parched meal pepper and salt, and a good appetite; the last is not considered the least of the luxuries. Journals of Lewis and Clark, Thursday, June 13, 1805
Gary
June, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Elatia Harris), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again.
— the new sites —
(science, recipes, nutrition, and assorted other bean facts)
Database of 5,000 Historical Cookbooks Is Now Online, and You Can Help Improve It
(Gastro Obscura article about The Sifter, a lifelong project of Barbara Ketcham Wheaton)
(huge website “for discerning drinkers;” cocktail recipes and histories, info on beer & wine, producers, profiles, drinking establishments, books, bar ware, and more)
Doughnuts Make the World Go Round
(links to ten articles about fried treats, posted at Culinary Backstreets)
Food Fads Have Always Been Ridiculous. Just Ask the Great Masticator.
(Jessica Gingrich’s Narratively article recounts the rise and bizarre influence of Horace Fletcher)
For Nourishment, There’s Nothing Like ‘First Foods’
(article savoring indigenous—or Native American, or pre-Columbian—foodstuffs, by Kathleen Purvis in iPondr)
Indian Community Cookbook Project, The
(archive of regional recipes from India, and bibliography)
(Andrew Egan’s history of NYC restaurant inspections, at Tedium)
(Foodprint publishes articles that address the “environmental and public health issues created by our current industrial food system”)
Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life, The
(Natasha Geiling’s Smithsonian article)
Scientists Debunk a Long-Held Theory about Oysters, Chocolate, Honey, and Spanish Fly
(Inverse article that can bust your balloon)
Scientists Debunk a Long-Held Theory about Spicy Food
(according to Inverse, Darwinian gastronomy it ain’t)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
How To Write A Book In 2021: The Ultimate Guide For Authors
Small Press Publishing: Necessary Imprint On A Big-Press World
— podcasts, etcetera —
— changed URL —
Medieval Arabic Cookbooks: Reviving the Taste of History
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order anything via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Kindle)
Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)
Cenotaphs
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #248 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
April 16, 2021
Food Sites for May 2021
Hellebores, the heralds of Spring.
The month of January is appropriately named for Janus, the two-faced Roman god of doors—looking backwards and forwards at the same time.
May, however, has hidden in its very name something equally appropriate. During the long preceding winter, in which desires* were tightly restrained, indoors, as closed-up as storm windows, we never felt permitted to even ask, “May I?”. Then, before we know it, April’s rains depart, the sun comes out, we throw open the long-closed windows, stick our heads out, and shout for all the world to hear, “I MAY!”.
* Feel free to insert desire or desires of your choice.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
These Springy items might not be precisely culinary, but they celebrate a kind of appetite that might fit in On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress. Charles Pierre Monselet
Spring is nature’s way of saying let’s party. Robin Williams
It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! Mark Twain
Gary
May, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Dianne Jacob), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.
— the new sites —
African Cuisines: Recipes for Nation-Building?
(Igor Cusack’s 2000 article in Journal of African Cultural Studies)
(Rekaya Gibson reviews fifty cookbooks that reflect the African diaspora)
Field Guide to North America’s Wild Crops, A
(Reina Gattuso’s Gastro Obscura article on foraging)
Food Historian Dishes on Her Love Affair with Italy, A
(Irene S. Levine interviews Francine Segan for Forbes)
History of the Food Pyramid, A
(according to Hannah McLeod, writing in the Smoky Mountain News, the familiar image evolved from earlier attempts to deal with food shortages in WW II—and only later focused on nutrition)
How to Taste Wine and Assess Wine
(seven step approach provided by wine club Firstleaf)
Inside the World’s Largest Jewish Cookbook Collection
(Anne Ewbank’s Gastro Obscura article about some of the 2,500+ books in the New York Public Library’s Dorot Jewish Division)
More than Málà: A Deeper Introduction to Sichuan Cuisine
(Joe Distefano serves Fuchsia Dunlop’s take on that not-always fiery cuisine for Serious Eats)
So What Is a British Biscuit Really?
(Dan Nosowitz sorts out the differences and similarities between British biscuits and American cookies—and a host of other tiny flat breads—for Gastro Observer)
(six Eater articles on how global warming is likely to change the way we eat)
Your Diet Is Cooking the Planet
(Annie Lowrey, in The Atlantic, on the effect agriculture has on global warming)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
Breakup Letter to My Writing Career, A
Do You Have Nafas, the Elusive Gift That Makes Food Taste Better?
How to Convert Measurements in Baking Recipes—and Why You Might Want To
Power of Self-Publishing in Food Media, The
Tejal Rao on Food Writing, Aimless Roaming, and the Joy of Deadlines
Unsung Influence of a Pioneering Food Journalist, The
What Every Writer Needs to Know About Email Newsletters (They’re Not Going Away)
Why the Owner of Loaves & Fishes Started Her Own Publishing Company
Why We Can’t Talk About Race in Food
Why Writers Need To Be Readers
— podcasts, etcetera —
Warwick Food GRP Webinar on “Food and Drink Cultures Through the Ages”
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.
As an Amazon Associate, our newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Kindle)
Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)
Cenotaphs
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #247 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
March 20, 2021
Food Sites for April 2021
“Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote...”
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales might contain the world’s first restaurant review:
For many a pastee hastow laten blood,
And many a Jakke of Dovere hastow soold
That hath been twies hoot and twies coold.
Of many a pilgrym hastow Cristes curs,
For of thy percely yet they fare the wors,
That they han eten with thy stubbel goos,
For in thy shoppe is many a flye loos.
If your Middle English is not what it used to be, here’s a modern translation:
For of many a pastry hast thou drawn out the gravy,
And many a Jack of Dover hast thou sold
That has been twice hot and twice cold.
Of many a pilgrim hast thou Christ’s curse,
For of thy parsley yet they fare the worse,
Which they have eaten with thy stubble-fed goose,
For in thy shop is many a fly loose.
We suspect that it would take more than a year’s Covid-isolation to have us longen to goon on pilgrimages to that restaurant.
The Sickness has caused a feverish frenzy of writing around here—but little of it has anything to do with food. A post-vaccine visit to an actual sit-down restaurant (other than the one described by Chaucer) might change that. Should it cause a shift to culinary subjects, we’ll let you know. Meanwhile, we’ll continue to add podcasts to the updates, on the off-chance that you crave some other distractions.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
This might be poor marketing, on our part, but here’s an excerpt from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animals. Some of their most esteemed inventions have no other apparent purpose, for example, the dinner party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics. H.L. Mencken
Gary
April, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Elisabeth Luard), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.
— the new sites —
Bun! A Taxonomy of the British Bread Roll
(Katie Mather rises to the challenge for Pellicle Magazine)
(“A Celebration of West African Culinary Excellence“ or—more accurately—of the culinary excellence of the West African diaspora)
(PDF of the 2001 second edition)
(PDF of the 2010 second edition)
High Cuisine in Ancient France
(Livia Gershon, on the 2000-year-old divide between upper- and lower-class Roman diets; review archaeologist Benjamin Peter Luley’s article, “Cooking, Class, and Colonial Transformations in Roman Mediterranean France”)
How King George III’s Kitchens Gave Britain Taste for International Cuisine
(historians Adam Crymble, Lisa Smith, and Rachel Rich discuss eighteenth-century food for The British Academy)
How to Build a Chinese-American Cookbook
(dialog, in Eater, about the collaboration of a chef with a ghost writer)
(Dan Jurafsky’s adventure in edible etymology for Slate)
Never Heard of Khoja Ismaili Cuisine? It's Time for a Change
(Madhuri Sastry’s Serious Eats article about the food of a sect of Shia Muslims from Gujarat, India, various parts of east Africa—and now the UK and Canada)
Remembering When Only Barbarians Drank Milk
(an excerpt from Mark Kurlansky’s Milk! A 10,000-Year Food Fracas, in Gastro Obscura)
Sex, Nazis and da Vinci: The Hidden History of Italian Rice
(CNN’s Julia Buckley reports on the complex story of rice in Italy, and the women who grew it)
(a “red hot” post from Jan Whitaker’s Restaurant-ing Through History)
(magazine, and videos, about regional foods)
Women Dominated Beer Brewing Until They Were Accused of Being Witches
(Laken Brooks on ancient—and residual—gender inequality, in Smithsonian)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
Analysis of [French] Cooking Terminology
Frederick Douglass on How Slave Owners Used Food As a Weapon of Control
Guide to the History of Coffee, A (and 15 Interesting Facts)
How the Trillion-Dollar Processed Food Industry Manipulates Our Instinctual Desires
Salt Fat Acid Defeat: The Restaurant Before and After Covid
This Is What Happens When Tech Bros Attempt to ‘Fix’ Online Recipes
Triumphant Return of the Tiki Bar, The
Type what you want, but we’re going to remove your extra space after a period.
What It Says About Us When We Want a Cook’s Recipe but Not Their Humanity
— podcasts, etcetera —
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Kindle)
Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)
Cenotaphs
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #246 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
February 12, 2021
Food Sites for March 2021
Garlic, Allium sativum
The corona virus has given us reason to fear its effects. Oh sure, there is that whole death thing—but, for those of us who take food seriously, the fear of losing our ability to experience taste and smell is truly terrifying. The prospect of living, minus those joys of the table, is almost worse than the risk of our demise.
Fortunately—other than the vaccine, which is slow in coming—we still have a way to prevent becoming infected: social distancing. And what better way to make social distancing automatic than the regular, and generous, inclusion of Allium sativum in our diets?
The pandemic continues to discourage most social activities. However, anti-social activities—such as writing—are thriving. We’re still adding stories to our fairy tale book. There’s also a longish short story threatening to become a novel (we wonder if the so-called novel coronavirus is to blame for this rampant prolixity). If any of these scribbles develop significant culinary content, we’ll let you know.
Another—possibly positive—consequence of pandemic isolation is that this issue of our newsletter is larger than usual. Plenty of new sites to visit! We’ve also added more podcasts, on the off-chance that you’ve run out of ways to procrastinate.
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our older online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
To aid in your social distancing efforts, here are a few observations on the stinking rose from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat. Old New York Proverb
Following the Jewish tradition, a dispenser of schmaltz (liquid chicken fat) is kept on the table to give the vampires heartburn if they get through the garlic defense. Calvin Trillin
It has been said of garlic that everyone knows its odor save he who has eaten it, and who wonders why everyone flies at his approach. George Ellwanger
A little garlic, judiciously used, won’t seriously affect your social life and will tone up more dull dishes than any commodity discovered to date. Alexander Wright
Gary
March, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Sarah Wassberg Johnson), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.
— the new sites —
Ancient Olives (for eating, not oil)
(a University of Haifa report on an archaeological discovery—just off the coast of modern Israel)
Beyond Fuyus: The World of Persimmon Varieties
(Georgia Freedman’s article at Serious Eats)
(PDF of 2008 book, with essays on 23 primary ingredients used in Indian cuisine)
Did the Italians Actually Teach the French the Art of the Vinaigrette?
(Bill Buford investigates for Literary Hub; it’s an excerpt from his book, Dirt)
Genetic Diversity Enhances Human Olfaction
(Deborah Parker Wong’s article, in The Somm Journal, on why we perceive the smells of food and wine differently from each other)
(free tools for writers: grammar, spelling, paraphrasing, proofreading, and more)
Identification of Aroma Chemicals
(PDF of Neil C Da Costa’s article in Chemistry and Technology of Flavors and Fragrances, 2004)
Ingredient Interactions : Effects on Food Quality
(PDF of 2nd edition, 2006)
Internet’s Most Incredible Collection of Food History Has Been Saved, The
(not yet available, but coming soon)
Introducing “Food Grammar,” the Unspoken Rules of Every Cuisine
(Emily Monaco’s Gastro Obscura article on various scholars’ efforts to decipher the subject)
Ka’ak, and the Case for the Ancient Arabic Origins of the Bagel
(great; an article by Reem Kassis, at Serious Eats, suggesting yet another thing on which Jews and Arabs can disagree)
More to Cheese than Meets the Eye?
(Kathryn Murphy’s Apollo article shows that—in baroque Dutch still-life painting—the cheese never stands alone)
Paradoxes of Jews and Their Foods
(PDF of Richard Wilk’s 2015 paper)
(PDF of Chris Winkel’s article in Chemistry and Technology of Flavors and Fragrances, 2004)
Taste History at These 6 Fast-Food Firsts
(Anne Ewbank returns to the birthplace of several iconic chain eateries for Atlas Obscura)
What Can Covid-19 Teach Us About the Mysteries of Smell?
(New York Times Magazine article, by Brooke Jarvis, on things the disease has taught us about how our sense of smell works)
When Kitchens Worked: The Rise and Fall of Functional Kitchens
(Sarah Wassberg Johnson’s article on the efficiency/home economics movements and their effects on kitchen design)
(article from Jan Whitaker’s blog, Restauranting Through History)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
Absurd Logic of Internet Recipe Hacks, The
Deeper Understanding of Mexican Food at Gastronomy Underground, A
Editor’s Note: Why a Recipe Is More Than a Recipe About Food: Where to Begin
Everything You Need to Know About Cover Reveals
Impact of Editing and Proofreading Before Publication
Importance of Getting Food Right in Fiction, The
Lost Lingo of New York City’s Soda Jerks, The
Mariani’s Virtual Gourmet Newsletter
Not All Mummies and Statues: Meet the Egyptian Archaeologist Studying Ancient Food
“Not That Good”: Montreal Restaurant’s Brutally Honest Menu Pulls in the Customers
On Ingredients: And How Recipe Developers Are Dealing with Complex Sourcing Questions
Spellbinding History of Cheese and Witchcraft, The
Taste for Husbands’ Buttocks, A: The Bizarre History of Pregnancy Cravings
What Is the Philosophy of Wine?
Writing About Food: Where to Begin
Yes, I’m a Food Writer—and That Qualifies Me to Write About Everything
— changed URL —
— podcasts, etcetera —
Eat My Globe: Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know About Food
Yiddish New York 2020 1000 Cookbooks
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
Advertisements are, we readily admit, annoying. However, they appear on this newsletter so that we can continue to provide it at no cost to you.
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(
How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Kindle)
Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)
Cenotaphs
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #245 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
January 12, 2021
Food Sites for February 2021
Linzer torte: sort of pie-like, right?
The pandemic has made bakers of many of us—even those who never even dreamed of baking their own bread. Not only that, many of them baked in the middle of the summer—when outdoor grilling to escape the kitchen’s heat would have made much more sense. However, winter has us seriously in its grip now; firing up the oven seems like a good idea. But, since we need something comforting—something sweeter than trial-by-error sourdough bread—may we suggest pie?
Penwipe Publishing continues to remain in staycation mode, and the pandemic has discouraged most social activities. However, anti-social activities—such as writing—have stepped up to fill the gap. We’ve added several more stories to our fairy tale book-in-progress. As they have virtually no culinary content, you’re off the hook this month.
You’re welcome.
Also listed below is another podcast we’ve found. It has provided many opportunities for procrastination (as if we needed any).
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a lot of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
If you’re not already pie-eyed, here are a few slices from On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
Apple-pie is used through the whole year, and when fresh apples are no longer to be had, dried ones are used. It is the evening meal of children. House-pie, in country places, is made of apples neither peeled nor freed from their cores, and its crust is not broken if a wagon wheel goes over it. Dr. Acrelius
But I, when I undress me
Each night, upon my knees
Will ask the Lord to bless me
With apple-pie and cheese. Eugene Field
A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie. Tenneva Jordan
Gary
February, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Dwight Furrow), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.
— the new sites —
Brief History of Peanut Butter, A
(Kate Wheeling’s article in Smithsonian Magazine; with additional information about George Washington Carver, who did not invent peanut butter)
Case for a More Regional Understanding of Food, A
(Bettina Makalintal’s call for more focused approach to food reporting, at Vice)
Deeper, Darker Look at James Beard, Food Oracle and Gay Man, A
(Julia Moskin reviews John Birdsall’s New York Times biography of an icon of American cooking)
Delicious Molecules: Big Food Science, the Chemosenses, and Umami
(Sarah E. Tracy’s 2018 article in The Senses and Society)
(PDF of 2008’s fourth edition of this reference book)
(PDF of the 2009 manual)
History of the Jelly Doughnut—Sufganiyah
(excerpt by Gil Marks in 2010’s The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, posted in LeitesCulinaria)
How Our Food Vocabulary Reflects the Evolution of Taste
(Bee Wilson’s ruminations in The Wall Street Journal)
“Pie Engineer” Who Designed a Dessert For the Jazz Age, The
(Rossi Anastopoulo’s account of Monroe Boston Strause—the inventor of chiffon pie, and its graham-cracker crust—for Gastro Obscura)
Processed Foods and The Consumer: Additives, Labeling, Standards, and Nutrition
(PDF of Vernal S. Packard, Jr.’s 1976 book)
Ruth Reichl, Mayor of Menuland
(Priya Krishna digs through the food critic’s collection of stolen menus for Taste)
(José R. Ralat’s guide to tacos of the world, at Texas Monthly)
Widow Who Created the Champagne Industry, The
(Natasha Geiling recounts the origins of Veuve Clicquot for The Smithsonian)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
30 Essential Websites & Web Apps For Writers
Death to the Negative Restaurant Review
Easily Convert Culinary Measurements with this Handy Reference Table
Differences Between Line Editing, Copy Editing, and Proofreading, The
Future of the Food Magazine, The? Four Teenagers May Have the Answer.
How Food Photography Transformed the Humble Cookbook into an Aspirational Entity
Remedy for Tired Wine Tasting Notes, A
Why Wine and Food Writing Matters
— podcasts, etcetera —
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Kindle)
Ephemera: A Short Collection of Short Stories
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)
Cenotaphs
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
(Kindle)
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #244 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
December 12, 2020
Food Sites for January 2021
Comfort food: Orrechiete with sausage and grapes
Now is the winter of our discontent—with a vengeance.
Janus was the Roman god of doorways. He had two faces, one facing forward and one back... hence our new year begins in January. 2020 will probably be remembered as our least-lamented year for the next century or so. Let us hope Janus’s door slams 2020 in the ass on its way out.
Our kitchens have become havens—sometimes our only haven—now that restaurants and bars are either off-limits or too risky to consider.
Penwipe Publishing continues to remain in staycation mode, but—while the pandemic has provided plenty of time—our obsession with following the news has inadvertently provoked more writing. This month, we’ve posted ”The Cook’s Tale,” and “Crossroads,” two little stories from a book-in-progress. You can probably guess which one includes some—rather unusual—culinary content.
”Coping with Covid” is an essay on our blog (while it has no culinary contents, whatsoever, it’s loaded with plenty of paranoid delusions). Also, our preoccupation with Covid has forced us to reconsider (and rewrite) an old holiday article. As a result, Roll Magazine has posted “Are You Going to Holiday Faire?”. It has been updated to include a lovely recipe from Shakespeare’s Kitchen by Francine Segan.
Listed below are a few more podcasts we’ve found that provided opportunities for procrastination (as if we needed any).
You can, if you wish, follow us on Facebook (where, among other things, we post a LOT of photographs), and Twitter. Still more of our online scribbles can be found at A Quiet Little Table in the Corner. There’s even an Amazon author’s page, mostly about our food writing.
In reflecting on social isolation, we’re including a few items not yet found in On the Table’s culinary quote collection:
Food feeds both the body and soul—there are clear reasons to eat a balanced diet, but there are also reasons you cling to your mom’s secret chicken noodle soup recipe when you’re sick. Michael Mina
No man is lonely eating spaghetti; it requires so much attention. Christopher Morley
We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie. David Mamet
Sometimes I think I’m liquefying like an old Camembert. Gustave Flaubert
Gary
January, 2021
PS: If you encounter broken links, changed URLs—or know of wonderful sites we’ve missed—please drop us a line. It helps to keep this resource as useful as possible for all of us. To those who have pointed out corrections or tasty sites (this month we’re tipping our hat to Sheila Ratcliffe), thanks, and keep them coming!
PPS: If you wish to change the e-mail address at which you receive these newsletters, or otherwise modify the way you receive our postings or—if you’ve received this newsletter by mistake, and/or don’t wish to receive future issues—you have our sincere apology and can have your e-mail address deleted from the list immediately. We’re happy (and continuously amazed) that so few people have decided to leave the list but, should you choose to be one of them, let us know and we’ll see that your in-box is never afflicted by these updates again. You’ll find links at the bottom of this page to fix everything to your liking.
— the new sites —
American Institute of Wine & Food Culinary Collection
(7,200 volumes in the special collections of the University of California at San Diego)
Barbaric History of the Sugar Trade, The
(Khalil Gibran Muhammad’s New York Times article about the connection between sugar and a history of slavery)
Before Food Trucks, Americans Ate “Night Lunch” from Beautiful Wagons
(Gastro Obscura’s Anne Ewbank describes the glory of the ancestors of today’s diners)
(Soultana Valamoti’s 2017 paper in Vegetation History and Archaeobotany)
Challenge and Pleasures of Elizabeth David, The
(Melissa Pasanen’s homage in The Art of Eating)
(information packet from the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
(Robert Simonson’s cocktail history articles at Vinepair)
Gifts of the Gods: A History of Food in Greece
(chapter seven of Andrew and Rachel Dalby’s 2017 book; in PDF)
(a timeline from What’s Cooking America)
(Hadassah Patterson’s article, in The Bitter Southerner, on the history, culture, and uses of Native American varieties of maize)
Marmalade: A Very British Obsession
(Olivia Potts on the history of the preoccupation with pectin and bitter oranges, at Longreads)
Natural Food Additives, Ingredients and Flavourings
(PDF of 2012 British technical book, edited by David Baines and Richard Seal)
(a history, by André Gayot, in Gayot: The Guide to the Good Life)
(resources and blog about leavening with fermented dough)
Recipes and Remedies: Manuscript Cookbooks
(digitized manuscripts from the collection of The New York Academy of Medicine)
Reviving a Crop and an African-American Culture, Stalk by Stalk
(Kim Severson’s New York Times article about Sapelo Island traditional cane syrup)
Science of Baking, The: How Physics and Chemistry Can Make You a Better Baker
(answers to the “whys” of baking)
Science of Cooking, The: Understanding the Biology and Chemistry Behind Food and Cooking
(PDF of 2016 book by Joseph J. Provost, Keri L. Colabroy, Brenda S. Kelly, and Mark A. Wallert)
Short History of American Food, A (Whatever That Is)
(Channon Hodge organizes the subject five small essays for CNN)
Short History of MSG, A: Good Science, Bad Science, and Taste Cultures
(Jordan Sands’ 2006 article in Gastronomica)
This Man Made the First Canned Cranberry Sauce
(K. Annabelle Smith tells the story of visionary Marcus Urann’s breakthroughs For Smithsonian magazine)
— inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers —
Good Sentences Are Why We Read
How Cookbooks from the Past Inform the Food of the Present
How Snobbery Helped Take the Spice Out of European Cooking
How to Edit a Book: How Many Times Should I Edit?
Margaret Atwood’s 10 Rules of Writing
Promote Your Book With a Shoestring Budget
Reflections on Objectivity and Wine Tasting (1)
“Salt to Taste,” Taken with a Grain of Regret
“So You Want to Write a Cookbook…?”
Ultimate Guide To Food Photography, The (77 Yummy Food Photo Tips!)
Why Wine Tasting Notes Are Not Helpful
— podcasts, etcetera —
America’s Most Famous Dessert: Jell-O, Classism, and the Death of the American Dream
Encores: Michael W. Twitty in Conversation
— that’s all for now —
Except, of course, for the usual legalistic mumbo-jumbo and commercial flim-flam:
As an Amazon Associate, this newsletter earns from qualifying purchases made through it. These include our own books (listed below), and occasional books mentioned in the entries above. If you order any books via those links, the price you pay is not increased by our commission.
Occasionally, URLs we provide may link to commercial sites (that is, they’ll cost you money to take full advantage of them). We do not receive any compensation for listing them here, and provide them without any form of recommendation—other than the fact that they looked interesting to us.
Your privacy is important to us. We will not give, sell or share your e-mail address with anyone, for any purpose. Ever. Nonetheless, we will expose you to the following irredeemably brazen plugs for our own books:
The Resource Guide for Food Writers
(Hardcover)
(Paper)
(Kindle)
(newsletters like this merely update the contents of the book; what doesn’t appear here is already in the book)
The Herbalist in the Kitchen
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
The Business of Food: Encyclopedia of the Food And Drink Industries
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Herbs: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(
Sausage: A Global History
(Hardcover)
(Kindle)
Can It! The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods
(
(Kindle)
Sauces Reconsidered: Après Escoffier
Terms of Vegery
(Kindle)
How to Serve Man:
On Cannibalism, Sex, Sacrifice, & the Nature of Eating
(Kindle)
How to Write a Great Book
(Kindle)
The Digressions of Dr Sanscravat: Gastronomical Ramblings & Other Diversions
(Kindle)
Ephemera: a short collection of short stories
(Kindle)
Prophet Amidst Losses
(Kindle)
Cenotaphs
(Kindle)
Future Tense: Remembrance of Things Not Yet Past
()
Here endeth the sales pitch(es)...
...for the moment, anyway.
______________
The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #243 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author’s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
Copyright ©2021 by Gary Allen.
December 5, 2020
Crossroads
Johnson looked down at his shoes and sighed.
They were covered with fine yellow dust, the same color as the shoulder of The Great River Road. He’d walked it for days. The long fingers of his left hand clung to a piece of rope tying his suitcase together. The suitcase looked like it was made of alligator hide, but it was really just cardboard. He had a guitar slung across his back.
For weeks, he’d worked his way up Mississippi’s US 61, picking up occasional gigs. He’d sing in juke joints in exchange for a meal and a drink—usually a couple of tamales or a ham hock, washed down with cheap no-name bourbon. He never got to play more than one night at any of them. He wasn’t very good. He had a reedy voice that broke when he tried to hold the high notes, and his guitar-playing sounded like he’d just learned to play. Which was exactly the case. Still, he had hopes—and hope kept him going on his little part of The Great Migration.
As he approached Clarksdale, he heard—faintly, off in the distance—someone playing a guitar. It was unlike anything he’d ever heard before. It had a driving demonic rhythm that alternated with long blue notes that stretched and snapped at him. They moved him in ways he never imagined music could move him. It thrilled, but also depressed, him. There was no way in hell that he could ever play like that. He kept on walking, and tried to think about something else.
He’d gotten a couple of miles further, when he came to the spot where US 61intersected with US 49. He sat down at the side of the crossroads, and waited. Something, he felt, was important about the place; he felt sure that something was destined to happen there. Occasional cars went by and, every once in a while, a farm truck rattled through. None of the drivers seemed to notice him sitting there. Hours went by, and the big red sun began to settle through the Mississippi haze.
No one showed up. Whatever destiny had in mind for him, it clearly wasn’t meant to happen there.
He stood, slowly, his gangly legs stiff from sitting so long on the hard ground. He picked up his suitcase and guitar, and looked back—south—facing the direction he’d already walked. He decided he should find out more about the infernal music he’d heard earlier that day.
It was just dark when he heard it again. Set well back—a good distance away from the highway—he could see a small run-down cabin. As he approached it, several chickens scattered noisily. The music stopped.
A voice called out from the front porch, “Whatcha’ be wantin’ here, boy?”
Johnson shuffled up the path, a little embarrassed. “Sorry to bother you… but I heard someone playing, an’ had to ax…” his voice trailed off.
“Ax what?”
“How you do it? I ain’t never heard nothing like it.”
“Come here, boy, and set a spell. Whatcher’ name?”
“It’s Robert, but you can call me Bob”
“I’m Son. Son House. An’ this here’s my Mississippi National steel bodied guitar.”
“Could you teach me how to play like that?”
“You got any money?”
Johnson looked down. He had unlimited youth and ambition—and a surprising amount of nerve, approaching a stranger like that—but he sure as hell didn’t have any money.
“Can you play that guitar you’re carryin’?”
“A little bit… nothin’ like what you can.”
“Les’ hear it.”
Johnson set down his suitcase, took the guitar from his shoulder, and played.
For a few seconds.
“That’s enough,” interrupted House. “Boy, you got you some long fingers… long enough to reach all the strings… but you shore as hell ain’t reachin’ ‘em at the right time.”
Johnson was hurt, but didn’t want to complain.
House continued, “Still… ah think ah could learn ya’ a few things. Here’s the deal I got for you; I kin’ make you the best dam’ blues man they ever was… but they’s a price to pay. You willin?” Johnson was definitely willing to pay. He’d pay any price, as long as it wasn’t in cash, since he had none. House said he wasn’t interested in cash.
“Kin ya’ work?”
“Shore. Whaddya’ need me to do?”
“Boy… if there’s anythin’ ah hates, it’s farm work. If you take over feedin’ ma’ chickens, weedin’ ma’ garden, choppin’ wood, and carryin’ water from the pump… .” The list just went on and on.
Starting the next morning, right after chores, House began Johnson’s lessons. He worked on timing, fingering, and how to run an old hambone along the guitar neck to bring out the wailing tones that had intrigued Johnson the first time he heard them. The lessons went on for a few weeks.
Every night, after dinner, Johnson sat off to the side, and listened as House read bedtime stories to his kids. His young daughter always wanted to hear the same story, so House’s student had to listen to Hans Christian Anderson’s tale about the Little Mermaid—again and again. And again. Most of the story didn’t interest him. It was too girly-girly for his taste, and all those oceanic details meant nothing to the man who was born and raised on the delta.
One night, however, something in the story caught his attention: the part about the witch and the deal she made with the little mermaid.
When the story was over, he went out to the front porch, where he’d made a pallet for himself. He tried to get some sleep, but it was no use. He tossed and turned, hoping to shove the story out of his consciousness. “It’s only a dam’ fairy tale,” he tried to tell himself. Still he couldn’t stop picturing the witch’s warning—and the little mermaid’s willing acceptance of the terms. Terms that put her very existence at stake. Something about the story—which was sappy, trivial in a way that could only appeal to a little girl—burned in his brain. Day after day, the chores and lessons went by. Night after night, the bedtime stories, followed by tossing and turning. It felt like a never-ending cycle he was doomed to repeat, again and again.
But it did come to an end.
One day, Son told Robert that he had learned everything he knew how to teach. The student had even gone beyond his lessons, learning to shape his thin cracked voice to mirror the stretched plaintive notes of a bottle-necked guitar. Johnson packed his pasteboard bag and swung the guitar over his shoulder. He walked away from the House house, then headed back to highway sixty-one.
He kept going, past the intersection of highway forty-nine, this time without stopping. He just walked until he came to a familiar juke joint. Even though he’d played there before, something in his manner, some weird self-confidence, convinced the bartender to let him play again.
As the sun went down, a few customers trickled into the bar. They sat at worn-out tables with bottles of beer, or flasks of whiskey, and talked among themselves. They ignored the young man sitting at end of the bar, and the guitar that leaned against his stool.
It was only when he got up to play, that they recognized him. No one wanted this no-account, no-talent hick to spoil their evening. Some booed. Some threw empty bottles or chewed-up bones at him.
Johnson stood, not exactly facing them. He seemed to stare at something standing in the doorway, something none of them could see.
The first striding bass notes made them sit up and pay attention. A few high chords had them leaning toward the make-shift stage. Then his high, cigarette-roughened, voice grabbed them:
Early this morning
When you knocked upon my door
Early this morning, ooh
When you knocked upon my door
And I said “hello Satan
I believe it's time to go”
They were mesmerized.
Song after song poured out of him. He performed like a seasoned bluesman, someone who had been living, and singing, the blues for sixty, maybe seventy years—even though he was still in his twenties. No one could believe that this was the same pitiful amateur they’d seen only a month or so earlier.
After his set, folks crowded around him, buying him drinks, and begging him to explain how he could have changed—so completely—in so little time. He looked up at the ceiling, as if expecting to find an answer written there. Eventually, words formed, “I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees.”
He paused.
The new fans looked at each other, confused.
He continued, “I went to the crossroad, fell down on my knees.” Another long pause, causing more confused looks.
He brought it to a close, “Asked the Lord above, ‘Have mercy, now, save poor Bob if you please.’”
He could tell that the juke joint’s customers had no idea what he was telling them. They understood no more now than before they even asked him anything. He had an answer ready for them: “It wasn’t the Lord above who had mercy on me.” More puzzled looks. “It was the Lord below.”
They bought it. Completely.
Over the course of the next few months, in many more juke joints, he told the story over and over. He gradually embellished his version of the Little Mermaid into a personal life-story that became legendary. Everywhere he went, people flocked to hear the devilishly-good guitar of the man who had sold his soul to Satan. He was well on his way to becoming the most famous bluesman of all time. At least until the devil came to collect.
Turns out, if you invoke Satan’s name often enough, even if—or especially if—it’s in the middle of a lie, it amounts to a verbal contract.
