Nothing More Comforting: Canada's Heritage Food

by Dorothy Duncan

Overview

Nothing More Comforting is a reflection of our society: an eclectic mix of many different cultures and traditions. Dorothy Duncan – with her extensive knowledge of heritage foods – has chosen her favourite "Country Fare" columns from the popular Century Home magazine for this wonderful book on Canada’s heritage cuisine. Each chapter focuses on one particular food or ingredient followed by historical facts and traditional recipes for you to try at home. Fast food restaurants and instant foods will never replace our seasonal and regional specialties: maple syrup, fiddleheads, rhubarb (pie plant to our ancestors), asparagus, corn on the cob, Saskatoon berries and McIntosh apples. The recipes in this book take advantage of Canada’s unique foods, creating a taste that is distinctly Canadian. Nothing More Comforting will provide the avid as well as the armchair cook with interesting food facts and new recipes to try.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459706705
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	09/29/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Dorothy Duncan's experience in the heritage field includes Executive Director of The Ontario Historical Society and Museums Advisor for the Province of Ontario. Her accomplishments include the restoration of heritage homes including Mackenzie House in Toronto and Macdonald House in Winnipeg. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Museums Association, the Association for the Study of Food and Society, and a member of Cuisine Canada. Dorothy is an international lecturer on Canada's culinary history.

Dorothy Duncan has worked with organizations across Canada and around the world to ensure that Canada's culinary history is recognized, researched, and recorded. In 2007 her book Canadians at Table won the Cuisine Canada and University of Guelph Culinary Book Gold Award. She lives in Orillia, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Preface
Maple Magic
Signs of Spring
Preserve the Pie Plant
Herbs of Grace
Savoury Seasonings
Gone to Seed
Ginger It Up
Is There a Devil in the Dairy?
More Cheese, Please
Sunny Side Up
The Staff of Life
Tell the Bees We Need Them
Fairy Rings and Other Magic Morels
Catch of the Day
The Sweet Strawberry
Berry Delicious!
Bountiful Blueberries
A Bowl of Cherries
In Praise of the Peach
Bring Back the Beet!
Know Your Onions
Toothsome Tomatoes
The Indispensable Potato
A Cavalcade of Corn
Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater
Of Cabbages and Kings
Pear Essentials
An Apple a Day
Rewards of the Harvest
High on the Hog
Celebrating Cranberries
Festive Fowl and Forcemeat
The Proof Is in the Pudding

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"[Nothing More Comforting] features charming, scholarly mini essays and historical recipes."

"[Nothing More Comforting] features charming, scholarly mini essays and historical recipes."

Editorial Reviews

"Mustard on your hotdog? Of course. But did you know that Pliny the Elder, the 1st century AD Roman writer, reported that mustard could be used to cure hysterical swooning females? This is just one of the intriguing facts presented by Dorothy Duncan in her examination of the history of the foods which appear regularly on our tables...

Several recipes are given in each chapter. Many are old time favourites: baked beans, butter tarts, and chile sauce; others are the less common sugar plums, cherry soup, and beet chutney. Regional recipes such as prairie saskatoon pie, and Newfoundland fish and brewis, as well as cabbage rolls, egg fu yong, and snitz pie, give a geographical and cultural breadth to the collection.

This is a fine book to dip into, or to read cover to cover at one sitting. A word of caution: if you are not in the habit of having a night-time snack, don't read those recipes in bed!

York Pioneer and Historical Society Update - Jeanine Avigdor

The greatest value of the book is the basic recipes, which repeatedly make something of nothing. If groceries are low or the pocketbook light, you can turn to Duncan and the economy of the Confederation-era homestead for simple and delicious answers.”

St. John Telegraph-Journal

"This cookbook focuses on unique Canadian foods and traditional recipes, with chapters on Canadian favorites like maple syrup, Saskatoon berries and rhubarb. Author Dorothy Duncan adds food facts to give a historical context to the recipes."

'Top 5 Canadian Cookbooks' Canada Online - Susan Munroe

"Nothing More Comforting, hot off the press from... culinary historian Dorothy Duncan, is a collection of her best Country Fare columns originally featured in Century Home magazine. Each chapter of this compact 5 x 7" book focuses on a particular food or ingredient and includes updated recipes for traditional favourites. From Preserve the Pie Plant (rhubarb) to Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater and Pear Essentials, chapters are laced with stories of our Canadian heritage and graced with the writer's humour."

Women's Culinary Network News - Gillian Tsintziras

"[Nothing More Comforting] features charming, scholarly mini essays and historical recipes."

Toronto Star - Susan Sampson

“The greatest value of the book is the basic recipes, which repeatedly make something of nothing. If groceries are low or the pocketbook light, you can turn to Duncan and the economy of the Confederation-era homestead for simple and delicious answers.”

From the Publisher