It’s not often that a cookbook grabs my attention and makes me check my budget to see if I can afford to buy it. That’s not to say I don’t get excited by cookbooks penned by friends and contemporaries like Lisa Fain and Matt Arminderez. I do. I’ve bought those books and will be reviewing them soon. This book however, was not on my list of books to buy.
Now it’s on my list of books to never be without.
In fact, if I were stranded on a desert island with just three books to read, this book would be on that list. It has replaced the Betty Crocker cookbook as my main source of good, achievable recipes that, for the most part, can be made in any home kitchen. Yes, it’s that good.
Have you ever heard of Clementine Paddleford? If not, you aren’t alone but you should be ashamed.
We should all be ashamed.
Clementine Paddleford was a woman well ahead of her time. She was a food writer from the 1940′s until her death in 1969. In that time, she wrote about the food of America. Not just the America she was familiar with, but the America she had to travel to see. In her own words:
…I have traveled by train, plane, automobile, by mule back, on foot—In all over 800,00 miles.
I have ranged from the lobster posts of Maine to the vineyards of California, from the sugar shanties of Vermont to the salmon canneries in Alaska. I have collected these recipes from a wide variety of kitchens: farm kitchens, apartment kitchenettes, governors’ mansions, hamburger diners, tea rooms and from the finest restaurants with great chefs in charge. I have eaten with crews on fishing boats and enjoyed slum gullion at a Hobo Convention…
Through her fearless and often relentless travels Clementine introduced America to the cuisines and cultures of the entire nation. In a time where nobody on the East coast had heard of an enchilada, Clementine was there. In a time when Californians had never experienced a blintz or a cruller, she was there, sometimes flying thousands of miles (in her own plane) to experience the food and culture of America. [click to continue…]
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