Oswald Rivera

An Anglicised version of the South American book which represents the "culmination of a cooking adventure for the author Oswald Rivera". The book is a light, easy read, providing an introduction to each time period with an overview of the known written sources, some insights into cultural and historical elements and then a small collection of recipes and ingredients lists defined from written sources. Starting from Ancient Egypt and into classical Greece, the Indus Valley, medieval Europe, through to the Arab world, the Far East and the Americas and terminating in the modern era. If you are seeking a brief history of gastronomy along with a selection of recipes, then this is a good entry into this area of gastroliterature.… (altro)

That damn troll is at it again. Apparently he/she is a Christian and thinks that Hitler had a point about Jews (like me)

The book is neither fish nor fowl, it isn't history and it isn't a recipe book. It has some history but its neither detailed nor anything that anyone who has ever read a food history book wouldn't know. It has some recipes but they are generally neither the original ones, nor are they anything other than very ordinary. Like the curate's egg, the book is good in parts.

What is annoying about it is its written in the vernacular which isn't suitable for the subject and the scholarship is astonishingly lacking. An example: the author has a cookery book by Marguerite Patten, who is English (and if he didn't know the title "Cookery in Colour" is spelled the English way and the weights and measurements would have been in English. He writes, "The recipe calls for using '1 tablespoon golden syrup' and a few drops of 'vanilla essence.' I honestly do not know what the cook meant by 'golden syrup' so I've substituted honey. And I take 'vanilla essence' to be vanilla extract - and it worked out." Was it utterly beyond him to actually have looked up golden syrup online? Its a very common British ingredient. And he seems so proud of himself that he correctly interpreted vanilla essence to be the American vanilla extract. Wow. What a leap of scholarship there. I know Americans have a reputation for insularity, but this is taking it to extremes.



This is golden syrup. The beautiful tin was designed in 1885 and hasn't been changed since. Golden syrup is nothing like honey, it's closest to corn syrup, but whereas corn syrup is a cooking ingredient, golden syrup is delicious straight from the tin, or better, on hot, buttered toast.

What I liked best about the book were the odd little snippets like the fact that meat was rationed to "only" about 3lbs a week and that food consumption during WWII actually went up in the US! I also love this totally amazing little piece of history, where priorities were defined and the American Home Magazine told the woman of the house exactly what her place in the world was.



(Gee we've come a long way, baby).

A 2-star book elevated to 3-stars by that ad alone.




… (altro)