“Cheese is at once a testament to the Creator’s ingenuity in providing enzymes and bacteria that will do fearful and wonderful things for milk and to man’s audacity in the face of some pretty forbidding stuff. The blander varieties, of course, are hardly more alarming than milk itself; but the farther reaches of the subject …
Just Plain Eat
“Against all the propaganda for fancy eating and plain cooking, I hope to persuade you to cook fancy and just plain eat. First of all, it is better for your soul. Only a daily renewed astonishment at things as they are can save us from the idols” (Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb, …
Next to Godliness
“Woks and iron skillets should be rinsed and wiped, never washed. If someone comes along and tells you cleanliness is next to godliness, the proper answer is, ‘Yes — next. Right now I’m working on godliness'” (Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb, p. 142).
But a Concession to Nutritional Knowledge is Not a Concession to Nutritional Mysticism
“Does he seriously hope to pass off this rhapsody on meat and starch as a treatise on cooking? Does he actually think that anyone who has the least notion of what is involved in a balanced diet would condescend to settle down in the waistland of gravy and spaetzle he praises so extravagantly? Well, believe …
A Triumph of Glutinosity
“It is in strudel dough that the glutinous properties of flour enter the new Jerusalem in a triumph of elasticity” (Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb, p. 118).
Bread That Laughs and Sings
“While God gives me meat in due season and the sensibilities with which to relish the gift, I refuse to sit down to eat and rise up only to have picked and fussed my way through the goodness of the earth . . . It is bread that strengthens man’s heart; it is the valleys …
Glory in Butter
“One last secret. There is almost no sauce that will not be improved by having a lump of butter whisked into it the moment before it is served. In addition to what it does for the flavor, it provides the sauce itself with a patina, a sheen which delights the eye even before the palate …
Small Immensities
“The processes involved in sauce making are hardly as dramatic as the driving of great engines, but they testify no less to the brooding of the Spirit upon the face of creation, to the endless speaking of the Word Who mightily and sweetly orders all things. Unfortunately, we live in an age which is too …
What Would Melzar Think?
After services yesterday, I was asked a good question about my series on food. Do I believe that there was a miracle when Daniel and his three friends refused the king’s meat and wine, and came out of a ten day test healthier than the stable-fed Babylonians? The first response was the one I offered …
Eating Healthy and the Feminine Ideal
Just a few quick observations about food, the created order and body image. We will have to deal with this in more detail later, but it should be mentioned in this series of posts early on — because it really is such a huge player. When a girl who is hovering on the edge of …