America's Founding Food

“[A] classic tome.” — CHOICE

“Helps us read between the lines of cookbooks as consumer guides. . . . Makes a convincing argument that a very self-conscious New England, proud of its contributions to the establishment of democracy in America, set in the 1800s a foodways pattern much copied across the country. We will become the wiser as we observe how that pattern was overturned in more recent times.” — Gastronomica

“The authors' careful, scholarly account emphasizes social change and its influence on gastronomy.” — Times Literary Supplement

“[America’s Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking] is an ambitious culinary history. . . . Important reading for people interested in the history of New England and its food.” — Common-place

“Stavely and Fitzgerald . . . provide a thoroughly researched, well-referenced, and fluently written history of New England cooking, largely centered on the colonial through the federalist periods. In doing so, they ask important questions . . . that make the story compelling, more than a survey of foods eaten and cooked. They meet their goal of approaching the subject with 'both appreciation and skepticism' and do so in inventive ways, showing the dramatic cultural and economic evolution of New England foodways. . . . America’s Founding Food surveys the legacy of New England food history in an accessible way.” — CHOICE

“Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald provide a reliable account of New England cooking and its development.” — New England Quarterly

“This is a serious book for serious cooks. It should be on the shelf of every public library and school library in New England. Every visitor to New England should read it on the plane going home to learn the amazing stories behind the region’s hearty chowders, boiled lobsters, Boston baked beans, and broiled scrod.” — Joseph Carlin, founder and owner of Food Heritage Press

“If anyone doubts that culinary and cultural history are one, or doubts that cookbooks are documents rich in revelation, let them read this book. Weaving a narrative from the contradictory voices of the past, the authors investigate the cooking of New England in a way that re-evaluates the founding of America.” — Betty Fussell

“Much that has been written about New England culinary history has been largely based on culinary fakelore invented in modern times. Stavely and Fitzgerald pull together a vast array of research that corrects many of these misconceptions and offers the best evidence of what and how early New Englanders ate and how this changed over three hundred years. America’s Founding Food will become a standard work in culinary history.” — Andrew F. Smith, author of Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea