Pigs and hams, barbecue and ice cream — all are foods associated with joy and love and celebration. In the United States, anyway.
And writers take these foods and weave words around and around like so many carefully knitted stitches, creating new books, making this year an exciting time for food and history lovers.
The increasing onslaught of books on preserving and preparing traditional foods promises to create a generation of cooks far more savvy than those of the previous one. Starving for knowledge, yearning to break free of Big Food, cooks will find much to chew on in the following list. Note that some of the books have not yet been published, but that’s OK.
Having something to look forward to makes life magical, conjuring up images of birthdays and other holidays, regardless of culture. One reason why saints’ day feasts and seasonal festivals helped people in the past in dealing with the harsh mundane.
And these books conjure up that delightful, delicious feeling of anticipation. A true reason to celebrate.
97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement, by Jane Ziegelman
Appetite City: A Culinary History of New York, by William Grimes
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto, edited by Joan Reardon
Barbecue: The History of an American Institution, by Robert Moss
The Book of Marmalade (ENGLISH KITCHEN), by C. Anne Wilson
Food Heroes: 16 Culinary Artisans Preserving Tradition, by Georgia Pellgrini
Food and Language: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2009, edited by Robert Hosking
Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways are the Best – Over 700 Recipes Show You Why, by Darina Allen
The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (1614), by Giacomo Castelvetro; Gillian Riley, editor
Game: A Cookbook, by Tom Norrington-Davies
Ham: An Obsession with the Hindquarter, by Bruce Weinstein
Ice Cream: A History (Shire Library), by Ivan Day
The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time, by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger
THE NOBEL BANQUETS: A Century of Culinary History (1901 – 2001), by Ulrica Soderlind
Pig: King of the Southern Table, by James Villas
Pomodoro!: A History of the Tomato in Italy (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History), by David Gentilcore
The River Cottage Preserves Handbook, by Pam Corbin
Storied Dishes: What Our Family Recipes Tell Us About Who We Are and Where We’ve Been, by Linda Murray Berzok
Table Settings: The Material Culture and Social Context of Dining, AD 1700-1900, by James Symonds
Tastes of Byzantium: The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire, by Andrew Dalby
Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens, by Andrew Beahrs
CYNTHIA D. BERTELSEN 
Yes, I posted it today – thanks for your kind remarks about “Southern Cooking”. I’m much more familiar with that one, and know where some of the goofs lay (one of my favorites is “Mrs Brook’s Chess pies” – it was from my great-grandmother (other side of the family) and the proportions are way off. I tried to straighten it out when I was a teenager.)
Thanks for reading … and writing. I’m about to move into my new house and am totally behind on reading everybody’s blogs.
Marion,
What a wonderful message about your grandmother. I have the Southern cookbook and love it to pieces, literally, as it is falling apart. I’d love to see the picture of her with James Beard. Is it on your blog anywhere?
GREAT list, Cynthia! I know I’ll be checking out that first book for sure. I lived on Orchard St. as a child!
Thanks for sharing…
You may wish to check out Marion Brown’s “Pickles and Preserves” which was published in the early ’50s for an unusual collection of very old pickling recipes. It was reissued as an inexpensive paperback a few years ago. Her “Marion Brown’s Southern Cooking” was the bible of my mother’s generation and has been continuously in print since it was published in 1950. (Disclaimer: I’m her granddaughter, but we don’t get anything from sales of the book, and I’m still annoyed my brother made off with her files.) P&P was significant when published – I have a wonderful photo of my grandmother and James Beard, both with cocktails and cigarettes in hand, promoting the book.