Tell me what you cook, and I will tell you what you are.
November 20, 2024 4:57 PM Subscribe
"When we initially reached out to scores of chefs, recipe writers, historians, and food luminaries for nominations for their most important American recipes of the past 100 years—Which written recipes were the most influential, pivotal, or transformative for American home cooking between 1924 and 2024?—we expected strong opinions, but we didn’t anticipate the philosophical quandaries that adjudicating and assembling them would bring up."
The 25 Most Important Recipes of the Past 100 Years, from Dan Kois and J. Bryan Lowder at Slate.
"After all, what or who confers 'importance'? Our experts do, for one thing. But we also determined it had to do with reach and scale, with the sense that a recipe represented a clear shift in some aspect of home cooking for some significant number of Americans. 'American cooking'? Rightly and necessarily a sprawling thing made by immigrants, shaped by the push and pull of assimilation, separatism, and syncretism, utterly dependent on the open migration of flavors and ideas. Last, what even is a 'recipe'? There are many excellent dishes from the past century that, upon examination, are innovations rather than discrete entities recorded for replication in the kitchen. Roasted Brussels sprouts, fajitas, chili crisp, and Spam musubi were all nominated and ultimately dismissed for this reason."
Part of a new set of articles, also titled The 25 Most Important Recipes of the Past 100 Years
The 25 Most Important Recipes of the Past 100 Years, from Dan Kois and J. Bryan Lowder at Slate.
"After all, what or who confers 'importance'? Our experts do, for one thing. But we also determined it had to do with reach and scale, with the sense that a recipe represented a clear shift in some aspect of home cooking for some significant number of Americans. 'American cooking'? Rightly and necessarily a sprawling thing made by immigrants, shaped by the push and pull of assimilation, separatism, and syncretism, utterly dependent on the open migration of flavors and ideas. Last, what even is a 'recipe'? There are many excellent dishes from the past century that, upon examination, are innovations rather than discrete entities recorded for replication in the kitchen. Roasted Brussels sprouts, fajitas, chili crisp, and Spam musubi were all nominated and ultimately dismissed for this reason."
Part of a new set of articles, also titled The 25 Most Important Recipes of the Past 100 Years
I enjoyed every part of reading this, and am going to try that Chicken Marbella recipe out of curiosity. I wish they had included (as a primary recommendation, not a loving also-ran) a Samin Nosrat recipe--I really think Salt Fat Acid Heat is that important, and it could replace the green pea guac thing is more a notable internet moment than a recipe moment.
posted by verbyournouns at 5:23 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
posted by verbyournouns at 5:23 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
That is a great list, but anyone who has seen the movie Dick knows that Hello Dolly bars are one of the most important American recipes ever.
posted by TedW at 5:56 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
posted by TedW at 5:56 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
Wow, this is an awesome article. I'm really enjoy the many individuals mentioned, the discussion of all the different cookbooks and how they came to be, the journeys people took in their culinary careers - all of it.
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the set. This installment was fun and inspiring.
Thank you so much for posting this, Frayed Knot!
posted by kristi at 6:31 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
I am looking forward to reading the rest of the set. This installment was fun and inspiring.
Thank you so much for posting this, Frayed Knot!
posted by kristi at 6:31 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
I just came here to post this, but couldn't find a way to frame it that wasn't rage-baiting. Caesar salad, Tollhouse cookies, green bean casserole, SURE. But I'm sorry BISCUITS with a date of 1976????? And NOBODY gives a shit about that goddamn green pea guacamole, it was a flash in the pan of outrage but hasn't changed anyone's guacamole ever at all, except maybe to give folks a little more pride in their guacamole that they don't put peas in.
posted by Grandysaur at 6:32 PM on November 20 [17 favorites]
posted by Grandysaur at 6:32 PM on November 20 [17 favorites]
Okay I RTFA and I do agree the focus on popularization of the recipes as country-wide staples is pretty cool -- like yes, people have been making enchiladas in this country for a long time, but your Boomer Aunt Dorothy probably wasn't until the cookbooks made them available to the masses. FINE. BUT THE PEA GUACAMOLE COMMENT STILL STANDS!
posted by Grandysaur at 6:40 PM on November 20 [3 favorites]
posted by Grandysaur at 6:40 PM on November 20 [3 favorites]
I'm surprised this glorious dish wasn't mentioned
posted by bluefrog at 6:52 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
posted by bluefrog at 6:52 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
LIKE THEY WERE MAKING BISCUITS AND PANCAKES IN LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE! Sorry, still a bit outraged.
posted by Grandysaur at 6:55 PM on November 20 [8 favorites]
posted by Grandysaur at 6:55 PM on November 20 [8 favorites]
Tell me what you cook, and I will tell you what you are.
If memory serves me correctly, a yellow bell pepper, bitten into like an apple.
posted by zamboni at 7:40 PM on November 20 [10 favorites]
If memory serves me correctly, a yellow bell pepper, bitten into like an apple.
posted by zamboni at 7:40 PM on November 20 [10 favorites]
>that goddamn green pea guacamole (...) was a flash in the pan of outrage
I think that's the point, Grandysaur; they're using it as a marker of an early controversy about cultural appropriation driven by twitterati (notably satirized in this SLYT skit). There may be earlier examples of this kind of backlash, but I think the authors' point is that this is a turning point in the discourse around food, rather than the guac itself being interesting on a culinary level.
posted by choom at 7:52 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
I think that's the point, Grandysaur; they're using it as a marker of an early controversy about cultural appropriation driven by twitterati (notably satirized in this SLYT skit). There may be earlier examples of this kind of backlash, but I think the authors' point is that this is a turning point in the discourse around food, rather than the guac itself being interesting on a culinary level.
posted by choom at 7:52 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
I think they were right to include the abominable pea guacamole. It was a legit cultural moment.
Also I have had Chicken Marbella and it is tasty. Make it!
posted by janell at 7:54 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
Also I have had Chicken Marbella and it is tasty. Make it!
posted by janell at 7:54 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
The bit about the Last Word cocktail is as strange as its choice.
posted by slkinsey at 8:50 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
posted by slkinsey at 8:50 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
Thrilled to see the Roberto soup listed here. I normally don't get too enthused about canned tomatoes and beans in combination, but it really is an incredible soup. Just tonight, actually, I finished the last serving from the freezer that I made in this batch.
Its versatility is matched only by its ability to put many servings of vegetables into a bowl that is neither cold nor crunchy (disqualifying traits, this time of year).
posted by mediterranean spurge at 9:34 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
Its versatility is matched only by its ability to put many servings of vegetables into a bowl that is neither cold nor crunchy (disqualifying traits, this time of year).
posted by mediterranean spurge at 9:34 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]
Biscuitgate has caused me to go back over the posted article for a definition of terms. Is there something about the American biscuit -- flour, lard, baking powder -- that was transformative in 1924 or after? Which raises the question: "Why am I so bothered by a silly list of the sort that always bothers me?"
BTW, I think some soul food should be on that list (chicken and waffles isn't really what I'm talking about) because it really was an integral part of a momentous cultural/political transformation for Black America.
posted by CCBC at 11:17 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
BTW, I think some soul food should be on that list (chicken and waffles isn't really what I'm talking about) because it really was an integral part of a momentous cultural/political transformation for Black America.
posted by CCBC at 11:17 PM on November 20 [5 favorites]
I don't think it's that weird to see the last word on the list. It represents the modern cocktail movement really well. It's a 'lost' cocktail, but one that wasn't that common from the early 20th century. So it is a rediscovery, which a lot of the the cocktail renaissance was referencing, but in a lot of ways it's popularity was a modern phenomenon. It represents the blending the idea of the past with the actual excitement of a modern movement, plus it was the foundation for so many variations. It feels pretty perfect to me.
posted by Carillon at 12:07 AM on November 21 [1 favorite]
posted by Carillon at 12:07 AM on November 21 [1 favorite]
Oh man, this is such a fantastic article. The whole thing took me a couple of hours to read (clicking away to read the original recipes too), and I hope you'll give it the same consideration.
The title is The 25 Most Important Recipes -- not Foods! It's about the last century's history of cookery in America, really, just arranged with the gimmick of tying each development to a notable recipe from a particular cookbook at a significant time.
So if you look up the infamous Biscuits, you'll see it's not claiming that biscuits were invented in 1976. Edna Lewis's recipe for biscuits, from her 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, is important for presenting African-American southern country grandma cooking as an authentic cuisine -- one that deserves the same respect as, for instance, the rustic Provençal village meals in Richard Olney's Simple French Food.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:45 AM on November 21 [21 favorites]
The title is The 25 Most Important Recipes -- not Foods! It's about the last century's history of cookery in America, really, just arranged with the gimmick of tying each development to a notable recipe from a particular cookbook at a significant time.
So if you look up the infamous Biscuits, you'll see it's not claiming that biscuits were invented in 1976. Edna Lewis's recipe for biscuits, from her 1976 cookbook The Taste of Country Cooking, is important for presenting African-American southern country grandma cooking as an authentic cuisine -- one that deserves the same respect as, for instance, the rustic Provençal village meals in Richard Olney's Simple French Food.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:45 AM on November 21 [21 favorites]
Great post! The authors allude to, but omit to mention, Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America The Joy of Cooking by Anne Mendelson, which is an absolute gem of American social history. (“Stand facing the stove” is an apocryphal Lesson One for the novice cook, referenced in the 1975 edition.)
posted by scratch at 3:23 AM on November 21 [5 favorites]
posted by scratch at 3:23 AM on November 21 [5 favorites]
I really think Salt Fat Acid Heat is that important
I'm reading it a few pages at a time at the kitchen table every day, to give myself the best chance of remembering every single lesson and tip. Her buttermilk-marinated roast chicken is a revelation. I combine it with spatchcocking the bird and it's just the best.
posted by rory at 4:11 AM on November 21 [3 favorites]
I'm reading it a few pages at a time at the kitchen table every day, to give myself the best chance of remembering every single lesson and tip. Her buttermilk-marinated roast chicken is a revelation. I combine it with spatchcocking the bird and it's just the best.
posted by rory at 4:11 AM on November 21 [3 favorites]
I really think Salt Fat Acid Heat is that important
It’s a good cookbook/show, and may be important for you, but I don’t believe it’s a cultural watershed for US home cooking, or emblematic of larger cultural changes around food. Happy to be convinced otherwise, though.
posted by zamboni at 5:15 AM on November 21 [1 favorite]
It’s a good cookbook/show, and may be important for you, but I don’t believe it’s a cultural watershed for US home cooking, or emblematic of larger cultural changes around food. Happy to be convinced otherwise, though.
posted by zamboni at 5:15 AM on November 21 [1 favorite]
Please, please, please don't call it "guac."
My toes contract and my stomach turns when people say that for some reason. Is guacamole really that difficult or time-consuming to say?
(huge pet peeve of mine)
posted by SoberHighland at 5:44 AM on November 21 [3 favorites]
My toes contract and my stomach turns when people say that for some reason. Is guacamole really that difficult or time-consuming to say?
(huge pet peeve of mine)
posted by SoberHighland at 5:44 AM on November 21 [3 favorites]
De guacibus non est disputandum.
posted by zamboni at 5:52 AM on November 21 [13 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 5:52 AM on November 21 [13 favorites]
The article is really good, I think the framing of most important written recipes is creative and interesting.
Seconding the guac thing. It is lazy, sounds like someone is gagging, and misses the thousand of years of fun that through rhyming word play gives ahuacamolli the meanings sauce from the fruit that is neither sweet or sour and tree testicle sauce.
If you want to add something new to guacamole, don’t use a legume, use a tree nut!
posted by Dr. Curare at 7:46 AM on November 21 [4 favorites]
Seconding the guac thing. It is lazy, sounds like someone is gagging, and misses the thousand of years of fun that through rhyming word play gives ahuacamolli the meanings sauce from the fruit that is neither sweet or sour and tree testicle sauce.
If you want to add something new to guacamole, don’t use a legume, use a tree nut!
posted by Dr. Curare at 7:46 AM on November 21 [4 favorites]
Thank you for posting this lovingly researched and written article. Some thoughts...
- I was a little stunned that I'd never heard of "How to Cook and Eat in Chinese," since my first non-dessert cooking adventures in high school all involved Chinese recipes. I doubt that I ever put anything like an authentic stir-fry on the table, but it was fun trying.
- The books Madhur Jaffrey published in the nineties on "easy Indian cooking" were favorites of mine for a long time. Had I not had to get rid of a lot of books due to an international move, I'd probably still have them.
- A "Mexican chocolate cake" recipe from our family's copy of the Sacred Heart Church cookbook (Bath, Pennsylvania) can bring on Anton Ego / Proustian moments for me just thinking about it. Light fluffy cinnamon-redolent crumb, candy-fudgy icing.
the thousand of years of fun that through rhyming word play gives ahuacamolli the meanings sauce from the fruit that is neither sweet or sour and tree testicle sauce
Citation needed. I think at least one of your derivations may be backwards.
posted by zamboni at 8:27 AM on November 21 [1 favorite]
Citation needed. I think at least one of your derivations may be backwards.
posted by zamboni at 8:27 AM on November 21 [1 favorite]
Does anyone out there do a B Dylan Hollis version for savory recipes - trolling through the past of community cookbooks to pull out forgotten/unknown dishes. (Not necessarily tied to history ala Max Miller, long may he find new topics to explore)
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:01 AM on November 21
posted by drewbage1847 at 9:01 AM on November 21
In the related articles, the one about cooking all 25 for a family over a month was pretty funny.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:53 AM on November 21 [4 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:53 AM on November 21 [4 favorites]
Please, please, please don't call it "guac."
C'mon, take a guac on the guild side!
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:25 PM on November 21 [4 favorites]
C'mon, take a guac on the guild side!
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:25 PM on November 21 [4 favorites]
Citation needed. I think at least one of your derivations may be backwards.
You may be right, I remember this from a college class discussing loan words and influence between Nahuatl, Otomi, and Totonaco among other languages.
posted by Dr. Curare at 12:30 PM on November 21 [3 favorites]
You may be right, I remember this from a college class discussing loan words and influence between Nahuatl, Otomi, and Totonaco among other languages.
posted by Dr. Curare at 12:30 PM on November 21 [3 favorites]
I took the time to attack the Gochujang Caramel Cookies recipe earlier today and it's really in need of some tweaking.
As written, the cookies end up being very chewy, very flat, and more than a little oily (with stain-prone Gochujang oil, no less). The flavor is terrific blend of sweet and spicy, but the core cookie itself really needs some iteration before it gets committed to any cookbooks.
posted by neuracnu at 2:40 PM on November 21 [3 favorites]
As written, the cookies end up being very chewy, very flat, and more than a little oily (with stain-prone Gochujang oil, no less). The flavor is terrific blend of sweet and spicy, but the core cookie itself really needs some iteration before it gets committed to any cookbooks.
posted by neuracnu at 2:40 PM on November 21 [3 favorites]
It’s a good cookbook/show, and may be important for you, but I don’t believe it’s a cultural watershed for US home cooking, or emblematic of larger cultural changes around food.
I think that's totally fair; my sense from other folks who love the book is that it was BIG for people it was big for (myself included), but that doesn't mean it was big culturally. Damn it's a good book though.
posted by verbyournouns at 2:54 PM on November 21 [1 favorite]
I think that's totally fair; my sense from other folks who love the book is that it was BIG for people it was big for (myself included), but that doesn't mean it was big culturally. Damn it's a good book though.
posted by verbyournouns at 2:54 PM on November 21 [1 favorite]
Don't ever put peas in guacamole.
posted by mike3k at 3:03 PM on November 21 [2 favorites]
posted by mike3k at 3:03 PM on November 21 [2 favorites]
Does anyone out there do a B Dylan Hollis version for savory recipes - trolling through the past of community cookbooks to pull out forgotten/unknown dishes.
May not be exactly what you're looking for, but I enjoy Townsends YT channel quite a bit.
posted by xedrik at 6:21 AM on November 22
May not be exactly what you're looking for, but I enjoy Townsends YT channel quite a bit.
posted by xedrik at 6:21 AM on November 22
the thousand of years of fun that through rhyming word play gives ahuacamolli the meanings sauce from the fruit that is neither sweet or sour and tree testicle sauce
Citation needed. I think at least one of your derivations may be backwards.
So ok, a lot of Mesoamerican languages have a word for "avocado" that can also mean "testicle." But "avocado" is the primary meaning, and using it for testicles is a euphemism — the same way "nuts" is a euphemism in English. Apparently in Nahuatl (where "guacamole" comes from) the "testicle" meaning is also pretty rare. Here's more details from a linguist who studies this stuff.
posted by Birds, snakes, and aeroplanes at 1:46 PM on November 22 [5 favorites]
Citation needed. I think at least one of your derivations may be backwards.
So ok, a lot of Mesoamerican languages have a word for "avocado" that can also mean "testicle." But "avocado" is the primary meaning, and using it for testicles is a euphemism — the same way "nuts" is a euphemism in English. Apparently in Nahuatl (where "guacamole" comes from) the "testicle" meaning is also pretty rare. Here's more details from a linguist who studies this stuff.
posted by Birds, snakes, and aeroplanes at 1:46 PM on November 22 [5 favorites]
Mod note: [Thanks, Frayed Knot ! We've added this tasty tidbit to the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 4:50 AM on November 25
posted by taz (staff) at 4:50 AM on November 25
I took the time to attack the Gochujang Caramel Cookies recipe earlier today and it's really in need of some tweaking.
As written, the cookies end up being very chewy, very flat, and more than a little oily...
I'm going to try making those, too, having just learned about them through the article. Thousands of 5-star reviews suggest that they're working well for lots of people. In the Eric Kim video, they've got a beautifully crackled top, unlike some of the flatter photos I see around, which do look like they could be oily. I wonder if part of it is what brand of gochujang is used, or how much it's blended in. I tried to find Kim's brand suggestion, without success. The jar is in the video, but never showing much of the label. I did see that Kim posted at least one Instagram update about no longer swirling in the gochujang, but I don't have an Insta account, so I can't see all of what it says. Can anyone post it here, or identify the gochujang brand in his video?
posted by daisyace at 9:39 AM on November 25
As written, the cookies end up being very chewy, very flat, and more than a little oily...
I'm going to try making those, too, having just learned about them through the article. Thousands of 5-star reviews suggest that they're working well for lots of people. In the Eric Kim video, they've got a beautifully crackled top, unlike some of the flatter photos I see around, which do look like they could be oily. I wonder if part of it is what brand of gochujang is used, or how much it's blended in. I tried to find Kim's brand suggestion, without success. The jar is in the video, but never showing much of the label. I did see that Kim posted at least one Instagram update about no longer swirling in the gochujang, but I don't have an Insta account, so I can't see all of what it says. Can anyone post it here, or identify the gochujang brand in his video?
posted by daisyace at 9:39 AM on November 25
Ok, I've done the detective work I requested above. The insta post is visible on desktop without signing in, just not on mobile. It says to dollop room-temp gochujang mixture on refrigerated dough and then scoop cookies that each have some of each, without swirling first. Zooming in the still at :55 in the video, I think it's Mother in Law's gochujang.
posted by daisyace at 10:19 AM on November 25
posted by daisyace at 10:19 AM on November 25
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posted by sammyo at 5:22 PM on November 20 [4 favorites]