Perfection Salad : Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century (Modern Library Food)

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Summary: Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Centu
Review: Foodies and feminists alike should read this book. As part of the Modern Food Library reprints, chosen by Ruth Reichl (who is known for her good taste and her own laudable literary contributions - "Tender at the Bone" and "Comfort Me with Apples"), "Perfection Salad" describes all the elements present at the turn of the century that combined to forever change the way Americans view food. Food, its preparation and presentation became a female obsession in an time where the kitchen was really the only arena in which a woman could rule. The female nutritionists and cooks from that era seemed bent upon exerting control on SOMETHING, and that something turned out to be food - with sometimes terrible consequences. After reading "Perfection Salad", I understood the recipes that my grandmother (born in 1898) and my mother after her learned and served. Don't be frightened by the scholarly look of "Perfection Salad" - there are hilarious nuggets in the text - like color-themed menus (everything green and white, for example), putting everything into gelatin for the sake of "daintiness" (no messy lettuce leaves hanging out of your mouth) and covering absolutely anything and everything with "white sauce". For more laughs, peruse "The Gallery of Regrettable Food" by James Lileks in which he has gathered some of the most revolting-looking photos of the consequences of "Perfection Salad".

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and scholarly read
Review: Foodies and feminists alike should read this book. As part of the Modern Food Library reprints, chosen by Ruth Reichl (who is known for her good taste and her own laudable literary contributions - "Tender at the Bone" and "Comfort Me with Apples"), "Perfection Salad" describes all the elements present at the turn of the century that combined to forever change the way Americans view food. Food, its preparation and presentation became a female obsession in an time where the kitchen was really the only arena in which a woman could rule. The female nutritionists and cooks from that era seemed bent upon exerting control on SOMETHING, and that something turned out to be food - with sometimes terrible consequences. After reading "Perfection Salad", I understood the recipes that my grandmother (born in 1898) and my mother after her learned and served. Don't be frightened by the scholarly look of "Perfection Salad" - there are hilarious nuggets in the text - like color-themed menus (everything green and white, for example), putting everything into gelatin for the sake of "daintiness" (no messy lettuce leaves hanging out of your mouth) and covering absolutely anything and everything with "white sauce". For more laughs, peruse "The Gallery of Regrettable Food" by James Lileks in which he has gathered some of the most revolting-looking photos of the consequences of "Perfection Salad".

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Summary: Food for Thought
Review: I found Perfection Salad in a used bookstore in Manhattan ten or twelve years ago. I read it, was fascinated and stirred by its tale of the psychological manipulation of women - particularly, the women who were new immigrants to America at the turn of the century. I loaned the book to someone who never returned it, and have been quoting it -- and longing to re-read it -- ever since. I have just re-ordered the "back in print" edition...Here is what is important about this book: it details an overlooked, but critical, thread in the fabric of family and community life -- a thread that was quietly pulled until the greater tapestry unraveled.

Rating:
Summary: fascinating
Review: the late 19th century movement for scientific household management is an almost unbelievable amalgam of middle-class protestant social standards and religious impulses, intellectural curiosity and discipline, political thought (compare it with leninism--everything the same for everyone all the time, and the middle class knows better than the proletariat), and naivete. while having less influence on its time than its proponents would acknowledge (even when reporting its failure), the movement led, through corporate exploitation and perversion, to many of the problems with eating, cooking, and "food production" in america today. it also led to many improvements we take completely for granted.

the author seems to be unaware that there was a comparable movement in britain. my british mother could remember horrific results from the school recipes she was forced to produce (one stew was so bad her friend's dogs refused it) and the british government published many educational pamphlets about "proper" methods of cooking, to the same indifference or resentment that met the domestic scientists' efforts.

i was a bit disappointed that the author did not pursue the links to the Transcendental Movement, though she did mention the connection with american protestentism. of course, the attitude of the 19th century cooks (and twentieth century nutritionists) has a long history: a Classical philospher (i'm too lazy to look up his name) wrote: "a man should eat to live, not live to eat" before the christian era. the author does discuss some of the social attitudes towards women and physical pleasure and how the ideal of a woman's being without appetite encouraged the domestic scientists to ignore the actual food in the cooking process.

while there is much to amuse in the domestic scientists' efforts and belief (and horrify--did anyone actually eat this way?), and while the author does acknowledge the dire state of production with reference to, for instance, the stock yards, i don't think she understands the appeal of predictable levening (how many of us want to make baking powder from wood ash?) preditable results (my british mother adored measuring cups and spoons--as a very short woman, she couldn't use the "two handsful of flour" recipes her family used and), and flour and sugar that are actually flour and sugar (the colonial housewife was warned by one contemporary author to make sure the sugar she bought in loaf form [and had to pulverize by hand] was not plaster of paris). the fact that 20th century corporations, especially after the second world war, {influended} their ideals into food which has caloric content without nutrition or taste should not detract from the real benefits the movement bestowed in its heyday.

this is an enjoyable popular history. i wish there had been more analysis of the movement's origins. the book's main strengths are its demonstration of how the movement's ideals were subsumed by industry and the analysis of the attitudes of the movement's founders.

the worst part is the description of the baked bean and celery "salad"--with dressing and whipped cream. that will live in my nightmares for years. and years.

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Summary: Ever wonder where pineapple-marshmallow salad comes from?
Review: This highly readable, beautifully researched book provides a fascinating look into American "cuisine" circa 1850-1920. The Boston Cooking School and other institutions promoted Americanization through cooking conducted on scientific principles, although immigrants proved reluctant to give up their "coarse and unsavory" meals for triumphs of digestibility such as the following, served to President Wilson on his first day in office: "cream of celery soup, fish with white sauce, roast capon with two white vegetables, a fruit salad,and a dessert made with gelatin, custard, and whipped cream"(212). Other triumphs included a salad made of bananas and pimentos bound together with mayonnaise and whipped cream and, later, grapefruit pieces mixed with dessert mints. Often funny and always interesting, this book
also helps readers to understand the convenience food mania of the 1950s.

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Summary: Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Centu
Review: While PERFECTION SALAD is certainly about food, it is also a rich cultural history of women and food. With a wonderful selection of resources, from a recipe for raisin stuffed marshmallows to a celebration of Fannie Farmer, this is a delightful and interesting treat. Introduction by Michael Stern, co-author of EAT YOUR WAY ACROSS THE U.S.A and Gourmet Magazine?s popular column "Roadfood."