Atlantic Books Today HEALING FOODS
Comfort and joy in traditional food It’s not easy making the classics, but it’s an act of love
by Simon Thibault
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Photo from Best East Coast Jams, Pickles, Preserves & Bread by Alice Burdick (Formac Publishing).
T
he beauty of food nostalgia is that it runs deep within familial and cultural veins. The kind of cooking our respective matriarchs exercised was well-executed by rote and pride, leading to cooks who were often tight-lipped with measurements. This traditional knowledge tends to flourish with practice, not through abstractions or explanations, and not from reading. You should just know when the biscuit dough is right. And when to pull them out of the oven. Thankfully, Best East Coast Jams, Pickles, Preserves and Bread by Alice Burdick, and Tunes and Wooden Spoons by Mary Janet MacDonald, dole out nuggets of know-how along with the matriarchal sweetness of a grandmother giving a child a cookie. Burdick and MacDonald understand that today’s home cooks may be food lovers and eaters, but they are not always food makers. These authors know they are addressing a generation that lives on Instagram and recipe search engines, and moans about lengthy headnotes on food blogs. (Such impertinence.) They are highly knowledgeable when it comes to knowing where to eat, but not necessarily in the actual methods of producing. The emperor has no clothes, but its belly is full. Burdick and MacDonald both work hard to inform said emperor on the art of kneading bread or making pickles. Their respective works are loaded with recipes and clear instructions. Both Best East Coast Jams, Pickles, Preserves and Bread and Tunes and Wooden Spoons understand that food is a love language. Yes, that language speaks of comfort and joy. But it also knows that
