(Re-recommending a trouble-making classic)

"Affluence, airplanes and highways destroyed good food in this country; we
want it to be easy and supersized," said Anthony Bourdain of _Kitchen
Confidential_ (quoted in a recent Portland _Tribune;_ the country he means
is the US). "Most people think a potato tastes like a Pringle. And who
remembers what a truffle tastes like? What people know now is truffle oil --
the ketchup of the upper class."


In a contrasting view of the history here, for around 30 years in print the
Hesses have argued, or demonstrated, that the books of Fannie Farmer and
the Romabauers spearheaded the decline of good food in the US, half a
century before Affluence, Airplanes and Highways. (The bland nationwide
brands and convenience foods after the second world war were just the
coup-de-grace). Ideas heralded as innovations in US cooking in the last
couple of decades emerge, in the Hesses' documentation, as rediscovery of
principles common in past centuries, but lost, in America. (By the way, to
take in vain the names of Fannie Farmer and the _Joy of Cooking_ sits badly
with some people who grew up with these books, but they might want to check
the Hesses' arguments for themselves. Discomfiture can spur discovery.)
_The Taste of America_ was received by some US food professionals as
important, even a landmark, when published.

As for ketchup, here are the Hesses in 1977. (These samples are typical of
the book.)

"The most popular cookbook of the nineteenth century first appeared in
Philadelphia in 1837. It was _Directions for Cookery,_ by Eliza Leslie,
which in our view ranks with Mrs. Randolph's _Virginia Housewife_ as one of
the two best all-American cookbooks ever written. James Beard, be it said,
has rendered a service in making Miss Leslie better known to modern cooks.
Why does he say, however, when he quotes one of her recipes for scalloped
tomatoes, that it is "a very good one even now"? He surely does not mean
"even now when tomatoes are no longer fit to eat," so presumably he means
"even now when cooking has become sophisticated." In truth, American cooking
reached its highest level in the second quarter of the nineteenth century,
with Miss Leslie as its guide. From then on, it was downhill all the way.

"Miss Leslie was sufficiently sophisticated to have written _Domestic French
Cookery_ (1832), which she described as a translation. But her classic
_Directions for Cookery_ is thoroughly American. It shares with earlier
cookbooks a concern for quality that now seems almost alien, and abounds in
such critical assessments as remarks [quoted] on choosing catfish, and "The
Portuguese pork, which is fed on chestnuts, is perhaps the finest in the
world." [On to further examples for the rest of the chapter.]
. . .

"There are other interesting omens of the approaching decline in our
cookery. One is the gradual disappearance of the shallot. Even the admirable
Miss Leslie makes only rare use of it, and after her, it virtually
disappeared from American cookbooks for a century -- a great pity. Out own
hypothesis is that the pervasive flavor of the tomato drove out the shallot
as bad money drives out good. Supporting this is the fact that the great
majority of ketchups that characterized early American cooking was gradually
replaced by the ubiquitous tomato ketchup. Miss Leslie, in 1837, published
recipes for eight kinds: anchovy (two), lobster, oyster, walnut, mushroom,
lemon -- and tomato. (Be it noted again, there was no sugar in any of them.)
Anyone familiar with Chinese cooking will recognize the original source of
ketchups, but they came to us from England. (the Oxford English Dictionary
says the word apparently derives from the Amoy Chinese kétsiap, meaning
brine of pickled fish. The Malay kechap [bar over the e], often given as the
source, may be from the Chinese as well.) Until about 1850, when an American
recipe called for ketchup, it most likely meant mushroom, walnut, or oyster.
These interesting condiments did continue for some decades, because Miss
Leslie's works continued to be best sellers. [To at least 58 editions by
1881, acc. to Bitting's standard bibliography -- MH]

"Her lobster ketchup ..." [on and on with details].

John L. Hess and Karen Hess, _The Taste of America_ (1977, ISBN 0670693766;
current 2000 reprint edition with new notes, ISBN 0252068750).


-- Max Hauser