Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald
"With pugnacious wit, Meg Muckenhoupt offers a forceful case for replacing traditional Yankee fare as New England’s definitive cuisine with the ethnic and everyday dishes that New Englanders have actually eaten for the past century-and-a-half. It’s high time to update the region's food story and Muckenhoupt’s account kicks off the discussion in lively fashion. It invites, and will doubtless elicit, equally lively rejoinders."
Résonance - Megan St. Marie
"Equal parts history book, cookbook, and cultural criticism, Meg Muckenhoupt’s The Truth about Baked Beans: An Edible History of New England serves up a satisfying, delectable read that just might give Yankee stalwarts a hint of indigestion. Throughout, Muckenhoupt challenges prevailing notions about so-called traditional New England dishes while advocating an expansive, more inclusive vision of the history of the region’s cuisine—and of its future."
Lakeville Journal
"A very entertaining, informative and ... useful food history/cookbook ... Snappy and entertaining."
Lucy Margaret Long
"In this very readable and informative account, Meg Muckenhoupt skillfully demonstrates how food can be used to ‘read’ history, illustrating how and why the imagery surrounding iconic foods of this region developed and persisted. Her intertwining of archival data, ethnographic observations, and cultural studies scholarship offers enticing insights into foods frequently used in national celebrations as well as for everyday meals, making this book relevant to anyone interested in American cuisine."
Paul Freedman
"Like a carving knife cutting up a Thanksgiving turkey, Muckenhoupt deftly takes apart legends about New England cuisine. Showing us the recent and invented ‘traditions’ about all sorts of ye olde foods, from Boston Baked Beans to Cranberry Sauce, Muckenhoupt reveals the multi-ethnic New England behind the Yankee image; the real-world fish-sticks as well as the pseudo-traditional clambake. Thanksgiving will never seem the same."
NOVEMBER 2020 - AudioFile
Caroline Hewitt narrates this audiobook with a dramatic focus on the text. She may mispronounce a word here or there, but she reads at a good pace with keen timing as she captures the author’s gleeful evisceration of myths and misunderstandings relating to New England cuisine. Author Muckenhoupt takes to task almost every New England food possible: baked beans (today overly sugared) did not come down from local tribes; the great fish runs of yore have been either dammed or overheated by global warming; bitter cranberries should have stayed in the bogs as Ocean Spray is almost a cartel; Vermont artisanal cheese is being made by interlopers. The listener who yearns for a celebration of New England food might want to skip this audiobook. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
