an open cupboard

Living out here across the pond, it’s easy to forget that the BBC has some really good radio shows. Not that I’ve ever lived on that particular side of the pond. Geeky girl that I am, I have heard some of the old Hitchhiker radio shows so I’m aware of the gems aired on BBC radio. I don’t remember how I found it, but there’s a really nice little food program on BBC 4 that you can catch on the web.

This week’s show is about the history of chutneys, pickles, and relishes. Journalist Sheila Dillon interviews a food historian, a pickle producer, chefs, and growers, while reporter Mark Holdstock talks to the managing director of Henderson Relish factory in Sheffield. The best part is listening to the pickle bubble as pickle maker Maya Pieris stirs the pot and offers Dillon a taste. Similarly, the Henderson factory is vivid with the sound of mechanical movement and steam. You can browse through the archive of previous shows, including one on Romany food and another on Iran.

Listening to the history of English condiments reminded me of my predilection for old recipes. One of the great wonders of human cookery (that’s humans cooking, not cooking humans) is “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things” (back to Douglas Adams). Traditional foods from disparate areas often have so much in common, sometimes even traceable to a common source. The key to finding these interesting connections is by looking at the history of these foods. Old cookbooks show us how we used to cook, and illuminate the origins of the way we cook today. Old cookbooks can be an adventure for the modern, sometimes jaded, palate. Many chefs, in fact, turn to historical recipes for inspiration.

Old recipes can inspire home cooks too, particularly during the holiday season. Some web searching returned some new and old favorites:

• Fannie Farmer Cookbook: A Bostonian classic, this particular version was published in 1918.
• Feeding America: A site one could easily browse for hours, this work in progress is a collection of historic American cookbooks. Entries include a description of the work with links to a few salient recipes, as well as the full text of the cookbook in HTML and PDF formats. Also fun to look at is a browseable gallery of historic kitchen utensils. My favorite is the bain marie, which is—quite literally—a bain.
• Gode Cookery: A collection of Chaucerian, Medieval, and Renaissance recipes with modern measurements.
• Medieval and Renaissance Food: A hefty collection of links to old cookbooks and individual recipes.
• Historical Culinary and Brewing Documents: A collection of links to old cookbooks in various languages.
• The Food Timeline: This site presents the history of food as a timeline starting from around 17,000 BC up to the current year. Foods are listed according to their appearance in history with links to both internal and external articles. The FAQ has some good links as well.
• Foods of Jerusalem: Short articles and recipes on food in the ancient Middle East during various periods.
• Oded Schwartz: In the same vein, check out Oded Schwartz’s astute articles on topics such as olives, dairy products, and the foods of the Bible.

Today I read that the Wednesday Chef has been exhausted by NaBloPoMo. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one! You’d think I’d have more time to post, having been sick at home. But, well, not really. I’ve been busy trying to get some work done while not moving around too much and taking lots of Yin Chao, all while feeling like I’m drunk and hungover at the same time. I imagine if I had a TV, I’d never get anything done at all. Thank the gods for small blessings.

I’m a bit scatter-brained today, so I’ll write a brief sort of stream of consciousness list of food and foodblog related thoughts that have passed through my mind today:

• Floyd‘s foodblog kicks arse. I loved him on TV, and I continue to love him online. If you haven’t already, do check him out.
• Thanksgiving! Would you believe I’ve been slowly planning it out since last month? I added a lovely looking salad from Leite’s Culinaria to my tentative menu list. I am determined to prepare Thanksgiving dinner at a leisurely pace, leaving enough time to make every dish while still eating at a fairly reasonable hour. Wonder if it’ll actually work out?
• In this photo of Rachel Ray, the guy she’s cooking with is clearly staring at her boobs. This is why some food professionals get on TV faster than others.
• Cranberry sauce to be prepared and preserved this weekend. Stay tuned.
• Are there cooking shows on YouTube? Are they any good?
• Thinking of interesting topics to post about on a daily basis is challenging. Are there any specific topics you’d like me to write about?
• I read a little about photography today, something I know very little about. Apparently there’s this thing called white balance and also exposure. Apparently I should be concerned about them. Note to self: read about white balance and exposure, then fiddle with camera.
• If humankind is so advanced in the later Star Trek series such as Voyager, why do they eat replicated food? How 1950’s of them.
• Sumac is a fun, underused spice. I’ve got a huge jar of it that I often forget about. Tonight, I sprinkled sumac on some dinosaur kale cooked with apples in butter and olive oil. Yes, I know, apples and greens have been done to death. But sumac, that’s interesting. Mmmm, sumac and chicken. There’s a lovely Arab dish of chicken and sumac baked on a large round of flatbread in a wood-burning clay oven. It’s heavenly.

That’s about it for tonight, folks. Seriously, do leave your ideas for topics in the comments section. A demain!

P.S. Do click on the NaBloPoMo randomizer button on the left-hand sidebar. It will introduce you to some nifty, random sites that are participating in NaBloPoMo. Many tips o’ the hat to pink elephants for developing it!

Have you ever missed something that may never have existed? I sometimes feel like I’m living in the wrong place, maybe the wrong time. I feel like things were better once, but I can’t remember when that was.

A recently e-mailed me a music video by Arik Einstein, a noted Israeli musician whose music was popular in the sixties and seventies. He continues to make music today, and this video spans his career in a way. In it, you can see modern Tel Aviv contrasted with its black and white images from the days when Arik was a young musician. His younger, cartoon self wanders around the city, which morphs from old to new in his wake. Einstein sings about life as it was back then, but insists that he’s isn’t quite nostalgic, just enjoying his memories. In the end, he meets his younger self, an ephemeral cartoon image, monochromatic and stuck in the past along with yesterday’s Tel Aviv.

Here’s the video, along with my rough translation of the lyrics.

not quite nostalgia

“Eden” Cinema, Eddie Cantor,
Something funny with Roman soldiers.
Menahem Mendel, Aleppo Pistachio [film character],
Skies strewn with a million stars.

The cabin of “the Tent,” the scent of the sea,
A lone sail blanches on the horizon.
Amiram field, the sand is so hot,
“The deer,” Emil, Eyal, and Ofer.

It isn’t quite nostalgia,
It’s just kinda nice to reminisce.
I’d rather not analyze the reasons,
It comes and goes fleetingly.

Shimshon’s club [a local football league], David Ben-Gurion,
Sprinting on Kakal Boulevard.
Shmulik solves a riddle on the radio,
And the crimson thread is always LaSalle street.

It isn’t quite nostalgia,
It’s just kinda nice to reminisce.
I’d rather not analyze the reasons,
It comes and goes fleetingly.

Marlene Dietrich, Lily, legs,
Frank Sinatra now and forever.
Marcello Mastroianni, Edison Jerusalem [old movie theater],
Burt Lancaster, everyone’s hero.

It isn’t quite nostalgia,
It’s just kinda nice to reminisce.
I’d rather not analyze the reasons,
It comes and goes fleetingly.