Episode 38: The History of Cookbooks with Special Guest, Anna Curran from Cookbook Create

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Let's taco 'bout it!

• Sharon had some a custard concrete at Freddy's after a long week at work (treat yo'self!), while Winter had some delicious potatoes that Lee made from this Cook's Country/America's Test Kitchen recipe. Baking soda is key as Serious Eats breaks it down!
• We're so pleased to have Anna Curran, founder of Cookbook Create, as our guest today to talk about the history of cookbooks.
• Her mother's cookbook was such an artifact and story of her own family, and she wanted to start something that recognized the relationships, the food, and connections that cookbooks can bring in this technological age.
• Anna mentions the two oldest cookbooks: one from the Mesopotamian era and one from Roman times by Apicius (4th century). There were a lot of recipes for stew!
• The New York University Fales Library has a collection of over 56,000 cookbooks.
• Pre-Industrial Revolution, people learned to cook by doing. Then the Industrial Revolution brought things such as canning and refrigeration that changed the landscape of food and cooking, as well as less time spent in the home because of work and school.
• Foods go through trends, such as dormouse and flamingo tongue in ancient Roman times to squirrel in the Joy of Cooking to the possum at the Possum Festival to turmeric today. 
• Sharon mentions a turmeric tea she makes and Golden Milk that Anna tells us about. Anna talks about the ORAC scale (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) and how turmeric is high on the list. The USDA removed this ORAC table from their website, but this scientist responded to this move. Also, here a few articles regarding turmeric in lung cancer (here, here, and here).
• With the Industrial Revolution, there was an excess of calories and diet/health cookbooks started to come on the scene. Anna had asked if things like the Atkins Diet and Tim Ferris' 4-Hour Body were new, or if they were diets that had just been changed for today's day and age. The Fales Library librarian said that they were similar to other ideas in some of the cookbooks they've seen. By the way, on Bring-Your-Own-Container-Day, you can get more than a gallon of Slurpee!
• The 20th Century brought a different set of cookbooks and reflected what was happening in the country, such as in the 1950s and women's role in the home.
• Current day cookbooks are all about how the Internet and technology are affecting how we share and connect with others and our foods as evidenced by increasing sales of the genre of cookbooks, Celebrity chefs, Pinterest, food bloggers, food Youtube-rs.
• Please go to this link for a special surprise from Cookbook Create for our listeners! Thanks again, Anna!
• During our Food Fight segment, one of our listeners Helena asked about tomato paste versus tomato sauce after listening to our episode on the pantry (episode #27). Remember to season (try oregano, smoked paprika, garlic salt, and anchovies even!) your tomato paste after you dilute it!
• #trypod! Share our podcast with your friends! We'd love it! We'll give you a high-five! :)

Run Time: 50 minutes

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2 comments Anna Curran, cookbook create, food history