In honor of National Culinarians Day, take a look back at Elizabeth Gilbert’s discussion with John Hodgman about her newly published cookbook, At Home on the Range, originally written by her great-grandmother, Margaret Yardley Potter. Considered far ahead of its time, Potter espoused the importance of farmer’s markets and ethnic food, derided preservatives and culinary shortcuts, and generally celebrated a devotion to epicurean adventures. Click here for more.
CALF’S BRAINS WITH BLACK BUTTER
“Allow 1 set of brains—or more, for true addicts—for each serving. Soak the brains in cold water for 1 hour or so and drain. Add 1 sliced onion, a bit of chopped parsley and celery, 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1/2 cup of vinegar to enough boiling water to cover the brains, and simmer them gently for 1/2 hour. Drain and when cool tenderly remove the skin and any bits of bone the butcher may have left clinging to their surface. For each 2 sets of brains melt 1/2 cup of butter (or as much more as can be spared) in a shallow pan and allow it to brown slightly….”
—From At Home on the Range
There’s a wonderfulness in stubbornness, about simply refusing to let even the facts sometimes interfere with your insistence of your worldview of a place of goodness and decency and hope and that it’s worth it—it’s worth it to take risks, and to try to make things even if people mock them and it’s worth it to choose a partner and stick with them even if it makes no sense to anybody else and it’s worth it to use the talcum powder and just hold your ground.
“Calf’s Head a la Vinaigrette”
A menu from Tuesday, February 26, 1901 at The Royal Palm Hotel. This is from the What’s on the Menu? project started by NYPL Labs to help make our collection digitally searchable. The public (that means everyone!) is invited to help identify what’s on the menu (literally) through this interface.
From the food side of things, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love re-discovered a first edition cookbook by her great grandmother called At Home on the Range, which is full of recipes for dishes like the above (boiled sheep head, anyone?), and has added her insights to its, now, second printing. She’ll be discussing it on stage on May 15.
