Cookbooks Show American CultureAnyone with an interest in food, American history or the English language will find a wealth of material in American cookbooks. The first was published in 1796, starting a market that has lasted into the 21st century, when such works increasingly appear online. And this body of literature offers far more than recipes alone. Megan Elias, director of food studies at Boston University and author of Food on the Page: Cookbooks and American Culture, acknowledges that cookbooks do teach us how to prepare food. But in her view, their value extends well beyond that. They reveal, for instance, how people understood the very idea of a meal: how many meals a day they expected to eat, and what they expected those meals to contain. Cookbooks also shed light on discoveries, equipment and technology connected with cooking. Elias points out that recipes tell us which objects were needed and which were available at the time. Is the cook being asked to work over an open fire or at an electric stove? Could the dish be made in a microwave? And if a book is full of recipes for preserved foods such as pickles, she says, you can be fairly sure you are looking at a time before refrigeration. According to Amy Bentley, a food historian at New York University, cookbooks of the 1800s served as guides to lifestyle and household management. Recipes for food appeared in them, but they were not the books' main concern. Alongside instructions for dishes, readers might find a recipe for a cleaning solvent, advice on what to do if a child had been poisoned, or tips on cleaning and getting stains out. The first cookbook published in the United States, American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, set out with a purpose beyond cooking: Simmons wrote that she hoped to improve the new generation of American women. In the years following the Civil War, Elias notes, cookbooks grew more diverse, as writers began to explore local foods and customs. Southern cookbooks in particular, she argues, tried to present an idealized picture of the old South, one that would help heal the wounds of the war rather than confront the problems that had caused it in the first place. Some communities, meanwhile, compiled group cookbooks to raise money. These collections offer a window onto what the American middle class was eating over the years, and they serve as a record of the traditions and interests of different neighborhoods and groups. Over time, cookbooks have tracked humanity's growing knowledge, as well as its trends and innovations. Toward the end of the 19th century, for example, many recipes were shaped by an awareness of the dangers of bacteria in food. Then, in the 1930s, refrigerators became commonplace in American homes. As the threat of bacterial infection from food fell, cooks were quick to adapt, and new recipes and new cookbooks followed. Nevertheless, cookbooks are far from a complete reflection of American life. As Elias explains, their content has largely been controlled by publishing companies, whose chief aim is to profit from book sales. In her words, the publishing world does not necessarily set out to represent the truth of the Americans who made the dishes; its books tend to reflect an upper-middle-class, white, Northeastern point of view. In the 21st century, however, the rise of social media and food websites has loosened publishers' grip. These new ways of sharing recipes have opened up the conversation about food and cooking, giving the public greater choice and more power. Elias welcomes this development. The comments on food blogs and recipe sites, she says, show what people are actually cooking, what they think of the way they cook, and how they have come to see themselves as experts. Even so, printed cookbooks remain highly desirable, Bentley says. Because they are seen as neutral, they make excellent and very popular gifts, and, in her words, everyone loves a cookbook, especially one with beautiful pages.
