Customer Reviews

In Pursuit of Flavor (Virginia Bookshelf)

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

 

 

It is safe to say that this cookbook is like no other you will find unless it is another by this giant of a chef/instructor. The book is filled with information: how to purchase fish and duck, how to freeze berries-- there are two pages of information on Virginia hams; and, yes, there are recipes too exotic for my simple tastes. For example, I doubt that I'll ever prepare rabbit pate or roast and stuff a suckling pig. Miss Lewis' whiskey cake recipe is from another world, however. The cake is made in a tube pan and has a cup of bourbon in it--and tastes as if it does. (Miss Lewis says that you should never cook with any alcohol you wouldn't drink.) The cake comes out of the oven a beautiful pale yellow color, almost like salt-fired pottery. Dense and moist, it slices like a thick piece of fine cheese. I didn't believe the author when she says that you can listen to the sounds of a cake to know when it's done. I can testify that she is quite right about that. This is a really fine cake. There are lots of other breads and desserts I want to try.

I had heard of Edna Lewis for many years, so was anxious to see what all the fuss was about. And I was only mildly disappointed. Like M.F.K. Fisher, she has an uncommon appreciation for food and a keen sensitivity to subtleties in flavor. Throughout her cookbook she speaks of preserving flavor, complementing it,& getting the best out of it; and stresses the importance of fresh, organic, high-quality food. In her introduction she says, "I feel fortunate to have been raised at a time when the vegetables from the garden, the fruit from the orchard, and the meat from the smokehouse were all good and pure, unadulterated by chemicals and long-life packaging. As a result, I believe I know how food should taste." And so naturally, by extension, she has alot of particularities and preferences for how she likes things: she prefers Madagascar vanilla to Tahitian, cinnamon from Ceylon, the fall crop of raspberries to the early summer crop, the basil plants with tiny leaves, home-made baking powder to store-bought (she includes the recipe), and she waxes rhapsodic on wild berries: "...but wild things never fail us. They always taste good, which is why if you see only a handful of wild nuts or a cupful of berries, you should pick them. They have a flavor nothing else has. If you transplant a wild plant to the garden it will never taste the same." Etc.,etc. Quite a few recipes are designed for specific, possibly obscure, types of fruits or vegetables-- green gage plums, explorer potatoes, cymling squash, lady apples, Keiffer pears, etc. In the case of the Damsom plum, wild persimmon, and wild strawberry recipes, she allows for substitution with the regular and cultivated versions, but warns that the results will taste different and not as good. She offers a diverse range of hints along the way-- from how to buy a good coconut, to how to learn to listen for the signs when a cake is done.

Edna Lewis is an old Virginian, raised in Freetown, a small farm community founded by her grandfather shortly after his emancipation from slavery. The narratives introducing each food chapter, and the comments that accompany each recipe, are reminiscences from her childhood and insights into southern sensibility, and they are delightful: " Summertime is just nothing without boiled corn on the cob. When I was younger, for dinner, corn would be a separate course, which we would eat after the main part of the meal when the dishes were cleared away. After all, you really can't eat anything else if you are concentrating on corn", and "In the South there's a big stir about how chess pie got its name. Some say it's because when a guest would say 'My, this a good pie, what is it called?' the answer would be 'jes pie'."

The disappointment for me, a near-vegetarian, was not only in the relative paucity of vegetable recipes, but in seeing how heavily she relies on meat in general-- not just as a course in itself, but as a means of deriving flavor in other dishes. She says,"I still use pork shoulder, country ham, bacon, and streak-of-lean to flavor many dishes", and," I wouldn't feel my kitchen was well-stocked if I did not have ham on hand to flavor dishes." A full third of the cookbook is devoted to meat, fish and game. And much of that is not necessarily your ordinary fare-- there are more recipes for rabbit, for instance, than for beef. And quite a bit of quail, pheasant, duck, guinea hen, etc. There's even head cheese, eel (including how to skin them), and squirrel. The squeamish may want to skip this section altogether. She also obtains flavor from the liberal use of fat. I was surprised by how many recipes, even vegetable ones, call for a stick of butter or a cup of heavy cream.

Still and all, this cookbook is a unique treat-- informative, inspiring, and just a pleasure to read. The tomato soup with basil, crispy cornsticks, creamed scallions, and summer berry pudding are all excellent. Of the latter she says, "When I made this for the James Beard Tribute Dinner in New York one year, Mayor Koch had five helpings." Next to try is the chocolate souffle, "one of the recipes for which I am best known."

Edna Lewis passed away at the age of 89 in 2006, and it doesn't appear she took too many cooking secrets with her. Except for finding Greengage plums! As far as I can tell, only a mock version is available in the U.S. The original trees are long gone. And her Greengage Plum Ice Cream sounds **so** good.

Lewis wrote other books, but this one has the most appeal for me. I guess that's because of its style. This is one I read for pleasure, although I do not eat much meat or use it for seasoning, either, as another reader mentioned. I have not made many of the dishes in "In Pursuit of Flavor," but can recommend her recipe for mayonnaise. It never fails. The Summer Hot Vegetable dish is just wonderful. So is the Okra Whipped with Cornmeal. And she's right! You can tell a cake is done by listening to it.

Those little sidebars and chapter introductions are loaded with her opinions and advice. Even if you disagree with her you won't stay mad long; Ms. Lewis gave advice gently; she was a confident, experienced teacher and chef, and must have been a delightful dinner companion.

Edna Lewis is to be praised for attempting to restore natural flavors and goodness from the over-processed and over-priced foods we buy today. Simply because particular fruits and vegetables are available year 'round doesn't mean they are any good except in their regular growing seasons. She knew that, but the supermarkets don't (or don't care). We are far better off seeking out fishmongers, open air farmers markets, good old-fashioned butchers and baking our own bread. Unfortunately, most people don't have time to hunt and gather the the ingredients for a full meal, much less sit down and enjoy it.

Within the pages of this lovingly written and beautifully illustrated book, you'll find over 200 reasons why you should do some of your cooking the way Edna Lewis recommends, if only for special occasions.

If you want the tastes of rural Virginia back in the day, read this book. I spent a lot of time growing up in the nearby area between Richmond and Williamsburg (both my parents were born in the land where George met Martha and before that Pocohantas met John Smith) and this book took me back. Not just to the food that my grandmother and great grandmother prepared, such as oyster stew, boiled blue crab, ham (Smithfield) biscuits, succotash, navy bean soup, fatback, hot water cornbread, spoon bread, black eyed peas with stewed tomatoes, kale and turnip greens (never collards) fried spots and croakers (local fish) and deserts such as lemon chest pie, pound cake (always with a POUND of butter), and toll house cookies, but back in time to the stories they told about how food used to be. Even as late as the 1980's, it was common to have what was called a "garden" of at least a 1/2 or whole acre with more acreage planted in corn for the "animals" - though as local traveling butchers became a dying breed (which had in turn replaced neighbors getting together to help slaughter), the "animals" were mostly chicken and geese rather than the pigs and steers of my childhood while tractors replaced horse/pony and plow. As I helped shell lima beans, ate sweet white corn raw right out of the garden, ate a just picked tomato like it was an apple, or just sat in the side yard drinking ice water or iced tea out of a mason jar, my grandparents told stories of salting fish in barrels, corning beef, and making wild blackberry syrup for biscuits back in the day. And well into the 1980's my grandparents still canned and pickled vegetables, made wine out of peaches, apples, local grapes and even potatoes (!)(and knew where to buy moonshine...). My grandfather hunted till he was almost 70 - mostly deer, wild turkeys, and using dogs - possum and racoons (boys hunted squirrel and rabbit) and of course EVERYTHING was shared by the hunters to be eaten (wasn't told that it was squirrel in that stew until AFTER I'd eaten it!). He didn't like to fish but his brother/brother in laws did and of course they shared their fish as he did his game. While I certainly don't romanticize those days (it was seriously hard work and "gardening" and taking care of the animals was done before and after a day's "paying" work and both my grandmother and grandfather had jobs) the flavors of the just out of the garden vegetables; the off the tree sour cherries (whatever the birds didn't get) apples, and black walnuts; free range poultry; hours old eggs; and preservative-free home canned goods will always be remembered and make me wish I could eat that way again. And, not taking food for granted - canning/smoking/pickling what couldn't be eaten fresh and "eating everything from a pig but its squeal" (down to pig tails and souse/"hog's" head cheese) is something that has stayed with me (in homage to my grandparents thrift, I make broth out of my whole roasted chicken carcasses and make what I call refrigerator pasta and refrigerator soup to use up old veggies and bits of cooked meat). As I finish writing this, I see my grandfather as the sun was starting to set finally relaxing on a summer day's end, sitting in his chair in the side yard, waving to everyone he knew as they passed by on the two-lane blacktop "main" road, drinking a big mouth Mickey (beer) or maybe if it had been a particularly hard day a high- ball, while my grandmother called out to us "chillun" as we chased fireflies at dusk, whether we wanted a ham sandwich before it was time to go to bed.

Well-written narrative about country cooking. Using all the right ingredients is key to flavor and this book points it out better than any other around.

I have lived in Central Virginia all my life, and have eaten plenty of the fare from this book. Ms. Lewis emphasizes quality, variety, and to take the time in life to enjoy the foods we eat and love. Every recipe in this book have been carefully created. Many old, and a few new. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to taste the perfect flavors of good ole fashioned foods, and authentic, country southern cooking.