One of my earliest experiences in reading a description of food that made me crave it was in Johanna Spyri's, "Heidi." The orphan was dropped off by her aunt at her grandfather's hut on the Alm...

"When they reached the room below, he went to the hearth, pushed aside the big kettle, and hooked a smaller one onto the chain which hung over the fire; then drawing up the wooden stool, he took a big slice of cheese, fixed it on the prongs of a long iron fork, and turned it over the fire until it was all toasted a tempting golden brown...........Then he cut a generous slice of bread and a piece of the mellow cheese, and put them before her..........Heidi ate and drank contendedly, spreading her bread with the rich cheese, which was soft as butter, and tasted better than anything one can imagine, and washing down each bite with a hearty drink of milk."

To this day, one of my most "comfortiest" foods is good cheese, melted on good bread, with a glass of milk.

One of these days I'm going to make Esther's Orange Marmalade Cake from Jan Karon's wonderful books:

Esther's Orange Marmalade Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake
1 cup unsalted butter, softened, more for greasing the pans
3 1/4 cups cake flour, more for dusting the pans
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 2/3 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
4 large egg yolks, at room temperature
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

For the orange syrup
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup granulated sugar

For the filling
1 (12-ounce) jar orange marmalade

For the frosting
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
4 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 cup sour cream, chilled

Directions:
The cake. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly butter three 9-inch round cake pans, line them with parchment paper, then lightly butter and flour the paper, shaking out the excess.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Sift a second time into another bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until light in color, about 4 minutes. Add the 2 2/3 cups sugar in a steady stream with the mixer running. Beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs and yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Be sure to stop at least once to scrape down the batter from the sides of the bowl. After all the eggs have been added, continue to beat on medium speed for 2 more minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the oil and beat for 1 minute. In a small bowl, combine the orange zest, vanilla, and buttermilk. Using a rubber spatula, fold in half of the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add half of the buttermilk mixture. Fold in the remaining dry ingredients, scrape down the sides, and add the remaining buttermilk.

Pour the batter among the prepared pans, smooth the surface, rap each pan on the counter to expel any air pockets or bubbles, then place in the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in the pans on racks for 20 minutes.

The orange syrup: In a small bowl, stir together the orange juice and 1/4 cup sugar until the sugar is dissolved. While the cakes are still in the cake pans, use a toothpick or skewer to poke holes at 1/2-inch intervals in the cake layers. Spoon the syrup over each layer, allowing the syrup to be completely absorbed before adding the remainder. Let the layers cool completely in the pans.

The filling: Heat the marmalade in a small saucepan over medium heat until just melted. Let cool for 5 minutes.

The frosting: In a chilled mixing bowl, using the wire whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream with the 4 tablespoons sugar until stiff peaks form. Add the sour cream, a little at a time, and whisk until the mixture is a spreadable consistency.

To assemble the cake: Invert one of the cake layers on a cake plate and carefully peel off the parchment. Spread one-third of the marmalade over the top, smoothing it into an even layer. Invert the second layer on top of the first, peel off the parchment, and spoon another third of the marmalade on top. Place the third cake layer on top, remove the parchment, and spoon the remaining marmalade onto the center of it, leaving a 1 1/4-inch border around the edges. Frost the sides and the top border with the frosting, leaving the marmalade on top of the cake exposed. Or, if you prefer, frost the entire cake first, adding the marmalade as a garnish on top.

Chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

An unusual book which I treasure is Blues by John Hersey, who made his name as a writer with A Bell for Adonis and Hiroshima, both written in the 1940's.

Each chapter of Blues is a dialog between the Fisherman and the Stranger as they pursue bluefish off Martha's Vineyard. Conversations during these outings are far ranging and interesting. Quotes from literature or entire poems are inserted here and there throughout the book. Each chapter is ends in the kitchen as the day's catch is prepared for the evening's meal.

F: Tonight we're going to try a variation of the basic mayonnaise treatment we used back in June, the second time we fished together -- Barbara's favorite way. I'll make a mayonnaise glaze with mustard built into it.

First I set some water to boil. Then skin the fillet, salt it and pepper it, and squuze the juice of a lemon on it and let it marinate while I cut the rind of half a lemon into thin strips. I blanch these in boiling water for three minutes, pour them into a colander, freshen them with cold water, and pat them dry in paper towels.

Now, Two egg yolks into the blender, till they're slightly thickened. Then I add a half teaspoon of salt, a pinch of cayenne pepper, a tablespoon of Dijon mustard, and a tablespoon of powdered mustard, and a half teaspoon of dried chervil. Whip up briefly in the blender and then, with it still running, add one cup of olive oil, dribble by dribble. Good. Spread the mustard mayonnaise on the meat side ot the fillet and broil, six or seven inches from the flame, according to the Canadian rule....A minute before the end, I scatter the strips of lemon rind on top, and then finish cooking....

It's ready. Let's try it.

S: Oh, yes. This is wonderful.

F: Yes, a wonder, bluefish.

Jim

I used to go crazy at the end of the school day hearing about all the food described in the book "Farmer Boy" which is part of Laura Ingalls Wilder's series on her life. It's the story of the youth of her husband Almanzo Wilder. My third grade teacher started reading us the series and I can still remember being hungry all these years later. I have a "Laura Ingalls Wilder" cookbook but haven't made anything out of it. I can't eat the old timey foods for the most part, I don't do hard physical labor all day!!

The other is the description of madelines from Proust. But I have actually never made madelines and don't eat them either. Trying to stay healthy is no fun sometimes!

I'm totally into reading non-fiction about food, but I don't know if that counts. Good reads include "The Omnivore's Dilemma," "Animal Vegetable Miracle" which is on my bedstand unread, along with "The Lost Ravioli Recipe of Hoboken" which is a food memoir. I found "Eat, Pray, Love" to be BORING, even the food part! "Living the Good Life" by Helen and Scott Nearing has some pretty prosaic descriptions food, at least related to living off the land. "Epitath for a Peach: Four Seasons on My Family Farm" is also on my "need to read someday" list.

I always have a CD book in while driving and recently finished a trilogy of mystery novels by Jason Goodwin. The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, and The Bellini Card feature a fascinating main character named Yashim. They are set in Istanbul when sultans ruled the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.

One of Yashim's many skills is that he is a fabulous cook. In the course of the novels the author describes in detail how Yashim prepares some of his meals - pilafs, eggplant dishes, lamb, etc. Using a good knife, a couple pots and fresh ingredients, he will have your stomach growling & mouth watering as you read/listen.

The author received so many requests for the recipes that he has a site that gives some of them.

It's not just the food, it's how the author conveys exactly in prose how the spices smell, how the vegetables brown, the sound of meat crackling, etc. that gets you.

The stories are very good, too. And Yashim is an original multi-faceted character that you just have to cheer for.

Disclaimer: I actually got to visit (& eat the wonderful food in) Istanbul last May, so the novels & cuisine are all the more compelling to me.

I loved Michael Pollan's account of his "foraged" meal with his friends. Not so much because the fare sounded wonderful but because he was so sweetly appreciative of the kinship present at the table.

When Alice was in second grade she came home with a recipe hastily written in her childish print. It was for "maple cake" and came from a book the teacher was reading to them in class. She wanted to make this recipe to share with her classmates. I looked over the recipe and suspected the amounts were not quite right at the very least so I searched the internet for something close and we made that. 'Twas fun. I still have her hand printed version in my recipe folder.

Fried Green Tomatoes

Jorge Amado's wonderful 'Dona Flor and her Two Husbands' is about a young widow who runs a cooking school. The prose is interrupted every so often with recipes. I've never tried them, but they sound good.

It was made into a hilarious movie in 1978 featuring a luscious Sonia Braga.

Robert S. Parker who wrote the Spenser detective series mentioned food often in his books. He's mentioned what his girlfriend and he made for dinner.
It broke my heart when he died the beginning of this year.

Patricial Cornwell is another mystery writer. One of her characters Kay Scarpetta is a medical examiner. She has Italian roots states what she's making for dinner.

Her recipes are often in her books.

Hemingway fans might like 'The Hemingway Cookbook' by Craig Boreth.

Aficionados of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin novels might enjoy 'Lobscouse and Spotted Dog' which has recipes for all sorts of strangely named dishes such as Drowned Baby and Figgy-Dowdy. There's even a recipe on how to cook rats (which are euphemistically called 'millers'). It's a wonderful read, especially if you like the Aubrey/Maturin series, but I doubt that I will cook anything from it. The names alone are daunting; could you, with a straight face, turn to your dinner guest and say, "Would you like another serving of Spotted Dick?"

Delurking to recommend one of my favourite books : Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.

The "heroine", Framboise, inherited a recipe/notebook from her mother, and central to the book are the recipes she discovers, and the descriptions of her mother's cooking.

I don't have the book to hand, but a quick google found a wonderful blog : This book makes me cook which seems appropriate here ...

S

Here is a link that might be useful: This book makes me cook

We discussed it on the movie thread, but Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate has a lot of recipes in it. I think every chapter starts with a different recipe that relates to the chapter in some way. I remember one was doves cooked with rose petals.

malevolent triffid, thanks for reminding me of "Five Quarters of the Orange." It's been awhile, but I remember that the book turned out not to be what I'd expected. The characters & story were not run-of-the-mill and have stayed in my mind even though I've forgotten many of the details.

Come to think of it, I may have actually been listening to it while I was on my Prune/Citrus Compote kick. Just reading the title evokes the scent of orange peels.

Oliver Twist's gruel, of which he wanted "more."

It is made of water, oats and milk, plus an onion. I swear I think of this scene from the book every time I go back for "more" of anything that is served in a bowl.

I had many food cravings as a child from hearing nursery rhymes and children's stories, and most of the food turned out to be horrid: Little Miss Muffet's curds & whey (horrible), Goldilocks' porridge, four and twenty blackbird pie, peas with honey eaten with a knife, etc. I never did have Little Jack Horner plum pie, and so that one might actually be good. Then there were the Queen or Hearts tarts, Peter Piper's pickled peppers, Peter Peter's pumpkin, the Walrus & Carpenter's oysters, and after reading Beowulf I had a craving for mead, which I turned out to hate. Who knows what was in Red Riding Hood's basket of goodies, but I did crave gingerbread from listening to Hansel and Gretel.

After reading Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, I had a craving for petite Madeleines, and while I have made those more than once, they are not one of my favorites.

Lars

Lars, I must ask where exactly you tried a blackbird pie?

In "The World According to Garp," Garp makes a vinaigrette from a pepper he has roasted on the gas ring of his stove. I remember he'd tossed it into the sink after roasting it, where from it hissed and he informed it that it could his all it wanted.

I still do like minced, roasted bell peppers in a vinaigrette, though I don't think that when I first read the book I'd ever even heard of roasting peppers.

I made a batch of, "Turkish Delight" upon reading, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" as a child, but found it sadly lacking. Certainly not addictive.

The Godfather....where they went to the mattresses and one of the members was frying peppers and onions and garlic and sopping it up with good chunks of Italian bread.
And another here who longed for a bowl of warm goat milk after reading Heidi, ( my mother convinced me I would hate it!) and I can smell the warm tangy smell of apples just thinking about John Updike's Ciderhouse Rules.

Arley, thanks for mentioning The Hemingway Cookbook. Someone said I look like him. LOL! Actually, I like his writing and have read several of his books.

Along the same lines, I think, is The Nero Wolfe Cookbook. I am a fan of the Nero Wolfe mysteries and my daughter even more so. She has a complete collection in hard cover, more than 40 books.

In the stories, Wolfe is a gourmet who has a personal chef, Fritz Brenner, He also has a friend who owns a fine restaurnant. Cooking and dining are often discussed in the stories and often play a prominent role. The cookbook has recipes for many of the dishes mentioned. I haven't cooked much from the book. Maybe I will now that it has come to mind again.

Jim

Yes, Heidi always gave me a yearning for "sturdy" food such as rough bread and hunks of cheese along with goat's milk. Best if someone squirts it in your mouth warm, directly from the goat.

Jimster, this was a great idea for a thread. I. for one, love reading more than cooking! I do adore eating, though.

When I read Heidi as a kid, I always wanted to try eating a hunk of cheese with a firm crusty bread. Always wanted to go to Switzerland for that reason to be just like the book.

Lpink!! I was going to write all about Farmer Boy too! I LOVED that book and all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books. That one especially though had so many scrumptious descriptions of food. Remember the illustration of Almonzo eating the pancakes???
Joann

I've been reading/listening to the Commissario Brunetti Mysteries by Donna Leon. They are set in Venice. She includes the meals he has, especially at home (his wife, Paola, a Contessa, seems to be a very good cook). They sound wonderful, especially since she gives the Italian names to the dishes.

She has finally published a cookbook, it's great fun. Since I listened to the books, I never had any idea of what he was really eating.

The Sweet Potato Queens' Big A$$ Cookbook (and Financial Planner) by Jill Conner Browne. Not necessarily best literature, but hilarious and some really good southern recipes. It was my first introduction to Pig Candy, thick bacon rolled in dark brown sugar and baked. MMMMMMM good!

The copy I had (have) of chitty chitty bang bang by Ian fleming had the a fudge recipe in it. It was the first thing I ever cooked from any sort of book.

2 c Sugar
4 tb Cocoa
1/4 lb Butter (or margarine)
2 ts Light corn syrup
1 cn Evaporated milk
1 ts Water
Instructions

Mix all ingredients and stir over low heat. Cook to soft ball stage when dropped in cold water. Beat by hand until mixture loses gloss. Chopped nuts can be added. Pour into a greased 8 x 8-inch pan. Cut into pieces. Cool.

No real recipe to offer, but a wonderful passage about food from Iris Murdoch's masterful novel, "A Fairly Honourable Defeat":

It was Axel's birthday.
Simon had after all decided against the salmon trout. They were to start with whitebait and retsina. After that a cassoulet with rice and Nuits de Young. Then a lemon sorbet. Then a salad of chicory and cos lettuce with a light dressing. Then white Stilton cheese and special wholemeal biscuits from the shop in Baker Street, with a faintly sweetish hock.
It was of course rather hot weather for a cassoulet but Simon especially enjoyed making this dish. Also it was an absorbing task and just now he instinctively tried to find himself one absorbing task after another. He had made a start on it yesterday evening, cooking the beans with careful additions of onions, garlic, thyme, parsley, basil, gammon, and pieces of sticky pork rind. That afternoon, which he had taken off from the museum, he had roasted some mutton and half a duck while the beans were heating up again to simmer quietly. After that the big brown earthenware pot which they bought in Bensancon was packed with layers of beans followed by layers of duck, mutton and garlic sausage, all the way up to the top. Then a slow oven until the upper beans were crusty. Stir the crusty beans in and let other beans get crusty. Stir these in. The climax had almost been reached.
"Doesn't the smell of this make you almost faint with joy?" said Simon to Axel. "I must say I am terribly hungry. We must be careful not to eat too much whitebait."

I have longed for a raclette as a tribute to all those childhood memories of Heidi. And Laura Ingalls Wilder! I have the Little House Cookbook so I can make corn cakes on a spider. Not that that's happened yet.

And Esther's orange marmalade cake!!! Someday I will make that cake...actually the Mitford cookbook is a great cookbook for fans and all the recipes I've tried have been excellent. Although the beef tenderloin recipe is on my never try list- too many fake ingredients for a pricey tenderloin.

My earliest food memories are from the The Box Car Children series, however. I wanted to eat all their strange thrown together foods as a child.

"Jimster, this was a great idea for a thread."

Thanks, Pam. I'm happy it is turning out so well. But credit has to go to Sherry who first mentioned the idea on the Food Movies thread.

"No real recipe to offer, but a wonderful passage about food..."

sonopoly, to me it is a recipe. The kind of recipe I like best. And it is getting me in the mood for my next attempt at cassoulet.

Jim

Jim, I'm so glad you got something out of the passage, because I never forgot it many years after reading it. The book is truly wonderful and I think you might enjoy it if you haven't already read it. It is a great piece of modern literature -- witty, shocking, acerbic, and, of course, very British!

I am an admirer of Thomas Jefferson, not because of his presidential face is on the two-dollar bill.

He was an architect, a gardener, a scientist, and a great cook.

I am reading a couple of books, “Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello” and “Dining at Monticello”.

Beautiful books. There are many recipes in the second book. I hope to try out a few of them.

dcarch
-----------------------------

“---Jefferson wanted fresh fish, so he built two fish ponds. He also wanted his oil to be fresh, so he raised and produced his own oil.---”

There was a memorable passage describing a Bedouin feast in one of T.E. Lawrence's memoirs - either "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom" or "Revolt in the Desert." I can't remember which, not can I remember where either volume is...

dcarch,

Do you know what kind of oil Jefferson produced? It surprised me to see that he used oil for cooking. I guess I assumed they always cooked with lard in those days because, when I was a little kid, that's all my mother used. She started using oil later.

I too admire Jefferson. He had vast knowledge and tremendous practical skills. Those things don't seem to be expected of anyone these days. Can you imagine any contemporary president in the kitchen, the garden or sitting at a drafting table? Eisenhower did some painting and fly fishing. That's about the extent of it.

Jim

For what its worth, Michelle Obama created a kitchen garden at the White House. I only know this because I am happy that she is promoting healthy eating and gardening as one of her causes. It's one of mine.

From one of my favorite passages in "Farmer Boy." My grandmother also made these.

Doughnuts

2 lbs. lard
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
Pinch nutmeg (that comes from my grandma, not the cookbook)
1 cup sour cream
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
Powedered sugar for dusting

Safety notes: lard can reach really high temps so use a candy thermometer and don't let it get above 400 degrees (WOW!). Also make sure your utensils are bone dry, since water and oil makes a dangerous splattering situation here! Don't leave this kettle of boiling oil unattended. Also, keep the space next to the kettle on the stove clear in case you have to quick take it off the stove. And last but not least, keep a fire extinguisher (or a box of baking soda) handy if there's a flare up!

Melt lard in a kettle over low heat. Beat egg, soda, salt and sour cream in the bowl. Beat in 1 cup of flour until well mixed. Continue towork in the flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until you have a dough that can be rolled out. Roll the dough in a strip about 4x16x1/4 inches. With a floured knife, cut into 4 inch strips about 5/8 inch wide.

Heat the lard to 375 degrees. Twist a strip like a corkscrew (it will strecth as you do this). Bring ends together and pinch them. Drop the twisted dough into the hot fat. In about 2 minutes the doughnuts should be cooked through. If they brown in less time the fat is too hot, if it takes more than 3 minutes the fat is not hot enough.

Remove the hot doughnuts from the pot and drain on brown paper (special kraft paper or old paper grocery bags). Coat generously with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

Note, you can cut these out with a doughnut cutter, but then they have to be turned over in the fat. To me they seem a little bland (which was exactly how grandmas were and I was not super crazy about them) so you might add a little bit of sugar to the mix. Or just squeeze some honey on them to taste!

Gone With The Wind is one of my favorite reads. There are many ways Margaret Mitchell contrasted life in the south "before" and "after" the war. One was through her descriptions of food. The tables were laden with every kind of food imaginable before the war, and they only had black eyed peas afterward.

Posted by jimster "dcarch,
Do you know what kind of oil Jefferson produced? It surprised me to see that he used oil for cooking. I guess I assumed they always cooked with lard in those days because, when I was a little kid, that's all my mother used. She started using oil later. ---"

Jefferson's motivation was freshness. He remarked upon the disadvantages of having to ship across the Atlantic ocean and to Virginia.

He tried to grow seasme plants to replace olive oil.

dcarch