Jennifer Rachel Dutch
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496818751
- eISBN:
- 9781496818799
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496818751.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
In twenty-first century America, Home cooking has transformed from an overwhelming chore to a nearly avoidable pastime. This rapid disappearance of kitchen skills has led critics to lament the death ...
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In twenty-first century America, Home cooking has transformed from an overwhelming chore to a nearly avoidable pastime. This rapid disappearance of kitchen skills has led critics to lament the death of home cooking. “No one cooks anymore” is a rallying cry to get Americans back to cooking from scratch in order to improve health and increase happiness. However, this mourning for home cooking only serves to underscore its significance as a symbol of the importance of food to family, home, and community, which comes through in the rhetoric found in a variety of texts, including cookbooks, advertising, and YouTube videos. Analysis of these texts reveals that, far from dying, home cooking traditions continue as a powerful form of folklore that American fill with meaning as a representation of both the continuity of the past and the possibilities of the future.Less
In twenty-first century America, Home cooking has transformed from an overwhelming chore to a nearly avoidable pastime. This rapid disappearance of kitchen skills has led critics to lament the death of home cooking. “No one cooks anymore” is a rallying cry to get Americans back to cooking from scratch in order to improve health and increase happiness. However, this mourning for home cooking only serves to underscore its significance as a symbol of the importance of food to family, home, and community, which comes through in the rhetoric found in a variety of texts, including cookbooks, advertising, and YouTube videos. Analysis of these texts reveals that, far from dying, home cooking traditions continue as a powerful form of folklore that American fill with meaning as a representation of both the continuity of the past and the possibilities of the future.
Linda Civitello
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041082
- eISBN:
- 9780252099632
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252041082.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
The Depression caused a cutthroat price war that turned the baking powder industry on its head. Royal lost and never recovered, while Clabber Girl, through aggressive marketing under its new leader, ...
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The Depression caused a cutthroat price war that turned the baking powder industry on its head. Royal lost and never recovered, while Clabber Girl, through aggressive marketing under its new leader, Tony Hulman, became the industry frontrunner. New Deal policies changed management-labor relations and attempted to regulate businesses in unprecedented ways. Housewives rejoiced in new baking powder products like Bisquick and Jiffy but continued to struggle with baking powder chaos in cookbooks, especially the new Joy of Cooking and racist cookbooks spawned by Gone with the Wind. World War II continued the trend toward purchasing baked goods out of the home.Less
The Depression caused a cutthroat price war that turned the baking powder industry on its head. Royal lost and never recovered, while Clabber Girl, through aggressive marketing under its new leader, Tony Hulman, became the industry frontrunner. New Deal policies changed management-labor relations and attempted to regulate businesses in unprecedented ways. Housewives rejoiced in new baking powder products like Bisquick and Jiffy but continued to struggle with baking powder chaos in cookbooks, especially the new Joy of Cooking and racist cookbooks spawned by Gone with the Wind. World War II continued the trend toward purchasing baked goods out of the home.
Ellen Oxfeld
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780520293519
- eISBN:
- 9780520966741
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520293519.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the work of producing food and preparing meals in Moonshadow Pond. The gendered and generational configurations of agricultural labor changed profoundly from the Old Society ...
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This chapter examines the work of producing food and preparing meals in Moonshadow Pond. The gendered and generational configurations of agricultural labor changed profoundly from the Old Society through the collective era to the present. With the exodus of youth to non-agricultural employment, the future of agriculture in Moonshadow Pond is unclear. In addition to the production of food through rice cultivation and vegetable gardening, meal preparation is integral to the labor surrounding food in Moonshadow Pond. Thus, both agriculture and cooking are at the center of domestic food production and preparation. These need to be differentiated from production for the market — raising pigs, tending fish ponds, or growing citrus and other fruit trees, all of which are oriented toward earning cash income. Finally, just as cultivating rice (gengtian), is central to peasant identity, so too, cooking rice is at the center of family identity.Less
This chapter examines the work of producing food and preparing meals in Moonshadow Pond. The gendered and generational configurations of agricultural labor changed profoundly from the Old Society through the collective era to the present. With the exodus of youth to non-agricultural employment, the future of agriculture in Moonshadow Pond is unclear. In addition to the production of food through rice cultivation and vegetable gardening, meal preparation is integral to the labor surrounding food in Moonshadow Pond. Thus, both agriculture and cooking are at the center of domestic food production and preparation. These need to be differentiated from production for the market — raising pigs, tending fish ponds, or growing citrus and other fruit trees, all of which are oriented toward earning cash income. Finally, just as cultivating rice (gengtian), is central to peasant identity, so too, cooking rice is at the center of family identity.
Jennifer Rachel Dutch
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496818751
- eISBN:
- 9781496818799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496818751.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
While cooking at home is no longer an odious chore, many critics lament what they see as the demise of cooking from scratch. These critics promise that a return to the kitchen will make Americans ...
More
While cooking at home is no longer an odious chore, many critics lament what they see as the demise of cooking from scratch. These critics promise that a return to the kitchen will make Americans healthier and happier. By claiming that home cooking is in a state of decline from an idealized past and proposing that the only solution to the stress of modern life is a return to those past kitchen practices, these critics adhere to a traditional rhetorical pattern known as a “Jeremiad.” However, the weakness of the American home cooking jeremiad is that it only serves to increase anxiety as Americans fail to capture a past golden age that never really existed.Less
While cooking at home is no longer an odious chore, many critics lament what they see as the demise of cooking from scratch. These critics promise that a return to the kitchen will make Americans healthier and happier. By claiming that home cooking is in a state of decline from an idealized past and proposing that the only solution to the stress of modern life is a return to those past kitchen practices, these critics adhere to a traditional rhetorical pattern known as a “Jeremiad.” However, the weakness of the American home cooking jeremiad is that it only serves to increase anxiety as Americans fail to capture a past golden age that never really existed.
Jennifer Rachel Dutch
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496818751
- eISBN:
- 9781496818799
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496818751.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
The rhetoric of commercial cookbooks mirrors the “death of home cooking narrative” by promising to provide the fulfilment that Americans are seeking. Creating an idealized picture of cooking at home, ...
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The rhetoric of commercial cookbooks mirrors the “death of home cooking narrative” by promising to provide the fulfilment that Americans are seeking. Creating an idealized picture of cooking at home, commercial cookbooks sell “comfort cooking” in which the kitchen becomes an oasis that allows the reader to shut out all of the stress of modern life and reconnect with family, community, and food. The first step in creating a healthy meal, comfortable home, and happy family is, of course, buy the cookbook.Less
The rhetoric of commercial cookbooks mirrors the “death of home cooking narrative” by promising to provide the fulfilment that Americans are seeking. Creating an idealized picture of cooking at home, commercial cookbooks sell “comfort cooking” in which the kitchen becomes an oasis that allows the reader to shut out all of the stress of modern life and reconnect with family, community, and food. The first step in creating a healthy meal, comfortable home, and happy family is, of course, buy the cookbook.
