"Victoria Rumble has written a book that is
rich with flavor and with history. The
world wide references, the foodways, and the
recipes create a book that will inform every
bowl of soup that you prepare - or eat! It
is a book that belongs on the bookshelves of
all historians. The development of soup is
the development of civilization
Elizabeth M.
Williams, President
Southern Food and Beverage Museum
Riverwalk
1 Poydras Street #169
New Orleans, LA 70130
www.southernfood.org
504-569-0405
“This massive amount of research is a solid
contribution to culinary history!”—Andrew F.
Smith, editor in chief, The Oxford
Companion to American Food and Drink.
Foreword: By Sandra Oliver, editor of Food
History News, and author of Saltwater
Foodways: New Englanders and Their Food at
Sea and Ashore in the 19th
Century, recipient of the 1996 Jane Grigson
Award for Scholarship in the Julia Child
Cookbook Awards:
“In quiet corners all around the country one
can find earnest food historians rooting
around in very old cookbooks, looking for
recipes and information about all kinds of
dishes from the past. Soup Through the
Ages is for the benefit of those people
who want to know and can appreciate not
having to do the research themselves.
In this volume assembled by Victoria Rumble,
you will find just such a collection of
recipes and references about that most
universal of dishes, soup. With an eye to
recreating and telling the story of these
dishes, Victoria Rumble has extracted
material from many primary and a few
secondary sources from very early times to
the modern age, drawing from cookbooks,
newspapers, magazines, and travel records
and descriptions. She examines soup from
ancient times, through the Renaissance and
colonial eras, and on to the modern era of
soup.
Readers will no doubt be glad to have a
volume to carry with them into a primitive
camp where the Internet never reaches, to
pull of a shelf when a question arises, or
to set by the bedside to peruse before
sleep. Some will be grateful for a review
of early sources and bibliography suggesting
where else to look for answers to their
questions. Anyone will be glad to see the
documentation provided by the notes.
Even if you have only the most cursory
interest in historic food, even if you never
intend to cook a thing from this book,
surely you will enjoy reading it.” |
