No subject

> As for my cookbook, I delivered the manuscript to Hippocrene last month a=
nd
> got an email only this morning saying their copyeditor had gone through i=
t
> and they were sending it back to me for corrections. I still don't know w=
hat
> they thought of it but since I'm writing in a foreign language (and besid=
es,
> I tend to mix up British and American English somewhat dreadfully), I
> suppose there is still a lot of work to be done on it.
>
> The book is called Icelandic Food and Cookery and it will be published by
> Hippocrene, probably late this year. There will be 20-30 pages containing
> information on food history, feast days and food customs related to them,
> and Icelandic ingredients (the horsemeat entry above is fairly typical), =
and
> then there are around 165 recipes, each with a short - or, in a few cases=
,
> not so short - introduction discussing origins or characteristics of the
> dish, or maybe telling a family anecdote. The book is rather more persona=
l
> than I originally planned, because many of the recipes are old family
> recipes.
>
> I'm not planning on continuing to pester you with snippets from the
> manuscript but I think the foreword sums up the book quite nicely so I'll
> just post it here - then you know what to expect:
>
> "I grew up on a remote farm in Northern Iceland in the 1960s. Icelandic
> society has changed so much since then that sometimes it seems to me this
> must have been the 1860s, not least in culinary matters. The food of my
> childhood was partly the old traditional Icelandic food, salted, smoked,
> whey-preserved, dried, and partly the Danish-influenced cuisine of the
> Homemaker=EDs Academy my mother had attended; heavy sauces, roasts, endle=
ss
> porridges, puddings and soups.
>
> Things were much simpler then. Apples were red by definition, haddock was
> almost the only fish worth eating, and a meal was not complete unless it
> included potatoes, invariably boiled. The spice drawer contained ground
> pepper and curry powder for savory dishes, cinnamon and cloves for sweet
> dishes and cakes, and not much else.
>
> Electricity had not yet arrived but there was a huge coal stove in one
> corner of the kitchen. At least it looked huge to me, but the kitchen is
> very small, so it probably wasn=EDt. And there was no refrigerator but a
> couple of barrels, filled with fermented whey, stood in the larder and th=
e
> icy, tangy whey drawn from them was the most refreshing drink imaginable =
on
> a hot summer day, when the sheep were being sheared.
>
> Today=EDs young Icelandic chefs win awards in international culinary
> competitions and can master any cooking trend and technique that comes th=
eir
> way. The shops are full of exotic ingredients and apples and oranges are =
no
> longer the only fruit, as I discovered when I tasted my first banana at t=
he
> age of seven. But that is not what this book is about.
>
> It is about the food I grew up on, the food Icelanders think about when t=
hey
> get a bit nostalgic, the food our mothers and grandmothers cooked. It is
> also partly about the food that has been slowly replacing it, as more
> vegetables, fruits and spices have gained a permanent place in the Icelan=
dic
> kitchen. And it is about food traditions and the love of food."
>
> Nanna

I probably have more comments on this book, which aren't online yet.  I lik=
ed
the book, although for history on Icelandic food I really think some of
Nanna's comments here were better than what ended up in the book. Those
who have listened to Nanna over the years here will also recognise some
of those statements as you read the book. While the book is aimed a bit
more on introducing "traditional" Icelandic foods to the public than
toward food historians, I do recomend the book.

Stefan
--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.=
com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****