Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking Summary and Analysis

Neuhaus, Jessamyn. Manly Meals and Mom's Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. 1-4. Print.

Manly Meals and Mom’s Home Cooking

Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America

Summary:

The introduction to Neuhaus’s book is appropriately titled “The Purpose of a Cookery Book” and goes on to explain how cookbooks vary in their content and purpose. The two types of cookbooks mentioned were community cookbooks and commercial. Community cookbooks typically included recipes that women and sometimes men have actually tried to make, while commercial cookbooks were geared more toward making a profit. These cookbooks not only contain recipes that would tell the reader what the food thought processes of a certain era were, but also included ways to improve life in general; how to shop, how to lose weight, how to feed your children for example. Neuhaus adds that cookbooks have also played a role in perpetuating the idea of women belonging in the kitchen, which led to it being seen as the norm. Cooking, which took time and energy as well as all the shopping and cleanup, was phrased so that it seemed more like an opportunity than a repetitive required task. Even as society changed and women took a more active role outside of the home, the idea of the dutiful wife’s rightful place at home and in charge of the meals has not changed. Cookbooks could also tell a lot about society as they were often a “reflection of publishing policies, advertising needs, and popular demand in a particular era.” Due to the gender-linked suggestive tone trend many cookbooks have followed, even as women advance in society, mom’s home cooking is an ideal that will continue to endure.

Analysis:

As expected from the second part of the title “Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America,” the introduction repetitively reminds the reader that there is this link between women and cooking and the expectations that go with it. The author states that cookbooks give other valuable information in addition to the recipes, but that they also imply that it is a women’s rightful duty to do these things and thus helping to create this idea as the norm. Neuhaus does not write about the specific content found in cookbooks, but puts more emphasis on the general ideas they presented and how cookbooks were interpreted in terms of cooking and gender expectations.

In Defense of Food Summary and Analysis

Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. New York: Penguin Press, 2008. 19-27. Print.

In Defense of Food: Chapter 1

From Foods to Nutrients

Summary:

In the first chapter of Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food, he talks about how societies view of food has changed. Traditionally, food was seen as the tangible substance that could be held in your hand, but soon that view started shifting to refer more to the microscopic molecules found in food such as protein, fats, and carbohydrates. After researching the correlation between food and incidence of certain diseases, it was found that there was a higher incidence of disease among those who ate more of a certain food. In order to help the population avoid these disease, the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs recommended to “reduce consumption of meat”, which were high in the molecules that were linked with disease. This causes a lashing out from the industries that would be affected by this decreased intake by the population, and therefore having a negative effect on their business, and the committee reworded its recommendation. Now instead of referring to the specific foods, they referred to the molecules found in these foods instead, and recommended to “choose meats, poultry, and fish that will reduce saturated fat intake.” This was more acceptable and this idea of referring to foods based on their nutritional value started to become more popular in the media and eventually added to food product labels.

Analysis:

The article explained how the change in food being viewed more in terms of its nutritional value and macro/micronutrients would affect both the scientific community and the food industry. There was also an argument that it should be food that is listed in dietary books instead of the isolated molecules. This is because if a trial was done to research the correlation between a food and a disease, it would be difficult to tell what exact molecule was the cause of the change. There was also another argument that the incidence of heart disease, which was linked to the consumption of animal protein, could be due to the high saturated fats, or it could be because of a decreased consumption of vegetables and other plant foods.

Interview Questions

For my interview, I asked my dad various questions about his thoughts on food while growing up. How was food different from then and now, the way it was referred to, and different ways it was prepared. What did a typical meal consist of, who usually cooked the food, etc. I think my interview will be a bit different than others because my dad grew up in India, but it will provide a different perspective on how food is perceived not only in different times, but in different cultures as well.