The Art of Korean Cooking

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    • #49330
      stanford
      Participant

      I stumbled across this blog the other day:
      http://oneforkonespoon.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/the-art-of-korean-cooking-in-1959/

      The author got this neat Korean cookbook from 1959, in English, written by missionary Harriet Morris. The blogger notes that there is no doenjang or gochujang in any of the recipes (!) in an effort to modify the recipes to fit the western palate.

      Remember that in 1959 American cooking was dead bland. It was ripe for a bit of a revolution.

      That revolution came a few years later in 1961 with the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. At that time in America, it was considered weird to cook with eggs! Julia Child introduced eggs and more, and like Harriet she also modified French cuisine to fit American kitchens. It sounds like she did a better job of balancing authenticity with practicality: she was a trained chef, remember, who researched and wrote her book over years.

      Still, it’s fun to imagine how different western cuisine would be today if Harriet’s book had been better than Julia’s. We would have grown up with kimchi rather than quiche.

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    • #53330
      Pure_Hapa
      Member

      Cool – thanks for the link. When my Korean mom came to the states she had to learn how to cook “American” food in the 60s – oh dear! Canned vegetables every day, pot roasts, limp spaghetti and meat balls. Thank goodness when we moved somewhere and she could actually find some Korean ingredients. I preferred eating Miyuk guk and rice and kimchi for lunch rather than Sloppy Joes, LOL!

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