Discover How America Eats: Traditional & Modern American Food Culture | Home Cooking, Restaurant Dining & Food Trends

Product Description

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960. Hardcover. Very Good Plus. Book club edition.

Clementine Paddleford (1898–1967), the energetic food editor of the New York Herald Tribune, was one of the great documenters of the sprawling, eclectic American way of cooking and eating. After 12 years of research and 800,000 miles of travel, visiting nearly every state in the union, Paddleford collected more than two thousand recipes.

A selection of these are collected in her 1960 book, How America Eats, arranged under the headings of 42 states and a number of other local inflections (Philadelphia, Boston, Cape Cod, Long Island). She provides excellent head-notes, dealing with both the contributors and the historic roots of the dishes, and providing an arresting demonstration of the pastiche character of “American food.” 

Drawing on “word of mouth hand-downs from mother to daughter” and inserting herself in small, niche communities like fishing villages and hobo conventions, Paddleford evades the trap of establishing sweeping definitions for regional cuisines and rather demonstrates just what it is that any and all eat around the country. 

Our copy of this nearly 500 page book is in Very Good Plus condition, though the dust jacket shows some chipping and closed tears about the edges. Book club edition. Very good reading and good cooking too.