Secret Ingredients

A series of fascinating chapters analyze cookery books through the ages. From the convenience-food cookbooks of the 1950s, to the 1960s I Hate to Cook book, to the 1980s rise in 'white trash' cookbooks, and the surprise success of the Two Fat Ladies books from the 1990s, leading author Sherrie Inness discusses how women have used such books over the years to protest social norms. Other work on cooking culture deals with gender stereotyping and traditional roles for women, but Inness argues that cookbooks have always had a political agenda. Exploring a fifty-year span, this book demonstrates how cooking literature continues to be a valuable tool for understanding how race, class and ethnicity are constructed.