Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Notaker’s impressive work of research calls for cookbooks to be read and valued the same as literature . . . . A History of Cookbooks also serves up a wonderful history of publishing, since that first printed Italian cookbook coincides with the advent of Gutenberg’s press" * Print Magazine *
“This stirring work will enhance our engagement with the kitchens of our ancestors.” * Times Literary Supplement *
"A complex and dense read, and the author is to be complimented on maintaining clarity throughout. For the food historian it is a useful reminder that cookbooks have scope beyond that of mere instruction, and for the literary historian it highlights the complexities that underlie apparently simple manuals. It is a book for serious students of both fields." * Petits Propos Culinaires *
“It is the work of a polyglot, a researcher passionate about his subject, and an indefatigable reader. . . . Henry Notaker’s work is a reference book worth having in any good library.” * Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies *
"Well-argued and researched work, taking a new and intriguing approach to a popular subject.” * CHOICE *
"...a dense but well-argued and researched work, taking a new and intriguing approach to a popular subject." * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsIllustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
PART ONE. FOOD AND TEXT-COOK AND WRITER
Prologue: A Rendezvous
1. The Cook
2. Writer and Author
PART TWO. THE TEXT AND ITS FORM
3. The Origin and Early Development of Modern Cookbooks
4. Printed Cookbooks: Diffusion, Translation, and Plagiarism
5. Organizing the Cookbook
6. Naming the Recipes
7. Pedagogical and Didactic Approaches
8. Paratexts in Cookbooks
9. The Recipe Form
10. The Cookbook Genre
PART THREE. THE TEXT AND ITS WORLD
11. Cookbooks for the Rich and the Poor
12. Health and Medicine in Cookbooks
13. Recipes for Fat Days and Lean Days
14. Vegetarian Cookbooks
15. Jewish Cookbooks
16. Cookbooks and Aspects of Nationalism
17. Decoration, Illusion, and Entertainment
18. Taste and Pleasure
19. Gender in Cookbooks and Household Books
Epilogue: Cookbooks and the Future
Notes
References
Index
