Subject: cookery books as genre?

From: [email-masked] (N.M. Wierda)
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 12:32:11 GMT

I would be very interested to know how people feel about the 
following question:

Are cookery books a genre? and if so, why?

Genre as in the novel, the epic, travel writing etc. as a genre.

I really look forward to any replies and responses.

Best, 
Nynke Wierda

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From: Gretchen Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1993 12:47:19 -0400

Are cookbooks a genre?  Definately!

Of course, you don't necessarily read a cookbook the way you read a
novel, but they do make good reading.  Especially the ones with stories
about the food, descriptions of the ingredients, helpful hints,
discussions of origins, etc.  A really good cookbook is a whole food
work, not just a collection of recipes (and even a collection of recipes
can be fun).

toodles, gretchen

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From: [email-masked] (Daniel Paul Checkman)
Date: 5 Oct 1993 23:44:09 GMT

>toodles, gretchen

I think this is especially true for many of Jeff Smith's cookbooks- they
involve some history and development in the recipes that, in my opinion,
do make it readable from cover to cover without even pulling out a 
measuring cup.  There are many other cookbook and cookbook writers that 
do similar things- it's more than just the recipes.  For example, 
the "First Lady's Cookbook" or whatever the title is, is almost like a non-
fiction "novel" with some recipes in it.           

Basically, I also argue that cookbooks are a genre, especially those that 
have more than just a list of recipes, but rather an entire fluid structure.
:-Dan

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From: [email-masked] (Steve Cavrak)
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1993 01:19:55 GMT

>From article <[email-masked]>, by [email-masked] (N.M. Wierda):
> 

The first cook book I owned was Peg Bracken's (sp) "The I Hate to Cook
Cookbook."  Tons of quick meals for college students. After that I
graduated to Graham Kerr, and then Julia Child, and now have a small
book case of them.  Mostly I read them to read - not to cook from!

Steve

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From: [email-masked] (David Adams)
Date: 6 Oct 93 13:04:39 CDT

Now some cookbooks have nothing to do with cooking.  

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--David C. Adams  Statistician  Cray Research Inc.  [email-masked]

	Kilo Golf Zero India Oscar	-(KG0IO)-

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From: [email-masked] (Cheese Miller)
Date: 6 Oct 1993 18:13:22 -0400

Jeff Smith's "History" and "ethnography" are flawed and totally useless,
except as entertainment.  
-- 
Steve Miller				I am a famous rock star!
		[email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] (Michael Johnston -- Michael's Music Service)
Date: 7 Oct 1993 03:49:49 GMT

Sure, cook books are a genre. Why not?  They fall into two kinds, to my
thinking: the how-to book, like the Larousse, or the demonstration/
presentation book, like Lorenza di Medici's Italian book.

Early cook books are all how-to, and I sure wish a couple of them
had been presentation books with color pictures. <g>

Cheers!
Michael
-- 
MICHAEL'S MUSIC SERVICE | CIS: 70731,3403 |---------| Barony of the Sacred Stone
4146 Sheridan Drive     | [email-masked] |----------------| John Apple
Charlotte, NC 28205-5654|(704) 567-1066 (800) 438-4129 |------| Michael Johnston
-- Brother Ambrose, Friars Minor |-------| Guillaume de Pomme, Maitre d'Orgue --

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From: [email-masked] (Michael Johnston -- Michael's Music Service)
Date: 7 Oct 1993 03:54:05 GMT

Jeff Smith is a likeable man, but he's strayed greatly from his original
intent of at least some technique to 100% presentation of already-cooked
food.  I don't recommend his books, except as diversion. Some of his facts
are questionable and his taste, well, it's his taste -- no better or worse
than yours or mine; he's not a classically trained chef, doesn't pretend to
be, nor is he a historian.

Did anybody see the show on Apicius?  He was on thin ice there.

Cheers!
Michael

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From: [email-masked] (Daniel Paul Checkman)
Date: 7 Oct 1993 16:58:33 GMT

>Michael

I'd like to point out that the argument is not whether or not Smith can
write a cookbook, but whether or not cookbooks fit into a separate genre.
Yes, his books are interesting to read.  Yes, some of his stuff is 
questionable in fact (but he almost always provides his source).  Still,
most importantly here, and the point I originally made, is yes, cookbooks
are a separate genre, and Jeff Smith's cookbooks, because of their
readability, is simply an example that I used, regardless of the quality
of the material for cooking.
:-Dan

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From: [email-masked] (Cheese Miller)
Date: 7 Oct 1993 19:50:16 -0400

OK, so we grant that cookbooks are a "genre"

What does this really MEAN?

That we can refer to them collectively?  That we can write parodies of
them?  That we have some implicit category "cookbook" that distorts our
appreciation of the great or idiosyncratic ones?

I dunno - lets just call 'em cookbooks.
-- 
Steve Miller				I am a famous rock star!
		[email-masked]

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From: Gretchen Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 8 Oct 1993 19:34:38 -0400

Excerpts from netnews.rec.food.historic: 7-Oct-93 Re: cookery books as
genre?.. by Cheese [email-masked] 
> That we can write parodies of
> them? 

Of COURSE you can write parodie of them!  I hold in my hands at this
very moment "Freud's Own Cookbook" containing such recipes as "Mesmer
-Icing", "Braised Ox-Tongue with Asphasia Sauce", "Banana O.", and
"Erogenous Scones".  Also describes such instruments of cookery as
"Irma's Injector" (for injecting cream into pastries, much as Irma had
medicine injected into her mouth in Freud's famous dream", and
"Displacemats".  The recipes are real, but the descriptions are a grand
spoof of both Freud's writings and general cookbook chatter.

toodles, gretchen