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Book Review: Fried Coffee & Jellied Bourbon My discovery of a 1967 book, Fried Coffee & Jellied Bourbon, through a 2010 The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook By Ana Raquel Ruiz, L.D. |
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The first to arrive was Fried Coffee & Jellied Bourbon, A Culinary Guidebook
for Autocrats of Breakfast Table, Containing Reliable Recipes and
Cooking Instruction, and Sundry, Suggestions for Maintaining
Amicable Relations with the
It amazed me to see how current a book from 44 years ago is. Roux refers to an old quote: “Of many cook books there has been as little end, as of many departments of literature. Probably they are more plentiful now than at any former period.” He says that in 1966, 206 new cookbooks appeared. I Googled to find out how many cookbooks were published in 2010, but was not able to get a count. I wonder how many have been published altogether. Amazingly, each new cookbook seems as fresh and interesting as those that have preceded them and all together, they provide a monumental stockpile of cooking lore, philosophy and instruction, he said. While I was reading the preface, I had to get up and answer the door bell. It was the mail carrier with another box of books, two of which were cookbooks I read about in Schmid’s cookbook! Roux was right, they keep piling up and I keep enjoying them. Roux also quoted Eliot Fremont-Smith, who in “Books of The Times” (New York Times) wrote, “Cooking can be among the higher arts. It appeals to the palate and the stomach, but its force comes through the mind as well as through the senses.” Although Roux’s book was written for men, it includes great culinary and breakfast tips we all could benefit from. One of the culinary definitions included is for roux, which he says was named after one of his ancestors. I enjoyed his statement: “Recipes like mysteries, supply all the necessary clues leading to satisfactory, if sometimes surprising, solutions.” His description of “Fried Coffee” reminded me of growing up in Puerto Rico and of my parents, who were coffee drinkers. They preferred to brew their coffee using a flannel cloth colander, which we called “colador de café.” This one has a sock shape with its border attached to a round wire handle. They boiled the water and coffee grounds and then strained it through the “sock” and served it. I remember twisting the sock until all the liquid coffee came out. Later on they switched to “cafeteras” espresso coffee makers, which to this day, we still use. I own one of those socks, too, as part of my Puerto Rican heritage. One of the recipes I was so surprised to find was the one for “Scotch Egg,” which during my recent visit to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, I tasted for the first time at Cedric’s Tavern. I absolutely loved this cookbook. All the marginalia I wrote on it as I read is proof of it. What a great addition and surprise to find so much value in a 1967 book, which was so inexpensive to get and was found as a serendipity! |
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She can be reached at Spanglishanaraquel@gmail.com. |
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Atlanta, I decided to read one of my newest cookbooks. Albert Schmid’s The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook. This one was added to my culinary
library of more than 6,000 cookbooks last December. Reading this
cookbook, I found out about many more interesting cookbooks, which I
knew I wanted to add to my collection, so I went online and ordered
several of them.
Distaff Side
by Willam C. Roux, author of
What’s Cooking Down in Main. The long subtitle is a great summary of
what the book is about. Albert Schmid chose Roux’s recipe for
Jellied Kentucky Bourbon to include in his book. The jellied bourbon
was created by Joe Palmer, the great horse racing columnist, for a
trainer who didn’t like to drink at breakfast on racing days and
could eat this one with a spoon!