This won't end up being a book review so much as a bunch of notes to take away. Full disclosure: this is my partner's friend who wrote the book. It is an Acadian foodways cookbook. I would recommend it for anyone who likes those recipe books from churches but would like a professional eye and curated approach.
This is definitely a foodways book. It is a helpful preservation and understanding of how a particular regional cooking style is rooted in the area. In this case, there is also a sense of history of how the dishes progressed. There is a history of a dish if you know how to read it. For me, it was a bit like stepping back into my childhood with recipes that may seem old fashioned but are really more about how one cooks with a less modern approach. There are techniques and food that have been tossed out because it isn't one that the consumer wants. All meat, no trimmings kind of thing.
It is funny that we go to restaurants to get foodstuffs from recipes that were common and deemed to be so common as to not be worth saving. By common, I mean the sense of pervasive and of the lower class. Blood sausage (boudin noir, boudin blanc), headcheese, and potted meat being three things that are now often praised in modern restaurants. It is as if a chef has a better grasp of taking bone, gristle and blood and transforming it more safely and in better craft than the grandmothers of old. It is more likely that as we have stopped doing our own butchery from yard to table that the system has made these ordinary and common things dangerous.
This book stirred up a bunch of thoughts as the author worked towards taking the scraps of old recipes into modern recipes. Most older recipes are written with the idea that you have some ordinary skills. A lot of these skills are no longer passed down or taught. Head cheese mentioned above had very little in the way of a recipe or what you do with the head you have. I guess nowadays, there is youtube and the Food Network. But how do you even know these things exist?
This is definitely a foodways book. It is a helpful preservation and understanding of how a particular regional cooking style is rooted in the area. In this case, there is also a sense of history of how the dishes progressed. There is a history of a dish if you know how to read it. For me, it was a bit like stepping back into my childhood with recipes that may seem old fashioned but are really more about how one cooks with a less modern approach. There are techniques and food that have been tossed out because it isn't one that the consumer wants. All meat, no trimmings kind of thing.
It is funny that we go to restaurants to get foodstuffs from recipes that were common and deemed to be so common as to not be worth saving. By common, I mean the sense of pervasive and of the lower class. Blood sausage (boudin noir, boudin blanc), headcheese, and potted meat being three things that are now often praised in modern restaurants. It is as if a chef has a better grasp of taking bone, gristle and blood and transforming it more safely and in better craft than the grandmothers of old. It is more likely that as we have stopped doing our own butchery from yard to table that the system has made these ordinary and common things dangerous.
This book stirred up a bunch of thoughts as the author worked towards taking the scraps of old recipes into modern recipes. Most older recipes are written with the idea that you have some ordinary skills. A lot of these skills are no longer passed down or taught. Head cheese mentioned above had very little in the way of a recipe or what you do with the head you have. I guess nowadays, there is youtube and the Food Network. But how do you even know these things exist?
On page 6, there is a cry to bring back home economics in the sense of "cooking with limited and specific ingredients and techniques". I wonder if part of the reason this has been left out as not being necessary in a largely middle class milieu. If this was framed as a social justice issue combining effects on migrant workers, environment and anti capitalist, would it become a sexy subject again? Could those who are not of the working class get behind this as a necessary skill? Since a high school education is way more common now, these skills would also help those of the working class without creating a destreamed and stigmatizing environment. Doing domestic duties has gotten the short end of the stick as being not a first choice but it seems to me that is a bit of classist statement. Food Network has done a bit to bring it back into the middle class but I'm not sure it has gone all the way. I'm sure there are many blog posts to be written about cooking and feminism but this isn't the place right now.
Authentic. That word. However, on page 9, the working definition for Simon Thibault is 'Appreciation, observation, and a keen ear for what a dish is telling you...' Not sure I could add anything here. It is just good to hear that said out loud.
This book covers:
Preserves and includes pickles. I make a lot of quick, fresh pickles and there is a helpful hint that any fresh pickle can further preserved by canning. I will have to test that theory sometime as my worst fear has always been botulism, especially with low acid goods. My dad's canned meat sometimes worried me. I wasn't worried enough to say no to the meat but I haven't tried canning my own.
Preserves and includes pickles. I make a lot of quick, fresh pickles and there is a helpful hint that any fresh pickle can further preserved by canning. I will have to test that theory sometime as my worst fear has always been botulism, especially with low acid goods. My dad's canned meat sometimes worried me. I wasn't worried enough to say no to the meat but I haven't tried canning my own.
Breads.
There is a recipe for a black bread that rings of stories from my dad about this thing that my grandmother used to make. I had thought it may be closer to the Bavarian black bread due to our history of coming from somewhere in the Austrian empire before the wars during the era when Poland was partitioned but maybe it is closer to this rural Canadian thing.
Lard.
As it so happens I have some flake fat and suet in my fridge right now, so the idea of making lard has been on my mind. It is nice to see a modern recipe for making it. I should see if I can make this.
Tete de Cochon.
I remember walking into my aunt's where there was a pig head being prepared. The smell is still in memory and strangely doesn't smell as bad as you would think. In some ways, I connect it to boiling laundry. It is definitely a better smell than boiled cabbage. At the same time, there were containers of blood for blood pudding. This is what was done fairly soon after a slaughter. The seasons tell you what to do.
Soups, Sides, and Staples
There were meat pies of all kinds. Fring frangs, fricot, rappie are all regional dishes but are recognizable as concepts to anyone who has subsisted on food that is fresh and farm based. Fring frangs are a version of potato pancakes, fricot is a stew and rappie is a potato and chicken pie. These all seem like a good way to use potatoes and old birds. Maybe that is just my reading but I can see this in a particular way. This reminds me of the chicken industry and the egg industry as being different things. But that is another rant and another post. Suffice to say, when an egg layer has to be culled, it does become supper somehow.
Desserts
Includes three rhubarb recipes, date cake and a recipe for taffy.
I tried to include enough of the parts that I found interesting so that you could determine your interest level. I do recommend this for anyone who is trying to reclaim their family recipes. It covers off a good way to figure out how to read your family recipes. I must admit that a romantic notion of trying to understand the Kashubian recipes from Wilno came to my mind. I know that so many of the women there are getting on in age and that the young people are leaving without capturing that old fashioned way of eating and cooking. Maybe this is one way out of our odd way of food consumerism that has caused some issues?
I tried to include enough of the parts that I found interesting so that you could determine your interest level. I do recommend this for anyone who is trying to reclaim their family recipes. It covers off a good way to figure out how to read your family recipes. I must admit that a romantic notion of trying to understand the Kashubian recipes from Wilno came to my mind. I know that so many of the women there are getting on in age and that the young people are leaving without capturing that old fashioned way of eating and cooking. Maybe this is one way out of our odd way of food consumerism that has caused some issues?
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