The Great American Cookbook: 500 Recipes: Favorite Foods from Every State

by Clementine Paddleford, Molly O'Neill (Foreword), Kelly Alexander (Editor)

The first and greatest book of regional American cuisine, now revised for today’s home cook. Imagine a person with the culinary acumen of Julia Child, the inquisitiveness of Margaret Mead, and the daring of Amelia Earhart. This is Clementine Paddleford, America’s first food journalist. In the 1930s, Paddleford set out to do something no one had done before: chronicle regional American food. Writing for the New York Herald Tribune, Gourmet, and This Week, she crisscrossed the nation, piloting a propeller plane, to interview real home cooks and discover their local specialties.

The Great American Cookbook is the culmination of Paddleford’s career. A best seller when first published in 1960 as How America Eats, this coveted classic has been out of print for thirty years. Here are more than 500 of Paddleford’s best recipes, all adapted for contemporary kitchens. From New England there is Real Clam Chowder; from the South, Fresh Peach Ice Cream; from the Southwest, Albondigas Soup; from California, Arroz con Pollo. Behind all the recipes are extraordinary stories, which make this not just a cookbook but also a portrait of America.   

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, History

848 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1960 as How America Eats, this revised edition is a whopping 800 pages of recipes from across the country. Each state has its own section of recipes, making it easy to find something to cook from your state of choice. Although I was unimpressed by the offerings for Oregon (I didn't know prunes were such a staple in pre-1960 Oregon), the eastern states and others I looked at seemed to have the kinds of things one would look for to go along with a unit study.

[Mary Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Between 1948 and 1960, Clementine Paddleford, food writer and native of Riley County, Kansas, traveled the United States recording how America ate. This book is huge and has a ton of recipes which have been lovingly edited for contemporary cooks.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is huge but reprsents all 50 states plus DC. This would be nice for theme dinners or a way to travel somewhere to through your dinner menu.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, period book. Especially nice to read it in conjunction with "Hometown Appetites".

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible cookbook! The Georgian shrimp recipes really brought back memories for me. Grandfather got ours fresh as you could, straight off the boat. I do miss Alabama turnip greens as well as southern style crawfish boils. I loved that everyone gathered round eating straight off the newspapers. The recipe for real chowdah’ made me laugh out loud because everyone always thinks their clam chowder is the best and will spend ten minutes educating you on why their clam chowdah’ is the best. 😂 Someday I am going to make all the chowders in this book and have a taste off. The New York recipes are timeless. No really, you can still experience almost every NY recipe in NYC on this very day! New Jersey section off the book was bittersweet to read. Why doesn’t New Jersey have a good shad fry anymore? I’m guessing overly polluted waters took care of that. Thank goodness good fish fries can still be found all over Michigan and Wisconsin. The Cinci Cassoulet is spot on to the flavors I remember! Same beans and meats were thrown right into Cinci chili too. Ohio’s Bundkuchen is a yes and the Ohio stuffed cabbage recipe is near identical to the way my Grandmother used to make it. I will absolutely be purchasing this book. Basically every recipe lost in family history and a deep reminder of the beauty in remembering that all of my family members were once struggling immigrants.

[Rita]

c 1960. Said to be fascinating

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

The type of old-school cookbook with pancakes fried in bacon drippings.

[Amanda Brown · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never again will I make myself finish a DENSE 800+ page book just because I started it.

[Rlsalvati · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting slice of writing and recipes from a bygone era

[Lacey W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun to flip through.

[Robin]

food

[Stacey Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great recipes but also amazing stories of each one - a super cookbook AND a good read!

[Farrell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its huge!! The ideas were nice, I wish I had more time to check it out.