Perfection Salad Quotes

“In recent years women have been moving into the realm of professional cooking in significant numbers, but at its highest levels the world of great cookery is probably more staunchly masculine than the armed forces.”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“Like the food experts of the last century, today’s enthusiasts are fully convinced they have rescued food from the barbarous prisons of the past.”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“Those innovations in American eating habits that began in a manufacturer’s laboratory, passed into the hands of home economists, and then met the public by way of the advertising industry took root with a speed and sureness that gratified the most forward-looking cooks. The campaign to place Crisco in every kitchen was a model of the process, and Crisco itself was in many ways a model food of the twentieth century. "An Absolutely New Product," announced one of the introductory advertisements. "A Scientific Discovery Which Will Affect Every Kitchen in America." Crisco had been tested extensively in the laboratory ever since its discovery, the copy explained, and "chefs and domestic science teachers" had been using it experimentally as well. Now it was ready for the public: "Dip out a spoonful and look at it. You will like its very appearance, for it is a pure cream white, with a fresh, pleasant aroma." ... "Crisco never varies," the copy stressed. "Crisco is never sold in bulk, but is put up in immaculate packages, perfectly protected from dust and store odors. No hands ever touch it…”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“The characteristic sweetness of much American cooking was also established during these years, as cooks relied more and more on the blandness and general acceptability of sugar as a flavoring.”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“Compounds like wedding cake, suet plum-puddings, and rich turtle soup, are masses of indigestible material, which should never find their way to any Christian table (Shapiro citing Mary Peabody Mann, Christianity in the Kitchen).”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“Many dinners emerging from the scientific kitchen were entirely white…”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“The important function of an American white sauce was not to enhance but to blanket.”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“Cooking — that is, the actual mixing, measuring, boiling, and baking — was taught under the heading Laboratory Practice.”
― Laura Shapiro, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century

“In time, I came to understand that for people who really love it, food is a lens through which to view the world. For us, the way that people cook and eat, how they set their tables, and the utensils that they use all tell a story.”
― Ruth Reichl, Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century