Marzipan, Halvah, and the Uses of Meal
When was the last time you thought about comminution—reducing solid materials to a smaller size—in the kitchen? Perhaps you occasionally cut up a chicken or a large piece of meat.…
View ArticleFood in World History: A 1995 Course at the University of Hawaii
Why I decided to teach food in world history It’s hard to remember that just twenty five years ago food was not considered a worthy academic subject, so it was…
View ArticleWhat Should be Taught in School Cooking Classes (Assuming They Should Be...
In January I put together a tentative syllabus for a school cooking class directed at early teens. I thought then it might seem ridiculous so I did not post it.…
View ArticleWords Matter. Declaring “The Food System Is (or Isn’t) Broken” Does Not Help...
There’s been lots of hoo-ha on social media around “The Food System Is/Isn’t Broken.” Combatants have diverse definitions of broken that are not my concern in this particular post. My…
View ArticleThe Gritter Board: Or How to Process Half-Dried Corn
Last week the latest issue of The Millstone: Journal of the Kentucky Old Mill Association arrived in my mail box. It included a reprint of an article by Martin Brooks…
View Article“A Good Cook:” A Pandemic Reflection On My Mother’s 104th Birthday
I felt mulish today. Six months with one meal away from home. No outing further than 30 miles. Seeing friends and family only in constrained circumstances. Enough, enough. Time for…
View ArticleCooking in a Bedsitter
I learned to cook in a ‘bedsit.’ A bedsit, as bedsitters were generally called, was the English equivalent of an American efficiency apartment. Well, kind of an equivalent. Although bedsits…
View ArticleGrumpy Old Lady Dumps on Her American Kitchen
A couple of years ago we bought a house with a kitchen that checks all the fashionable American home kitchen boxes. It’s open to the living room and dining room.…
View ArticleHow Do You Cook for a Race Horse?
Pretty much like you’d cook for a wealthy human is the answer. Learning about horse feed at Hallway Feeds, Lexington, KY When I drive north through Lexington, Kentucky I pass…
View ArticleWhy Didn’t the Spanish Dry-Cure Ham in Mexico?
It was not for want of trying, I’m pretty sure. Instead it was for want of a suitable climate. Dry curing ham requires humid winters with temperatures that hover above… The post Why Didn’t the Spanish...
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