Food Links for a Monday

Almost 10 years ago, the oldest known cookbook written (in 1866) by a free black woman was unearthed at University of Michigan. The next oldest Black cookbook that historians know of wasn’t published for another fifteen years, in 1881. That historical rareness, it turns out, isn’t merely an artifact of earlier times. It’s the norm; very few cookbooks written by black authors have been published over the years. Making the past two months (Sept and Oct) “anomalous” in having six cookbooks released by black women in that time. This link is an interesting one that discusses such history in greater depth, and touches on current reality, including mentioning my perennial favorite, Angela Davis of Kitchenista Diaries.

“Ecosystems all around the world are warming up due to global climate change, says Pershing, but the Gulf of Maine is ahead of the curve. Over the past decade, it’s warmed faster than 99.9 percent of the global ocean.” And this is why “Maine Cod” is a rarity; all the attempts to plan and adjust fishing quotas were unable to take into account how much the water was warming. I wonder if bass will become a commercially viable fish in Maine.

Your spouse’s on the way home, loves spicy food, and needs some soup? May I suggest this delightful-looking Caldo Tlalpeño? It looks fairly simple and oh-so-tasty and it’s definitely on my “winter’s here to-cook” list this year. (Though I’m leaving out the cilantro garnish. I don’t care if there’s a possible cilantro “desensitization” regime. No.)

Bill and I were recently discussing what made honey “raw.” We understand the context of “not cooked;” but was there a specific temperature you could heat honey to and still be able to call it raw? He went looking, and while we never really did find out the answer, he found a fascinating bee-keeping forum with a great link on how small places filter their honey, which lead to wondering what’s the best way to do it. Turns out? We don’t really know! But if you keep bees and filter your honey, maybe you can help folks figure that out!

Finally, this post about apple sandwiches still speaks to me. I am still constantly evaluating and re-evaluating my stance on food and food access and food politics, and what I think of this. And I am still looking for that book involving lettuce sandwiches.