#consider the fork

[ammg-old]

The subtext of all table manners is the fear that the man next to you may pull his knife on you.

“Consider the Fork: A History of Invention in the Kitchen”

[ammg-old]

European folklore is haunted by the spectre of the empty cauldron.  It is the old equivalent of the empty fridge: a sign of outright hunger.  In Celtic myth, cauldrons are capable of summoning up both eternal abundance and absolute knowledge.  To have a pot and nothing to put in it was the depths of misery.

“Consider the Fork: A History of Invention in the Kitchen”

[the-brodie-set]

Serious question

I’m listening to Consider the Fork: A History of How we Cook and Eat and the thing that has been sticking with me is how Americans measure ingredients by volume, rather than weight (which the rest of the world does), and I sorta get this for cups, etc. but how is that better for 1/8 of a teaspoon?

[captainbookamir]

Day 2: Best Non-Fiction

Ever wondered why England became famous for roast beef? Who do we have to blame for those awful blunt table knives anyway? Where the hell does the US cup system come from? (Because as a European, trust me, it confounds and annoys me in equal parts) And what equipment will give you the best coffee? 

A History of How We Cook and Eat is a lovely, scholarly but easily readable history of kitchens and cooking tools and gizmo’s. There are also a number of anecdotes about the author’s personal adventures in cooking, making it a charming and funny read, imho. Seriously though, I picked this up for world-building purposes and it was great for that, but it also just gave me a ton of fun and useful facts.

[sophia-sol]

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat, by Bee Wilson

This is a nonfiction book that conveniently tells you exactly what it's about in its title, and it does a good job of being what it says it's going to be, so if the title appeals to you then the book will too. It did for me! Its scope isn't broad enough to cover the entirety of human history and all human cultures (largely focuses on European history), but for what it is, it's very readable, entertaining, and informative.

[fixingreadersblock]

Consider the Fork

A microhistory of kitchen utensils

Title: Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat Author: Bee Wilson Year: 2012 Pages: 279 History / Cooking

Finished: September 4, 2016 Total Pages YTD: 8482

Summary: A microhistory of kitchen utensils, taking us through the advent of fire through the sous vides used in hypercuisine.

Least Favorite Thing: The chapter about knives. Not because it wasn’t interesting--I learned (and remember, which is the important part) at least one neat fact per chapter, and the one that sticks out for me for the knife chapter is about the Chinese tou and how that tool shaped diets and even physiology. But I’ve been continually stressed, and the knife chapter brought a lot of intrusive thoughts I didn’t care for.

Most Favorite Thing: The chapter on forks. I had heard some small factoid a long time ago about why we use forks and I’ve repeated it to a lot of people over the years without ever checking if it was true. Now I have a lot more I can say about them and someone else has done all the research for me.

Would I recommend it: If you like microhistories this is a pretty good one. The tone is friendly, the structure is easy to follow. If you don’t care about kitchen utensils, it’s probably not for you.

[quinnreadsbooks]

109. Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat - Bee Wilson

Challenge: 180 books. Length: 336 pages.

Cover: 

Not as pretty as the cover for First Bite, but it’ll do.

I didn’t copy out my favourite lines, because I was using my wife’s kobo on the train from Toronto to Burlington at the time, but I was really interested in how the method we use to eat has affected our jaws and teeth. What we now describe as “perfect teeth”, a slight overbite where the bottom front teeth fit neatly behind the top front teeth, is relatively new: only about 250 years old in some places. It’s not a product of evolution - the way we eat actively causes it. Before that, the “stuff-and-cut” method of eating left us with an edge-to-edge bite like many apes.

Smarter people say: “Bee Wilson’s supple, sometimes playful style in ‘Consider the Fork,’ a history of the tools and techniques humans have invented to feed themselves, cleverly disguises her erudition in fields from archaeology and anthropology to food science. Only when you find yourself rattling off statistics at the dinner table will you realize how much information you’ve effortlessly absorbed.Wilson, an award-winning British food journalist and historian who contributes the ‘Kitchen Thinker’ column to The Sunday Telegraph, is also, incidentally, the daughter of the biographer and novelist A. N. Wilson. Her fourth book (following histories of beekeeping, food scandals and the sandwich) proves she belongs in the company of Jane Grigson, one of the grandes dames of English food writing. Like Grigson’s, Wilson’s insouciant scholarship and companionable voice convince you she would be great fun to spend time with in the kitchen.” - Dawn Drzal, here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/books/review/consider-the-fork-by-bee-wilson.html?_r=0

I say: I found this much more interesting than First Bite, which I also enjoyed. At no point did Consider the Fork feel repetitive or irrelevant to me as a childless adult, which were my main problems with First Bite. 

Consider the Fork is full of information that would be fascinating to anyone with an interest in history, anthropology, tech design, and cooking. Personally, I’m mostly just interested in anthropology, so I’m not Wilson’s ideal reader. But I like her style, and I’m going to look into her histories of beekeeping and food scandals to see if I might like to read them.

No star from me, but I would still recommend it to others. My wife hasn’t read it yet but I fully expect her to enjoy it.  

[redfivewritingby]

Free Book Day at work. I think Hannibal would be pleased with my selection.