Food on the Page: Cookbooks and American Culture

by Megan J. Elias

What is American food? From barbecue to Jell-O molds to burrito bowls, its history spans a vast patchwork of traditions, crazes, and quirks. A close look at these foods and the recipes behind them unearths a vivid map of American foodways: how Americans thought about food, how they described it, and what foods were in and out of style at different times.

In Food on the Page, the first comprehensive history of American cookbooks, Megan J. Elias chronicles cookbook publishing from the early 1800s to the present day. Following food writing through trends such as the Southern nostalgia that emerged in the late nineteenth century, the Francophilia of the 1940s, countercultural cooking in the 1970s, and today's cult of locally sourced ingredients, she reveals that what we read about food influences us just as much as what we taste.

Examining a wealth of fascinating archival material and rediscovering several all-American culinary delicacies and oddities in the process Elias explores the role words play in the creation of taste on both a personal and a national level. From Fannie Farmer to The Joy of Cooking to food blogs, she argues, American cookbook writers have commented on national cuisine while tempting their readers to the table. By taking cookbooks seriously as a genre and by tracing their genealogy, Food on the Page explains where contemporary assumptions about American food came from and where they might lead.

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Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction

296 pages, Hardcover

First published April 20, 2017

Reviews

[Gloria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early in marriage, my husband caught me reading a cookbook. He thought I was looking for a recipe, but no. He couldn't believe someone would do that. And now I know...there are others who do this, too.

Food on the Page is a nonfiction work of history, one that leads right up to today. If you thought you were in control of your own food choices, much less cooking style, the answer is probably not. This looks at mostly the 20th century forward, and discusses agricultural shifts, the fascination with French food, women in the workforce, marketing ploys by food companies, buying local, changes due to the digital age (blogs and software), racism, and culture shifting chefs and cookbooks.

This is actually really fascinating and rings entirely true. Can't imagine how difficult it must have been to narrow down the content. Boy have we been manipulated by those who would profit.

Especially enjoyed though the sections on decades I have personally lived through as they were not exaggerated. Makes one realize though that we do not realize there are calculated trends in motion.

This is for the foodie, amateur and pro chefs, and sociologists of the world.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot that I liked about this mix of cookbook history and American cultural history; it gave me a much better understanding of the early 20th century arc that went something like: food science -> perfection salad -> only men can *really* cook -> Julia Child. It had a long section on 'freak' cookbooks which was surprising and interesting; I appreciated that Elias went outside of the mainstream in her research, and she is very good at teasing out the various cultural tensions that get encoded in cookbooks. I wish there'd been more about the 80s and 90s, though -- there were some great details about how the rise of food photography changed what cookbooks looked like & how that led to more people treating them as aesthetic objects to read & own rather than practical manuals, but I wanted lots more about the changes of that period, and more about how food TV and celebrity chefs impacted everything. Alas, that's not really what Elias is interested in, so instead there was a lot about Michael Pollan and over-the-top locavores and the sort of food sourcing that got parodied in Portlandia, all of which is interesting enough but not the things that I am most curious about!

[Sarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really, 3.5 stars, but the penultimate chapter was so good that I bumped it up. The book really needed a better editor, as it had several errors - the first Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook was a hardback, not spiral-bound; Pelligrini was in fact a professor at University of Washington, but the Cougar Gold cheddar cheese he praised was not produced at his university but at UW's rival WSU; lots of spelling and punctuation errors ("cannon" for "canon", "almandine" for "amandine") , misused commas, and forgotten closing quotation marks) - but I still enjoyed it immensely and learned a lot.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in the history of food. The book goes through how the American relationship to recipes and food have changed over the years by reviewing American cookbooks as a way to look at national cuisine. Well researched and interesting, with some fascinating visuals. Highly recommended.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative book, if you're interested in food culture and cookbooks.

[Mariel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the intersection of history that comes up in the survey (ie Lost Cause) with the more niche material of cookbooks.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Academic in tone and structure; a textbook on cookbooks. (Yeah, you knew I'd love that.) The only criticism I have is it downplays the effect of food television on cookbook production in the last 20 years.