Customer Reviews

Lost Arts: A Celebration of Culinary Traditions

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is layed out as a series of chapters on particular topics such as making wine, vinegar, goat cheese, curing olives, making bread, etc. These chapters are then arranged as a description, with narrative, of how to make the food followed by recipes that *use the food*. So, for example, there is a chapter on making vinegar that can be summed up by: take old wine, get a mother of vinegar, let it hang out until done, (which is described) and bottle it. (with a little explanation of why you bottle). The recipes for the vinegar section then have various dressings that use vinegar.

This highlights a couple of things. First, that these foods are *simple* to make. There's nothing deep or complex about them. The foods will make themselves, if you just give a little support.

However, when I turn to the bread chapter, I am startled. The bread described uses commercial yeast, except for a very misleading section on sourdough. First, I would have thought that *this* book would emphasize sourdough bread which is easier, more fun, more tasty and, indeed, an increasingly "lost art".

I also would have thought that there would be a section on traditional preserving techniques, along the lines of the book "Keeping Foods Fresh" by Claude Aubert. The fact that it isn't highlights, I suspect, another underlying issue with the book. The imagined "good food" is western Mediterranean in origin. And the closer the better. It would have been interesting to consider some of the wonderful techniques used in Greece or Yugoslavia. That would get a range of fascinating things like pickled capers, cabbage and grape leaves, which would be very compatible with the spirit of the book and would have made a much more fascinating range.

I bought this book for the goat cheese recipes, and I was very happy with the rest of the content. I doubt that I will cure my own olives any time soon, or make vinegar, but the information is useful and the author's enthusiasm is pleasant. If you enjoy Greek cooking, you will enjoy this book. If you enjoy the homey delights of doing for yourself, you will enjoy this book.

This book contains some dangerous misinformation, the worst being the author's recommendation to make wine in a plastic trash barrel. Non-food-grade plastic such as a trash can contains many toxic substances that can (and will) leach into food. I would imagine wine would be especially susceptible to picking up toxic heavy metals from the plastic. You MUST use ONLY FOOD GRADE PLASTIC CONTAINERS from a source such as a winemaking supply house to make wine...glass or ceramic would work as well (also assuming the glaze in the ceramic contained no lead and that the glass were unleaded!!!) I believe there was another significant error in the book but I cannot recall it now to report it to buyers.
The upside of this book is that the author takes a very casual approach to arts that are sometimes daunting to the novice, making the reader feel that s/he, too, can perform the craft. The downside is that the author takes a very casual approach to these arts and does not perhaps research them fully, as witness above. Also, the chapter on bread is a loss to anyone who owns a cookbook, as are many of the recipes throughout. Take this author with a grain of salt and double-check her methods before pursuing if you are unsure.

A friend passed this book along to me in the Peace Corps, and it consumed me until I had consumed the delights described inside. I am buying a copy of the revised edition for a dear friend's birthday. The vinegar (made from left-over dinner party wine) is the best I have had. The satisfaction that comes from kneading and baking your own bread (and the subsequent homemade french toast and croutons) is worth the Sunday afternoon. This is a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-to-it! kind of book that will illuminate and enrich your culinary life. Off to make cheese...

Free yourself from mass produced "food." With this book you have access to making all kinds of wonderful products that can be exactly to your taste without all kinds of funky additives. Learn how to make your own olives, cheese, mustard, and preserves. Some interesting recipes, too. The only reason for four stars rather than five is lack of photos. But this is definitely a nice book to have as part of a collection.

It's full of little things you an add to your kitchen to bring a hardy feel to cooking and your home. Excellent for the country cook or city-dweller who needs to connect to European culinary roots. Some things are so easy, children can do them. Others (like the section on bread making) require a little more. Overall it's worth it.