Portland Public Library

Food, a cultural culinary history, Ken Albala

eng

Accompanying course guidebook includes bibliographical references (pages 261-290)

videorecording

Food

844350366

Ken Albala

http://bibfra.me/vocab/marc/unknown

The great courses. Better living. Food & wine

a cultural culinary history

"This course explores the history of how humans have produced, cooked, and consumed food - from the earliest hunting-and-gathering societies to the present. This course examines how civilizations and their foodways have been shaped by geography, native flora and fauna, and technological innovations. The scope of this course is global, covering civilizations of Asia, America, Africa, and Europe and how cultures in each of these continents domesticated unique staples that literally enabled these civilizations to expand and flourish. The course also covers marginalized and colonized cultures that were dominated largely to feed or entice the palates of the great. A major theme of the course is the process of globalization, imperialism, and the growth of capitalist enterprise at the cost of indigenous cultures and traditional farming practices and how these processes were shaped by trade in food. Beyond the larger economic and social issues, the course will also cover the culture of food, why humans made the food choices they have, and what their food practices tell us about them and their world. In other words, food practices will be used as a window for viewing culture as a whole. This course will examine in detail cookbooks, culinary literature, and dietary and religious texts - all of which reveal the preoccupations and predilections of the past. The course will also examine why different people make different food choices, why they sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to find rare or exotic items while refusing to eat foods that are cheap and plentiful, why individuals from certain social classes will avoid or esteem particular foods, and in general how food is the most important factor of self-definition. In other words, food helps define who the individual is ; where he or she fits in society ; and how the culture, nationality, or ethnicity he or she espouses expresses itself through food and cuisine. This course will help you see not only how and why other cultures shape what people eat, but also how your choices are ultimately determined by our culture and are often equally bizarre and arbitrary to outsiders, especially when it comes to food taboos. The entire course is also accompanied by hands-on activities so that you can not only read about food in the past in the lecture guides, but you can also have some fun in the kitchen exploring the past and even tasting it if you so desire. The activities are designed to bring the lectures alive - not only by having you experience the physical act of cooking as it was done in the past, but also by having you understand directly the taste preferences of our forebears. Some of these activities involve recipes that were taken directly from historic cookbooks. Reconstructions are given when recipes were not available or have never been translated. Others are simply culinary exercises or tastings. They are all designed to expand your palate, to explore the past - just as you might a new, exotic cuisine you have recently discovered. All recipes have either been adapted from the original or are direct translations from the original languages."--adapted from pages 1-3 of Course Guidebook

Disc 1. Lecture 1. Hunting, gathering, and Stone Age cooking -- Lecture 2. What early agriculturalists ate -- Lecture 3. Egypt and the gift of the Nile -- Lecture 4. Ancient Judea - From Eden to kosher laws -- Lecture 5. Classical Greece - Wine, olive oil, and trade -- Lecture 6. The Alexandrian exchange and the four humors -- Disc. 2. Lecture 7. Ancient India - Sacred cows and Ayurveda -- Lecture 8. Yin and yang of classical Chinese cuisine -- Lecture 9. Dining in Republican and Imperial Rome -- Lecture 10. Early Christianity - Food rituals and asceticism -- Lecture 11. Europe's Dark Ages and Charlemagne -- Lecture 12. Islam - A thousand and one nights of cooking -- Disc 3. Lecture 13. Carnival in the High Middle Ages -- Lecture 14. International Gothic cuisine -- Lecture 15. A Renaissance in the kitchen -- Lecture 16. Aztecs and the roots of Mexican cooking -- Lecture 17. 1492 - Globalization and fusion cuisines -- Lecture 18. 16th century manners and reformation diets -- Disc 4. Lecture 19. Papal Rome and the Spanish Golden Age -- Lecture 20. The birth of French haute cuisine -- Lecture 21. Elizabethan England, Puritans, country food -- Lecture 22. Dutch treat - Coffee, tea, sugar, tobacco -- Lecture 23. African and Aboriginal cuisines -- Lecture 24. Edo, Japan - Samurai dining and Zen aesthetics -- Disc 5. Lecture 25. Colonial cookery in North America -- Lecture 26. Eating in the early Industrial Revolution -- Lecture 27. Romantics, vegetarians, utopians -- Lecture 28. First restaurants, chefs, and gastronomy -- Lecture 29. Big business and the homogenization of food -- Lecture 30. Food imperialism around the world -- Disc 6. Lecture 31. Immigrant cuisines and ethnic restaurants -- Lecture 32. War, nutritionism, and the Great Depression -- Lecture 33. World War II and the advent of fast food -- Lecture 34. Counterculture - From hippies to foodies -- Lecture 35. Science of new dishes and new organisms -- Lecture 36. The past as prologue?Course Guidebook. Introduction. Professor biography -- Course scope -- Lecture Guides. Lecture 1. Hunting, Gathering, and Stone Age Cooking. Prehistoric diets ; Human evolution ; Hunting-gathering life ; Culinary Activity. Boiling water in a paper bag ; Pit cooking -- Lecture 2. What Early Agriculturalists Ate. The beginning of the Agricultural Revolution ; The spread of the Agricultural Revolution ; What did the first civilizations eat? ; Culinary Activity. Making Neolithic flatbread ; Akkadian recipe. Tuh'u beet broth -- Lecture 3. Egypt and the Gift of the Nile. Ancient Egypt ; The Egyptian diet ; Amursanu-pigeon broth ; Culinary Activity. Egyptian beer -- Lecture 4. Ancient Judea - From Eden to Kosher Laws. Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel ; The Great Flood and Noah's Ark ; Moses and the Seder plate ; Food prohibitions and practices ; Culinary Activity. Passover Seder. Gefilte fish -- Lecture 5. Classical Greece - Wine, Olive Oil, and Trade. The geography of Greece ; Archaic Greece ; Classical Greece ; What did ordinary Greeks eat? ; Culinary Activity. Archestratus' shark recipe -- Lecture 6. The Alexandrian Exchange and the Four Humors. Hellinistic civilization ; Myma ; Humoral physiology ; New philosophical schools ; Culinary Activity. Galenic meal ; When to eat peaches -- Lecture 7. Ancient India - Sacred Cows and Ayurveda. Early Indian civilization ; Vegetarianism and Ayurvedic medicine ; Indian cuisine ; Culinary Activity. Making ghee ; A recipe using ghee -- Lecture 8. Yin and Yang of Classical Chinese Cuisine. Chinese dynasties and the development of culinary art ; Chinese medicine. Culinary Activity. Seasoning a new wok ; Using your wok -- Lecture 9. Dining in Republican and Imperial Rome. Republican frugality ; Social climbers and the old elite of Imperial Rome ; A cookbook for imperial extravagance ; Culinary Activity. Minutal of apricots -- Lecture 10. Early Christianity - Food Rituals and Asceticism. Jews in the Roman Empire ; Dietary changes after Jesus ; Food rituals in the Early Church ; Culinary Activity. Fasting exercise -- Lecture 11. Europe's Dark Ages and Charlemagne. Germanic tribes ; The mixture of Christian and Germanic ideals ; Charlemagne's influence on food ; Culinary Activity. Service à la Middle Ages : Eating with your hands -- Lecture 12. Islam - A Thousand and One Nights of Cooking. The expansion of Islam ; Islamic food prohibitions and customs ; Persian culture and cuisine ; Culinary Activity. Baghdadi recipe. Halwa yabisa -- Lecture 13. Carnival in the High Middle Ages. Culinary changes in Europe ; Medieval cooking ; Chicken pie ; Carnival and Lent ; Culinary Activity. 'Libellus de Arte Coquinaria' : Making walnut oil ; Anthropological exercise : Participant observation -- Lecture 14. International Gothic Cuisine. The Plague in Europe ; Seymé of chicken or veal from 'Le Ménagier de Paris' ; Medieval cookbooks ; Vegetable-cheese tart from 'Le Ménagier de Paris' ; Culinary Activity. Taillevent - Cinnamon brouet -- Lecture 15. A Renaissance in the Kitchen. The Renaissance ; Platina's cookbook ; Ficino's cookbook ; Messisbugo's cookbook ; Puff-pastry pizzas ; Culinary Activity. Christoforo di Messisbugo, 'Banchetti' (1549) : To make ten plates of maccheroni -- Lecture 16. Aztecs and the Roots of Mexican Cooking. Agriculture before the Aztecs ; Ingredients of world importance ; Aztec cuisine ; Culinary Activity. Cooking a pre-Columbian recipe -- Lecture 17. 1492 - Globalization and Fusion Cuisines. The Venetian spice trade monopoly ; The discovery of the New World ; The globalization of food ; Culinary Activity. Chocolate tasting exercise -- Lecture 18. 16th-Century Manners and Reformation Diets. Changes in the Early Modern Period ; The Reformation ; Culinary Activity. Food in art exercise -- Lecture 19. Papal Rome and the Spanish Golden Age. Scappi's cookbook ; Polpettoni (Meat rolls Roman style) ; Granado's cookbook ; Maceras's cookbook ; Montiño's cookbook ; Pork chorizos ; Culinary Activity. Brisavoli ; Conejo en escabeche ; Pork chorizo (from Francisco Martinéz Montiño, 'Arte de Cocina, Pastelería, Vizcochería, y Conservería' of 1611, p. 202 -- Lecture 20. The Birth of French Haute Cuisine. France as a culinary model ; La Varenne's cookbook ; Veal epigramme (Braised lamb) (legs or knuckles of veal) ; Other French cookbooks ; Crayfish soup ; Culinary Activity. Fried artichokes (from L. S. R.'s 'L'Art de Bien Traiter' of 1674, p. 86) -- Lecture 21. Elizabethan England, Puritans, Country Food. England in the 16th century ; To make a dyschefull of snowe ; England in the early 17th century ; England in the late 17th century ; To make a potato pie ; England in the 18th century ; Culinary Activity. To make a chicken pye (from 'Good Hous-wives Treasurie', 1588) -- Lecture 22. Dutch Treat - Coffee, Tea, Sugar, Tobacco. Mercantilism ; The Netherlands ; England and France ; Colonial products ; Culinary Activity. Verstandige Cok Olie-koecken (adapted from 'The Sensible Cook', ed. Peter Rose, p. 78) -- Lecture 23. African and Aboriginal Cuisines. African cuisine ; Indigenous crops ; Changes in African cuisine ; Aboriginal Australia ; Culinary Activity. Matooke and Luwombo -- Lecture 24. Edo, Japan - Samurai Dining and Zen Aesthetics. Japanese cuisine ; Japanese table manners ; The presentation of food ; Culinary Activity. Tasting experiment -- Lecture 25. Colonial Cookery in North America. Virginia ; New England ; The Mid-Atlantic Region ; Culinary Activity. A nice Indian pudding -- Lecture 26. Eating in the Early Industrial Revolution. The rise of food manufacturing ; Society and the Industrial Revolution ; The importance of bread and potatoes ; Culinary Activity. Simple Industrial-Age dinner. Boiled bacon and cabbages -- Lecture 27. Romantics, Vegetarians, Utopians. Counterculture food movements ; The Romantic movement ; Utopian socialism ; Culinary Activity -- Lecture 28. First Restaurants, Chefs, and Gastronomy. The development of the restaurant ; Celebrity chefs ; Gastronomy ; Culinary Activity -- Lecture 29. Big Business and the Homogenization of Food. Innovation in the food industry ; From peanuts to peanut butter ; Culinary Activity -- Lecture 30. Food Imperialism Around the World. Industrialized nations and their colonies ; The plight of farmers ; Banana republic ; Culinary Activity. Banana salad -- Lecture 31. Immigrant Cuisines and Ethnic Restaurants. Immigration's effect on food ; Italian food ; Jewish food ; Mexican food ; Chinese food ; Culinary Activity. A new way to cook vermicelli. Timbale of vermicelli with tomatoes (Neapolitan recipe) -- Lecture 32. War, Nutritionism, and the Great Depression. World War I ; Developments surrounding World War I ; Prohibition and the Great Depression ; Culinary Activity -- Lecture 33. World War II and the Advent of Fast Food. The rise of fast food ; The McDonald's empire ; Negative consequences of fast food ; Culinary Activity. Experiment : Is fast food really so fast? A hamburger race -- Lecture 34. Counterculture - From Hippies to Foodies. The second health-food movement ; A new interest in cooking ; Organic food and farmers' markets ; Culinary Activity. Vegetarian tofu chili -- Lecture 35. Science of New Dishes and New Organisms. Molecular gastronomy and scientifically engineered food ; Other food technologies ; Culinary Activity. Eggplant casserole -- Lecture 36. The Past as Prologue? Food trends of the future ; The future of agriculture ; The latest food developments ; Culinary Activity -- Supplemental Material. Bibliography

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Cultural culinary history