The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors

An excellent cookbook from a very questionable source.  Read this and follow your conscience

I have mixed feelings about reviewing The Frugal Gourmet On Our Immigrant Ancestors. On one hand, it's a nice thick cookbook filled with diverse and excellent recipes. On the other hand, it was written by Jeff Smith, the Frugal Gourmet.

Ordinarily, when reviewing a book, I don't feel the need to take the writer's personal life into consideration. However, I live in the Puget Sound area. I have read with growing concern numerous local news stories about several young men who made specific and credible allegations of child molestation against Jeff Smith, and of these complaints being quietly settled out of court. No matter how personable, talented or telegenic a person may seem to be in public, I believe the community must hold him responsible for his illegal private behavior. It gives me pause to think that I might be supporting, through my purchases, a sexual predator—and it seems to me worthwhile to point out this information to those who plan on purchasing his cookbooks.

Now that I've made my disclaimer, let's focus on the book itself. Any cookbook on the immigrant cuisines of the United States could be easily two or three times as thick—there are U.S. immigrants from literally every corner of the world (thus the subtitle "Recipes you should have gotten from your grandmother"). This book focuses on 35 different nationalities from Armenia to Yugoslavia; most categories contain varied enough recipes that you could conceivably create a themed feast from each chapter.

As with all Frugal Gourmet books, the opening glossary contains a definitive list of kitchen equipment, cooking terms, and a description of specific or unusual ingredients used in some of the recipes. Helpful hints on how to perform numerous kitchen tasks are scattered throughout the book. Smith employs a friendly, folksy writing style very much in keeping with his banter on the TV show.

Speaking as a cook of average abilities, I enjoyed a number of the recipes in this book. We've tried and liked the "haute cuisine" version of Beef Stroganoff in the Russian Immigrants section, learned how to make authentic sweet-yet-savory German rotkohl (red cabbage), even summoned up the bravery to host a Japanese food party where we hand-rolled maki-zushi—and it was good, too!

I have to question the use of the word "frugal" to describe many of these recipes. Some of the ingredients will have you up and down the aisles of pricey specialty markets—and if you have to shell out $50 for a three-ounce jar of product, I don't call that frugality. However, many of these recipes came to the New World because they were both tasty and inexpensive to make. You should also be aware that "healthy cooking" is a relatively recent development in most world cuisines—many of these recipes are quite high in fat and shouldn't be part of your daily diet, more of an occasional indulgence. But they are indeed delicious.

One final comment: if you're thinking about purchasing this book, might I suggest you visit a second-hand bookstore?

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