Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts or Clambake

Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts: Dining in Victorian America

Author: Susan Williams

Savory Suppers and Fashionable Feasts offers a delightfully flavorful tour of dining in America during the second half of the nineteenth century. Susan Williams investigates the manners and morals of that era by looking at its eating customs and cooking methods. As she reveals, genteel dining became an increasingly important means of achieving social stability during a period when Americans were facing significant changes on a variety of fronts - social, cultural, intellectual, technological, and demographic. Focusing on the rapidly expanding middle class, Williams not only examines mealtime rituals, but she looks at the material culture of Victorian dining: the furniture, the furnishings, and the growing array of accouterments - from asparagus tongs to sardine servers and lace doilies - that supported genteel expectations for tableside behavior. She also explores changing ideas about meals - how they fit into the daily schedule and what kinds of food and drink came to characterize specific meals and menus. Complementing Williams's analysis and descriptions is a lavish array of illustrations, as well as a rich sampling of recipes from the diaries and cookbooks of the era. The result is at once an informative look at life in Victorian America and a sumptuous celebration of a key moment in the country's culinary experience.

Library Journal

This lively and informative volume gives a good general picture of the eat ing patterns of the middle and upper classes in late 19th-century America. Separate chapters are devoted to ``The Victorian Middle Class,'' ``Etiquette of the Table,'' ``Dining Rooms and Their Furnishings,'' and ``Fashions in Food and Drink.'' The book concludes with a discussion of typical menus and a selec tion of period recipes. The final copy apparently will contain numerous black-and-white photographs and line drawings, although this reviewer has not seen them. With its many choice quotations and entertaining anecdotes, this well-written book should appeal to a wide audience. Highly recommend ed. Joyce S. Toomre, Russian Re search Ctr., Harvard Univ.

Booknews

Williams (history, Fitchburg State College) investigates Victorian eating customs, cooking methods, and foodstuffs, revealing how genteel dining became an increasingly important means of achieving social stability, particularly for the middle class, during a period when Americans were faced with significant changes. Includes numerous recipes, b&w photographs, and drawings. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	Introduction
1	Proper and Prosperous: The Victorian Middle Class	1
2	The Mandates of Manners: Etiquette of the Table	15
3	The Altar of Gastronomy: Dining Rooms and Their Furnishings	49
4	The Bountiful Pantry: Fashions in Food and Drink	91
5	Front Soup Tureen to Pudding Dish	141
	Breakfast	158
	Lunch	164
	Dinner	168
	Tea	185
	Supper	191
	Holidays and Special Occasions	196
	Table of Weights and Measures	205
	Beverages	206
	Breakfast Cakes, Muffins, Tea Cakes, and Bread	212
	Breakfast Cereals and Porridges	218
	Eggs and Egg Dishes	220
	Soups	224
	Fish	229
	Removes: Meat, Game, and Poultry	236
	Entrees	243
	Vegetables	251
	Salads	257
	Provisions for Picnics	261
	Kickshaws, Pickles and Relishes	263
	Fruit and Preserves	272
	Desserts	280
	Treats	296
	Notes	301
	Bibliography	315
	Picture Credits and Descriptions	321
	Index	327

See also: Introduction to Health Science Technology or Trade Finance Handbook

Clambake: A History and Celebration of an American Tradition

Author: Kathy Neustadt

Both a loving celebration of an annual community event, the century-old Allen's neck clambake, and an insightful examination of how public rituals like it help people define who they are.

Publishers Weekly

Combining history, ethnography, reportage and essay, an independent folklore scholar offers a wealth of perspectives on the not-so-humble clambake. Prompted by a visit to the Allen's Neck Clambake, a southeastern Massachusetts institution for more than 100 years, Neustadt traces the clambake's roots to both Native American practice and invented Yankee tradition. Her earnest, effusive description of the Allen's Neck feast covers the town's heritage (Quaker, Portuguese, summer visitors) and details the anatomy and aesthetic of the clambake--from ticket sales to constructing a fire to picking clams. Neustadt is no Calvin Trillin, but for two-thirds of the book she eschews academic jargon in favor of clear prose. In a final, more academic section, she argues that none of the common analytical categories--clambake as food, festival or ritual feast--sufficiently explains the event. With its old-fashioned foods and community spirit, the clambake, she writes, affirms identity in a time when society is fragmenting. Illustrations. (Aug.)

Library Journal

The annual clambake, celebrated for over 100 years by the community of Allen's Neck in southeastern Massachusetts, is the focus of this ethnographic study. Neustadt, who has a doctorate in folklore and folk life, examines the history of the New England clambake from its Native American origin to its reinvention as a postindustrial pastime. She carefully records every aspect of properly preparing the seaside feast at Allen's Neck. She also explores the clambake's symbolic significance, revealing its importance as an expression of community identity. Recommended for academic and regional history collections.-- Eloise R. Hitchcock, Tennessee Technological Univ. Lib., Cookeville