Notes from Lane Library: Hidden Lane Library

Did you know…

...that Lane Library has over 200 cookbooks to teach you how to make food from many different regions and historical eras? We’ve collected a few here to illustrate the kinds of titles we have, but there’s so much more at the library!

We have some odd titles, like:

Donner Party Cookbook (19th century frontier recipies, not recipes for cooking people)

The insect cookbook : food for a sustainable planet (E-Book)

But mostly, we have cookbooks that let you eat your way through time and space -

Classical era Greek and Roman food TX713 .D35 1996	A taste of ancient Rome TX725.A1 G613 1992
Medieval Cuisine in the Islamic World : a concise history with 174 recipes TX725.A65 Z3613 2007	Food & drink in Britain : from the Stone Age to the 19th century GT2853.G7 W54 1991
Tudor cookery : recipes & history TX705 .B83 2003	Georgian cookery : recipes & history TX705 .S69 2003
The Medieval Cookbook TX717 .B538 1992	The pharaoh’s feast : from pit-boiled roots to pickled herring : cooking through the ages with 110 simple recipes TX645.R58 P42 2003

We also have plenty of titles to teach you all about modern cooking from around the world, here are just a few:

Tastes of North Africa : recipes from Morocco and the Mediterranean TX725.M8 W6 1999	Practical Thai cooking TX724.5.T5 S38 1985 (Wisconsin’s Own collection)
The German cookbook; a complete guide to mastering authentic German cooking TX721 .S54	New Persian Cooking : A Fresh Approach to the Classic Cuisine of Iran (E-book)
My Bombay Kitchen : Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking (E-book)	Provence, the beautiful cookbook : authentic recipes from the regions of Provence TX719.2.P75 P76 1993

American food is so much more than apple pie and hamburgers (although they are delicious). There is a huge variation of food across the country depending on what region you’re in; think of cheesesteaks, deep dish pizza, gumbo, clam chowder, fried cheese curds, chicken fried steak, and so on. Ask 10 southerners what region has the best BBQ and you’ll get 10 different answers - Memphis, Lexington, Kentucky, Kansas City, Chicago, Texas, and on and on. The Hatfields and McCoys have nothing on the fierce battle that rages on for the title of best American BBQ. Here are a few books to introduce you to some American historical and regional foods:

The art of American Indian Cooking TX715 .K499 1988	The Slaw and the Slow Cooked : Culture and Barbecue in the Mid-south (E-book)
Food that Really Schmecks (Mennonite Food) (E-book)	Dishes and Beverages of the Old South TX715 .M474315 1988
Encarnación's kitchen : Mexican recipes from nineteenth-century California : selections from Encarnación Pinedo's El cocinero español (E-book)	The flavor of Wisconsin : an informal history of food and eating in the Badger State, together with 400 Favorite recipes (Wisconsin’s Own collection, TX715 .H12)
The food of a younger land : a portrait of American food : before the national highway system, before chain restaurants, and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional : from the lost WPA files TX715 .F685 2009	The Lewis & Clark cookbook : historic recipes from the Corps of Discovery & Jefferson's America TX715.M363 L48 2002 (Western Americana collection)