On the Table - the curious home of Gary Allen, Food Writer & Dillettante

It’s been a hot, wet summer around here—and mushrooms are popping up everywhere. Alas, not all of them are chanterelles, black trumpets, or the more savory species of bolete. Fortunately, summer provides a host of tastier alternatives—and endless choices of seasonally- (and age-) appropriate libations.
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This month’s quotes (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection) continue our celebration of summer.

The egg creams of Avenue A in New York and the root beer float are among the high points of American gastronomic inventiveness. Mark Kurlansky 

Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he will sit in the boat and drink beer all day. OldFox 

He is no true fisherman who is willing to fish only when fish are biting. Grover Cleveland 

In the Barbecue is any four footed animal—be it mouse or mastodon—whose dressed carcass is roasted whole... at its best it is a fat steer, and must be eaten within an hour of when it is cooked. For if ever the sun rises upon Barbecue, its flavor vanishes like Cinderella's silks, and it becomes cold baked beef—staler in the chill dawn than illicit love. William Allen White 

The story of barbecue is the story of America: Settlers arrive on great unspoiled continent, discover wondrous riches, set them on fire and eat them. Vince Staten 

For each glass, liberally large, the basic ingredients begin with ice cubes in a shaker and three or four drops of Angostura bitters on the ice cubes. Add several twisted lemon peels to the shaker, then a bottle-top of dry vermouth, a bottle-top of Scotch, and multiply the resultant liquid content by five with gin, preferably Bombay Sapphire. Add more gin if you think it is too bland... I have been told, but have no personal proof that it is true, that three of these taken in the course of an evening make it possible to fly from New York to Paris without an airplane. Isaac Stern

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Applying Concepts from Historical Archaeology to New England’s Nineteenth-Century Cookbooks
(Anne Yentsch’s article in Northeast Historical Archaeology; PDF)
Case for Eating Small Fish, The
(John Donohue’s article, in The New Yorker, on the ecological, nutritional, and economic advantages of eating bait)
Cooking Pot, The
(history of one-pot cooking; proceedings of the 1988 Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery)
Dark Side of the Truffle Trade, The
(Ryan Jacobs’ article, in The Atlantic, on the fungal underground)
Dining with Darius
(Rachel Laudan on power and provender in ancient Persia; in The Cairo Review of Global Affairs)
Fabled Flatbreads of Uzbekistan, The
(Eric Hansen’s article in Aramco World)
First Kitchen, The
(Laura Shapiro’s New Yorker article on the horrors of dining in FDR’s White House) 
Foods Americans Once Loved to Eat, The
(Li Zhou, on some forgotten dishes, in Smithsonian magazine)
foodseum
(“Chicago’s Food Museum,” a work in progress)
Gerard’s 1597 Herball
(digitized pages from a copy in the collection of the University of Oklahoma Libraries)
Illustrated Guide to Indian Vegetables, An
(Michael Snyder’s article at Lucky Peach)
Knockout Blow for American Fish Stocks, A
(Gib Brogan, in The New York Times, on environmental threats to New England’s fishery)
Little Library Café, The
(a collection of recipes, inspired by literature)
Magnificent Lie Behind Champagne, The
(no, it wasn’t Dom Perignon in the Abbey of Hautvillers)
Mid-century Menu
(RetroRuth said a mouthful: “It was a long, painful and sometimes disgusting road that lead to our current national gourmand status.”)
Naturally Cured Meats: Quality, Safety, and Chemistry
(Gary Anthony Sullivan’s doctoral dissertation; PDF)
Oxford Symposium Downloads
(searchable archive of papers presented at Oxford’s fabulous Food and Cookery conference)
True Place of Science in Gastronomy, The
(Len Fisher’s talk at 2015 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery)
Vegetable Detective, The
(Todd Oppenheimer’s article, in Craftsmanship, on the occurrence of heavy metals in cruciferous vegetables, even organic kale )
What It’s Like To Go A Year Without Processed Food
(Kate Bratskeir’s Huffington Post interview with Megan Kimble, author of Unprocessed: My City-dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food)
When Taste Is a Trade Issue
(Jack Ewing’s New York Times article on the legal, economic, political, and cultural differences that influence our cheese choices)
White House Orders Review of Rules for Genetically Modified Crops
(Andrew Pollack, on the Obama administration’s attempts to deal with this contentious subject in The New York Times)
5 Reasons Why Writers Should Blog
Agents & Editors: A Conversation With Four Literary Agents
Ask an Editor: How Do You Create A Stunning Visual Identity?
Get Started on Twitter in 7 Simple Steps
How to Publish on Wattpad
aashpaz
DL Acken Photographer
five o’clock teaspoon
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