have been using this book since, John and I met Susan in college at Iowa State University, Though she is a southerner, she loves food and great recipes and stories, She is an honorary Iowan, I miss her! I spent about six years growing up in Iowa and spending time eating at my Grand Mothers table.
She was a died in the wool Farmer's Wife and made meals like she was cooking for a small army.
Which as a teenager meant that there was always enough food, She is also the only person I have ever known to make Bacon, Sausage and Ham for the same breakfast and serve them all at the same time.
No joke, my Grandfather would have some of each, Food at my Grand Mothers might have been considered simple by some standards, but it was well worth the eating.
Almost everything came with Patatos and Gravy, and Corn was almost a constant, Even in Winter, where she would freeze the Corn, still attached to part of the cob, so when she ended up cooking it, it tasted almost like it had just been picked.
Even so, when I lived in Iowa, I didn't drive, so I didn't go places, didn't travel much and knew very little about what went on in the rest of the state.
To be honest I might not have wanted to either, LOL. So I picked up this cook book wondering what I had missed and hoping to find some recipes that might be similar to what my Grand Mother made.
I once asked her what Iowa double corn bread was, she had no idea, When I found out that it had cream corn added, she told me that was just plain ole corn bread, nothing double about it.
This book was a pleasure to read and to look over the recipes, Some of which I am in fact going to have to try, It is broken up into sections, As opposed to just covering different portions of the state, So it is broken up into four sections, the first is Friends and Relations, then you have Iowa Specialties, then we go to Special Places and last we have Celebrations.
This gave me a very wide view of a State that I have lived in but didn't know as much about as places I lived later in life.
The First Chapter includes:
Radio Homemakers, which was sort of like an early Dear Abby with recipes to help people make ends meet.
Italian Coal Miners, an interesting look at a part of the state history I didn't know much about.
Especially since most of the Farmers I met growing up were generally of German descent,
Remembering Buxton: Another town that no longer exists, but where segregation worked and was something that was surprising considering the region and the time that this town did exist.
An Amish Sabbath: Good simple fare,
There are more, but you really should get the book for all of them,
Iowa Specialties
Corn: Okay no surprise here
The Iowa Chop: I never saw any Pigs on the farms where I lived.
I supposed there had to be some somewhere, since Oscar Meyer had such a big presence in the town where I was.
Also I remember those tasty, tasty Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches which I can't really seem to find with any consistence now that I live in Oregon.
Apples and Cider: Okay I never saw an Orchard before I moved to Yakima Washington, So yeah I was surprised,
Maytag Blue Cheese: All right, So I do know about Maytag and their lonely bored repair Men, But Blue Cheese Seriously Yep,
Honey: Another surprise, but then this one made much more sense than the Blue Cheese,
Special Places
The Amana Colonies: So maybe not quite Amish An eye opening chapter, since I had always wondered how the Amish could have started a business like Amana.
Maker of Radar Ranges and Refrigerators, This chapter not only gives out some fine recipes but explains how that came about as well,
Railroad Town: Diner par excellence
Celebrations
The Iowa State Fair: One of the thousand places to see in the world before you die.
You can look it up a stationary food cart of carnival bliss,
The National Hobo Convention: Don't know, never been, but it does sound like it might be fun.
I would love to find a book like this for others states, but it would seem that the author only did one other and that was for Mississippi.
Made me smile. Lovely writing. One of the goals of this book is to argue that Iowa has a cuisine, And yet, that cuisine features a recipe called “tuna mountain!” That pretty much sums it up! A Cook's Tour of Iowa is a wellcurated collection of culinary culture that represents a certain view of Iowa.
It's the picture Iowans like me can recognize, yet we also recognize many of the things mentioned as fading in cultural prominence.
As a resource for writing autobiography, the book conjures personal memories of Iowa things like the Grant Wood Art Festival, Maytag Blue Cheese, the AfricanAmerican community in Buxton, Iowa, and many more.
It is indispensable for that reason,
What I find lacking is the diversity of what Iowa has become, even sincewhen the first edition of A Cook's Tour appeared.
Our culture is also leaving behind things like VEISHA, Old Creamery Theater no longer in Garrison, or Amana, and some of the festivals and events to which Puckett refers.
If we had an Iowathemed dinner party, picnic or cookout, one might search the A Cooks Tour of Iowa's contents for dishes to make for their pure nostalgia.
However, life in Iowa
has become more than that,
I appreciate the work that went into A Cook's Tour of Iowa, I may not open it often, but knowing it is there provides comfort as the food system changes along with the society that engendered it.
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