City Tavern Baking and Dessert Cookbook: 200 Years of Authentic American Recipes From Martha Washington's Chocolate Mousse Cake to Thomas Jefferson's Sweet Potato Biscuits [Hardcover]

Walter Staib (Author), David McCullough (Foreword), Jennifer Linder (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2003

In this handsome sequel to the original City Tavern Cookbook, chef Walter Staib, proprietor of America's earliest gourmet restaurant, focuses on the baked goods and sweets that must have pleased the signers of the Declaration of Independence as much as they delight modern palates: Apple-Fig Crumble, Vanilla Bean Blanc-Mange, Martha Washington's Chocolate Mousse Cake, Thomas Jefferson's Sweet Potato Biscuits, and more than 175 other delicious colonial treats.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chef Walter Staib is the highly acclaimed chef and proprietor of Philadelphia’s celebrated City Tavern restaurant. He is the author of two other cookbooks: City Tavern Cookbook, and City Tavern Baking & Dessert Cookbook. He has been named the “Culinary Ambassador to the City of Philadelphia,” and has received numerous awards and recognition for his outstanding cuisine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (October 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762415541
• ISBN-13: 978-0762415540
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,078,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian > Potatoes

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Entertaining Material. Not really 'authentic', December 1, 2005

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: City Tavern Baking and Dessert Cookbook: 200 Years of Authentic American Recipes From Martha Washington's Chocolate Mousse Cake to Thomas Jefferson's Sweet Potato Biscuits (Hardcover)

The `City Tavern Baking & Dessert Cookbook' is nominally written by chef / proprietor, Walter Staib, the guiding light behind the culinary restoration of this Revolutionary era Philadelphia restaurant to historical and financial viability. Of course, in an effort like this, there are several other parents, most especially the City Tavern pastry chef, Paul Bauer and culinary expert and historian, Jennifer Lindner.

One of the very first things you need to know is that contrary to the book's subtitle, `200 Years of Authentic American Recipes', these recipes are more simulations or `realizations' of 200 year old recipes. The authors themselves admit to having lightened up the recipes from their revolutionary heartiness, but they neglect to mention the anachronism of putting Dutch process chocolate, invented in 1828 (see `Larousse Gastronomique') in a Martha Washington recipe which must have been baked first in the 1780s. Another anachronism is the inclusion of baking powder perfected in 1870 (see `The Oxford Companion to Food') in a reconstruction of a `colonial' pound cake recipe. A third anachronism is the use of active dry yeast in bread baking. Brewer's yeast was used as early as 1665 and wild yeasts were used even before that, but active dry yeast did not become available until late in the 19th century.

These facts are brought out not to denigrate the book, but simply to document the fact that this is NOT a historical treatment of culinary subjects, unlike the excellent volume `The Sauerkraut Yankees' by William Weaver about the Pennsylvania Dutch. That is not to say this is not a fascinating and useful book. For starters, you probably don't want to cook or bake the same way they did in colonial Philadelphia, even if it was the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the North American English colonies.

The book opens with several sections on the history of the tavern and of the events surrounding it in Philadelphia and even in the tavern itself, which was but a stone's throw from Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written.

Chapters follow this on virtually every type of dessert you were likely to find in the mid-Atlantic seaboard over the last 200 years, as promised in the subtitle. While German and Austrian baking heavily influence the recipes, there are several Pennsylvania German standards such as shoofly pie and apple dumplings that you will not find in this book. On the other hand, you will find German standards such as German pancakes, German Puffs, Apple Turnovers, and Strudel. It also strikes me that many recipes such as the cobblers and crumbles remind one more of the lands to the north and south of Philadelphia. There are plenty of French influenced recipes such as a simplified `bouche de Noel' and even some Italian recipes such as Biscotti.

This is a cookbook made for `theme entertaining'. Virtually every recipe has a headnote that tells something of the providence of the recipe. Unfortunately, few footnotes give accurate information on the period in which the recipe came into vogue in Philadelphia. One very interesting note is the historical observation that like Parisians, colonial Philadelphians typically bought their bread from a local bakery rather than make it themselves. On reflection, this seems obvious as dried yeast did not exist yet and brewer's yeast was probably only available to bakers from the local breweries. Or, they used natural yeasts, which required a considerable amount of skill to maintain.

So, this is an excellent source of modernized recipes for entertaining in the colonial manner. This doesn't make it the best book on `American Desserts'. For that, I suggest you go to Nancy Baggett's new book, `The All American Dessert Book'.

Since all ingredients and methods have been `modernized', this is a very easy book to follow and all recipe procedures are written in great detail, worthy of the two professional bakers who contributed to this book, in addition to chef Staib's `old world' professionalism.

5.0 out of 5 stars Not easy recipes, but great history., March 28, 2011

By 

Stacie Leigh "Stacie Leigh" (PA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: City Tavern Baking and Dessert Cookbook: 200 Years of Authentic American Recipes From Martha Washington's Chocolate Mousse Cake to Thomas Jefferson's Sweet Potato Biscuits (Hardcover)

I won't tell you that the recipes are easy because they aren't. However, just knowing that you are dining as the founding fathers did for even one meal makes this book worth its price. Great conversation piece, too.