Hungering for America or US History Cookbook

Hungering for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of Migration

Author: Hasia R Diner

Millions of immigrants were drawn to American shores, not by the mythic streets paved with gold, but rather by its tables heaped with food. How they experienced the realities of America's abundant food--its meat and white bread, its butter and cheese, fruits and vegetables, coffee and beer--reflected their earlier deprivations and shaped their ethnic practices in the new land.

Hungering for America tells the stories of three distinctive groups and their unique culinary dramas. Italian immigrants transformed the food of their upper classes and of sacred days into a generic "Italian" food that inspired community pride and cohesion. Irish immigrants, in contrast, loath to mimic the foodways of the Protestant British elite, diminished food as a marker of ethnicity. And, East European Jews, who venerated food as the vital center around which family and religious practice gathered, found that dietary restrictions jarred with America's boundless choices.

These tales, of immigrants in their old worlds and in the new, demonstrate the role of hunger in driving migration and the significance of food in cementing ethnic identity and community. Hasia Diner confirms the well-worn adage, "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are."

Publishers Weekly

In this fascinating survey of the eating habits and influences of Jewish, Italian and Irish immigrants, Diner, a professor of American Jewish history at New York University, charts with wit and graceful prose the similarities and differences between these three distinct groups as they encountered mainstream American culture. Italian immigrants, fleeing poverty and a rigid, class-based economic system, found in America the ability to take "possession of elite food associated with the well-off" and to forge a new collective ethnic identity; in doing so they introduced Italian cuisine to America and created lucrative culinary business opportunities. The Irish, fleeing famine, did not possess a complex "national food culture" because they came from a place "where hunger... defined identity." But many Irish women became cooks and servants (and incidentally, were always called "Biddy"), and thereby entered domestic American life and became familiar with its bourgeois foods and customs. Eastern European Jews "lived in a world where food was sacred for all," as well as tightly controlled by religious law. Like Italians, Jews made their food a public statement of identity, and the availability of nonkosher foods in the U.S. exacerbated conflicts between traditional and assimilationist factions. Diner deftly juggles a huge amount of detail and analysis drawing upon memoirs, cookbooks, newspaper accounts, films and studies of consumer culture and provides both political and social insights in a highly accessible social history. (Jan.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
1	Ways of Eating, Ways of Starving	1
2	Black Bread, Hard Bread: Food, Class, and Hunger in Italy	21
3	"The Bread Is Soft": Italian Foodways, American Abundance	48
4	"Outcast from Life's Feast": Food and Hunger in Ireland	84
5	The Sounds of Silence: Irish Food in America	113
6	A Set Table: Jewish Food and Class in Eastern Europe	146
7	Food Fights: Immigrant Jews and the Lure of America	178
8	Where There Is Bread, There Is My Country	220
	Notes	233
	Index	285

Go to: Desperation Entertaining or Pig Perfect

U.S. History Cookbook: Delicious Recipes and Exciting Events from the Past

Author: Joan DAmico

Serve up a heaping lesson of history with delicious recipes from our nation’s past–– from the pilgrims’ first feast to today’s high-tech, low-fat fare

Who knew history could be so delicious? In The U.S. History Cookbook, you’ll discover how Americans have lived and dined over the centuries. This scrumptious survey of periods and events in U.S. history mixes together a delectable batter of food timelines, kid-friendly recipes, and fun food facts throughout each chapter, including such fascinating tidbits as: Sunday was baked bean day in many colonial family homes; pioneers took advantage of the rough trails to churn milk into butter; the Girl Scouts first started selling cookies in the 1930s to save money for summer camp; and so much more!

Kids will have a great time learning about the past while they cook up easy and yummy recipes, including:

• Cornmeal Blueberry Mush, a favorite dish of the Native Americans of the Northeast
• King Cake, the traditional cake served at the Mardi Gras Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana
• Amazing Country Scrambled Eggs, an essential part of any hearty pioneer breakfast
• Cocoanut Pudding, a favorite dessert of travelers riding the transcontinental railroad in the 1870s
• Baked Macaroni ’N’ Cheese, a popular and inexpensive dish enjoyed during the Depression

The U.S. History Cookbook also includes information on cooking tools and skills, with important rules for kitchen safety and clean up.

Danielle Williams - Children's Literature

This is the best cookbook I have ever come across. D'Amico and Drummond combine tasty recipes with fun facts about American history. A brief look at the political environment during the time period is followed by several recipes that illustrate how people ate during the time period presented. The first Thanksgiving includes such recipes as Golden Harvest Pumpkin Bread and Traditional Cranberry Sauce, while the "Fabulous Fifties Food" includes recipes for Make-Your-Own TV Dinners and vegetable dip. Time periods are presented in turn and include Colonial Fare, Plantation Life, The Ravenous Roaring Twenties, as well as many others. Amusing illustrations accompany each time period as well as showcasing some of the tools and procedures used during the cooking process. The authors have included "Tools of the Trade," cooking procedures and safety measures in the front of the book; included in the back are an index, a glossary, and a food and cooking timeline. 2003, John Wiley & Sons,