Books on food culture

[RobertC]

Diana Kennedy, The Art of Mexican Cooking. And, of course, Marvin Harris' The Sacred Cow and the Abominable Pig. As a document of a place, time, and culture, MFK Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf. John McPhee originally intended Oranges as a magazine article but keep finding new stories to tell about them.

[SheilaAnn]

If you can get your hands on them, read every issue of Lucky Peach. I have the entire set and haven’t finished them because I don’t want to tear the plastic off the last 4-5 ones. Especially the final issue!

[JoeSousa]

I have read the first half and am just starting on the recipes now. Awesome book. Sam Jones' whole hog book is a pretty similar format with the first half being more biographical and the second half being more recipes.

[SheilaAnn]

Richard Chrz These are my others that I have enjoyed:

[SheilaAnn]

Skip To your point:


additionally, my Kindle library contains Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty and Smoke & Pickles by Edward Lee. Great reads!

[klflowers]

Rodney Scott of Scott's BBQ just published a book that is kind of an autobiography/cook book. I ran across it by mistake - it was just published on the 16th. It was pretty interesting. I finished the story part of it in a few days; going to try some of the recipes. I like his "motto": every day is a good day.

[Richard Chrz]

I love those, I should re-read those as well.

[Skip]

I'm thinking a little more "local" on the subject Richard. Sometimes looking through a few "Church" or other "Fundraiser" type cookbooks can give a person some information and history of food and recipes from different food cultures. Much of the USA was only settled by our ancestors in the past couple hundred years, so those cookbooks contain lots of history. Many of those Settlers were pretty hard up so they learned to make do with what they had.

[rickgregory]

I can't believe I didnt think of this right off, but you MUST read Angelo Pellegrini's "The Unprejudiced Palate" and, well anything else he wrote.

Bio of him here: https://www.historylink.org/File/20559

Books - https://www.goodreads.com/author/sho...o_M_Pellegrini

[JCBBQ]

It’s been a long time since I read these books but I remember enjoying them very much.

https://www.amazon.com/Heat-Adventur...6675259&sr=8-4


https://www.amazon.com/United-States.../dp/0767915798

[Pobeque]

Appetite City - A Culinary History of New York by William Grimes

Pasta, Pane, Vino - Matt Goulding

Salt: A World History - Mark Kurlansky

[rickgregory]

MFK Fisher of course.

Fuchsia Dunlop's Food Of Sichuan, though a cookbook, looks deeply into the context.

[SheilaAnn]

Richard Chrz now you are speaking my language. Let me think about this for a bit. I’m also on the board of a culinary historian club!

[latenight71]

Anthony Bourdain's 'A Cooks Tour: Global Adventures in Extremes Cuisines' has been on my read list for a while. Bourdain actually has about 13 books. his earliest are fiction and later ones are graphic comics, but plenty on the cooking craft, as well. A Cooks Tour has been out for a while. i thumbed through a copy years ago and decided to read it but just haven't gotten around to it.

you could check this one out, too. my mom co-wrote it with a friend back in 1979! i'm the blond kid with a bowl cut on the back cover!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tacos-Tempu...-/303806303952

[painter]

I'd highly recommend anything by Micheal Pollan--especially The Omnivore's Dilemma. Incredible writing around the human connection to eating from a social scientist.