Toasted marshmallows stuffed with raisins? Green-and-white luncheons? Chemistry in the kitchen? This entertaining and erudite social history, now in its fourth paperback edition, tells the remarkable story of America's transformation from a nation of honest appetites into an obedient market for instant mashed potatoes. In Perfection Salad, Laura Shapiro investigates a band of passionate but ladylike reformers at the turn of the twentieth century—including Fannie Farmer of the Boston Cooking School—who were determined to modernize the American diet through a "scientific" approach to cooking. Shapiro's fascinating tale shows why we think the way we do about food today.
Perfection Salad Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century, With a New Afterword
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About the Book
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE: Toasted Marshmallows Stuffed with Raisins
ONE: Drudgery Divine
TWO: And the Kitchen Becomes the Workshop of the Skies
THREE: Better Ways, Lighter Burdens, More Wholesome Results
FOUR: Perfection Salad
FIVE: The Mother of Level Measurements
SIX: Whoever Knew a Dyspeptic to Be a Christian?
SEVEN: Foes in Our Own Household
EIGHT: An Absolutely New Product
CONCLUSION: A Leaf or Two of Lettuce
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index