8 episodes
Cooking is Community: The Community Cookbook Podcast Karl Schatz, Margaret Hathaway, Don Lindgren
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- Arts
You know these cookbooks, and you probably have at least one in your kitchen. They’re collections of home cooked recipes, put together by church groups, synagogues, school groups, political organizations, band boosters, and even biker gangs. They’re held together with stitches, comb binding, staples, or string. They’re photocopied, mimeographed, handwritten, sometimes typed out page by page. All of these books are defined by a community, with recipes collected from that community, and put together with the goal of raising money to benefit a cause within the community. These cookbooks are endlessly interesting. They illuminate various communities, share heartfelt recipes, and demonstrate creativity and grassroots publishing. They exist at the intersection of technology, home economy, advertising and marketing, and food safety, and bring more than 150 years of American history to life.
The three of us collaborated on publishing the Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook. As we’ve delved deeper into these marvelous books, we’ve discovered a shared passion for these fascinating and humble cookbooks. We want to share this love with others, and so we made a podcast!
In each episode, we’ll look at a single community cookbook and examine it as a physical object, a reflection of community, and a source of recipes from a very specific time and place. We’ll talk about why it’s interesting and what it says about the community it came from. We’ll interview special guests, and we’ll try a recipe or two from the cookbook’s pages.
In season one we're focusing on community cookbooks from Maine. In season two we'll begin to bounce around the USA in search of the country's most interesting community cookbooks!
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Midwestern Specialty Cookbook Publishers
On this bonus episode of the podcast, we’re continuing our conversation from Episode 5: Out in the Kitchen: A Cookbook for those with Non-Discriminating Taste compiled in 1995 by Maine Won’t Discriminate, a political coalition based in Portland, Maine. The cookbook was compiled in Portland, but it was printed and published by a specialty cookbook publisher, Cookbook Publishers, inc., based in Lenexa, Kansas. We ran out of time in the last episode to include our conversation about the development of specialty community cookbook publishers that took place in the second half of 1900’s. We wanted to share some of that conversation with you today.
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Out in the Kitchen: A Cookbook...For Those With Non-Discriminating Taste [Portland, Maine • 1995]
On this episode of the podcast, we’re celebrating Pride Month and talking about Out in the Kitchen: A Cookbook for those with non-discriminating taste compiled in 1995 by Maine Won’t Discriminate, a political coalition based in Portland, Maine. The cookbook was raising money to fight an anti-gay rights referendum that was on the ballot in Maine in the mid-1990s. We talk with Susan Sanders and Nancy Wanderer who were part of Maine Won’t Discriminate, and have 8 recipes in the book. And for our cooking segment, Karl made Nancy and Susan’s recipe for Spanakopeeta, Margaret made Tom Andrews’ Wicked Good Maine Lobster Chili and Backyard Rhubarb Pie, and Don made Oyster Dip and Gougeres.
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Far Away and Downeast: Recipes from the Maine Refugee Community [Portland, Maine • circa 1986]
On this episode of the podcast, we’re talking about Far Away and Downeast: Recipes from the Maine Refugee Community published in the mid-80s by the Refugee Resettlement Program of Diocesan Human Relations Services in Portland. The cookbook represents a wide range of refugee communities in Maine including Afghan, Cambodian, Cuban, Iranian, Laotian, Polish, and Vietnamese. We’re going to talk with Selby Frame, who was one of the editors and compilers of the cookbook, and for today’s recipe segment, Margaret made Sangkya, Cambodian steamed custard in a squash!
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Lewiston Band Booster Club Cook Book [Lewiston, Maine • 1955]
On our third episode, we’re talking about the Lewiston Band Booster Club Cook Book, compiled in 1955 by members of the Band Booster Club of Lewiston, Maine. This cookbook has some really cool features -- all the recipes, artwork, and even the ads were all done by hand, and we know by whose hand as well! We talk to Kobe Cohen, who was a senior at Lewiston High School in 1955, played saxophone in the band, and was the chairman of the student advertising committee for the cookbook. And for today’s recipe segment, Karl boiled a tongue.
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The Orono Cook Book [Orono, Maine • 1906]
On our second episode, we’re talking about The Orono Cook Book, compiled in 1906 by the Ladies of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Orono, Maine. This cookbook is full of fantastic turn of the century advertisements from a wide variety of local businesses, and a few national brands, too. We’ll talk to Anthony Sammarco who literally wrote the book on the history The Baker Chocolate Company -- they’ve got an ad in the book -- and we’ll share the results from the recipes we made, including something called a “Puffet!” Finally, you won’t want to miss our conversation with Olympic Gold Medalist Joan Benoit Samulson about men’s clothing. What does that have to do with community cookbooks? Make sure to listen!
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Fish, Flesh and Fowl [Portland, Maine • 1877]
Today we’re talking about "Fish, Flesh and Fowl," the very first community cookbook from Maine, published in 1877 by the Ladies of the State Street Parish in Portland. We’re joined by current members of the State Street Church, Camy Barrantes and Jane Lindquist, and we share the results from cooking a few of the recipes from the book: Bannock, Cabbage Salad, and Queen of Puddings.