Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Cooking the Books A Look at What We Ate in the (Last) Depression
Posted by Nicki Wood on Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Among the labors of the Works Progress Administration was the federal Writers Project, and one of their projects was America Eats, which sent out the country's best writers (Eudora Welty, Nelson Algren, Zora Neale Hurston, pictured at left) to document American cooking and eating habits. The project wasn't finished -- the second World War intervened -- and the manuscript was deposited in the Library of Congress.
In 2000, Mark Kurlansky, who wrote the stealth bestsellers Cod and Salt began working with the manuscript to produce Food of a Younger Land, due out in May. Kurlanksy's work depicts the culinary times before fast food, when there was limited refrigeration and no interstate system. To be from a place was to be inextricably woven into its food supply. Sections cover general subjects such as Chippewa and Sioux traditions and Florida meals, but also specific foodways such as a California Grunion Fry, a Choctaw funeral, a meal at a New York Automat and a "Los Angeles sandwich called a taco." Along the way, we get Welty's recipe for gumbo and a butterless, eggless cake called Depression Cake.
To read a full review and order a book, go to independent bookseller Powell's website.
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