Emily Dickinson - Master Baker

It's true. Make some of her coconut cake for yourself.

Cookbook Revolution

Cookbooks are making their way to iPads and e-readers. Will they be used?

From a story in the Chicago Tribune...

"I think the future of a lot of cooking information is electronic, but we don't know how it's going to shake out yet," says Molly O'Neill, whose latest cookbook, "This American Burger: The Meat, The Heat and the Recipes" was published solely as an e-book.

"It's sort of like the days when audio came to film. People tried to take what worked onstage and use it in film, and it didn't work. The demands of the media are very different."

Until recently, cookbooks had been challenging to publish electronically, says Mike Shatzkin, a publishing consultant. E-book software is good at reproducing pages of text, but it hasn't been able to handle elaborately designed layouts that integrate mouthwatering photographs — elements that are the core of most modern cookbooks. That's changing, particularly for iPad and Nook.

More flexibility in design is part of the reason "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" is now being published as an e-book, says Paul Bogaards, publicist for Knopf Doubleday.

Best Chef Cookbooks of All Time

The list, care of Bon Appetit.

Cookbooks as Literature

The Awl discusses it, by way of Alexandre Dumas.

From the piece...

Alexandre Dumas père was a terrible and a wonderful man. He fought in wars, hunted, traveled the globe, owned a theatre, dabbled in politics and revolutions here and there, and was bankrupted a few times after spending fortune after fortune on women and high living. And he wrote, and wrote, and wrote, in jail or out of it. With the aid of a number of assistants he was able to turn out over 600 books before the end. He was magnificently ugly, and, apparently, irresistible. Which actually, I don't doubt that for a minute.

Dumas was also a dedicated cook and the author of a fine book on gastronomy, the enormous Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine. (That link takes you to the 1873 first edition, which is in French; I can recommend the 1958 English translation and abridgement by Louis Colman, a gentle and sensitive prose stylist who is also possessed of the requisite salacious edge.)

After emerging from under a series of crushing debts, Dumas set out to write this book "as a diversion" in the late 1860s. But then he got really into it, and wound up taking many months over the research and writing. In the dedication of the book to the novelist and critic, Jules Janin, he described his thorny legal troubles, and concluded: "In my contract with Michel Lévy, I had retained the right to write a cookery book and to sell it to whomever I pleased."

Can a Great Chef's Cookbook Make You a Great Chef?

Sort of.

From a piece on Slate...

Both Waxman's and Silverton's books provide reminders of why, even for the most skilled home cooks, restaurants can't really be beat: Their kitchens are equipped in inimitable ways. In his roast chicken recipe, Waxman glancingly acknowledges that he's suggesting the best alternative to Barbuto's wood-burning oven, which can reach temperatures above 700 degrees. Likewise, Silverton can't guide you to a pie precisely like those at Pizzeria Mozza, where she, too, avails herself of an intense heat home cooks wouldn't—and can't—broach.

I made the chicken in Italian, My Way, which cooks for 35 minutes at 450 degrees. I cheated. Waxman called for a sizzle platter, the metal plate chefs use to keep food hot. I chose a glass baking dish. He wanted me to cut up a whole chicken. I knew having a butcher quarter it for me would be a prudent insurance policy against the kind of injury I court whenever I do knife work. His recipe was sturdy enough to accommodate such tinkering. The bird came through tender and moist.

And if the skin wasn't Barbuto-crisp, well, the salsa verde Waxman often serves at his restaurant compensated. In Italian, My Way, he recommends a mortar and pestle; after a few messy minutes, I resorted to a food processor. The results might have been a little too pesto-smooth, but the anchovy, caper and herb flavors were all there, and wonderful.

The Popeye Cookbook

It's coming.



From a piece in Paste...



He’s the sailor who is synonymous with anchor tattoos, a corn-cob pipe and bulging biceps. But perhaps Popeye’s greatest legacy was making eating spinach cool again — a trait that influenced London-based publishing house SelfMadeHero to create a cookbook based on the Sailor Man’s favorite food.



The Popeye Cookbook, which comes out this fall, promises 150 recipes that are “healthy takes on some All-American classics, moreish snacks, vegetarian dinners, special smoothies and seaside suppers,” according to SelfMadeHero.



The cookbook will also feature original color illustrations and cartoon strips alongside each recipe with easy-to-follow instructions.

The Ultimate Hitch Cookbook

Hitch from Pascal Monaco on Vimeo.