For The Foodies

    

   Thanksgiving will be here soon, so here are some more resources for those who like to cook. In "Food History" you were provided with menus, recipes, books about food and libraries which had large culinary collections. Add to all of that, this article from Atlas Obscura: "4 Library Collections Filled With Culinary Treasures: They're Saving Food History For the Future," Anne Ewbank, Sept. 19, 2022. 
   The four are: 
1) University of California, Davis, Wine Library (I discussed this one in "Libraries as Cabinets of Curiosities".)
2) University of Texas at San Antonio Mexican Cookbook Collection
3) New York Public Library Jewish Cookbook Collection
4) Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive
("Last month, Janice Bluestein Longone passed away at the age of 89. Her passion for food and culinary history led her, in 1972, to launch a rare culinary books business out of her home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Food luminaries such as Julia Child and James Beard often sought her out for research help.More than 20 years ago, Longone and her husband began donating their prodigious collection to the University of Michigan. Today, the archive consists of nearly 25,000 books and other food-related items, a testament to Longone’s dedication to seeking out, sharing, and preserving culinary history.")

Cooking Resources Up At Western University

   The Archives and Special Collections in the Western Libraries has recently digitized some books and papers that contain food recipes as well as some medical ones. The History Cookery Collection offers the Crete and Emily Chadwick's Recipe Scrapbooks and a few others. Although no information is offered about either Crete or Emily, apparently they were members of the Chadwick family from Ingersoll. A finding aid to that collection is found here: The Chadwick Family Papers. 

     Check with the folks up at the Archives Collection in the D.B. Weldon Library for additional information. 

The Bonus:
   If you are cooking for a literary crowd see, "Cooking With the MLA.

Cooking With the MLA

Having recently provided you with a large number of historical sources about food, I now alert you to a new cookbook that presents "cherished recipes inspired by literature." In it one will find everything “From a soup honoring the Chinese writer Su Dongpo to Pablo Neruda–inspired Hasselback potatoes to Wilkie Collins–themed cocktails to a vegan take on Emily Dickinson’s coconut cake..." Apart from Neruda-inspired potatoes, the table-of-contents lists: "The Line by Line Martini," "The Pear-enthetical Citation," a "Word Salad," "Walt Whitman's Cranberry Sauce" and "Much Ado About Gnocchi."
Although I recently indicated that I should not be buying more books, I do have to get this one based on this description of a cheesecake which "was smooth and lush, with the personality of a warm and well-to-do uncle who knows a hundred dirty jokes and will die of sexual exertion in the arms of his mistress."

Sources:
You should begin first by viewing my very good guide to FOOD HISTORY. Be the first to do so. It also contains some literary references.
Based on the dirty uncle quote I am sure you will want to order the book and you can find it at the MLA Bookstore.
The uncle quotation is apparently from Don DeLillo's Underworld and I found it here: "Bon Appe-Lit! A New Cookbook From the Modern Language Association Celebrates the Subtle and Not-so-Subtle Links Between Literature, Food and Drink," Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, Jan. 11, 2019.

Post Script:


If you are thinking about serving madeleines and discussing Proust at your next book club meeting don't forget that the MLA publishes other guides which could serve you well - in this instance: Approaches to Teaching Proust's Fiction and Criticism.
In your eagerness to buy the recipe book, do not also purchase Fruits of the MLA by Edmund Wilson. It is an altogether different book and not about plants.