Food Sleuth

December 5, 2021 12:45 PM

Ages ago, Ruth Reichl interviewed Ian Dengler about American food culture Now, Reichl has a blog/newsletter at substack and she has posted that article.

If you go to the newsletter, you will find the original article, with inserts describing actual Thanksgiving meals.
Ruth Reichl is an American food legend. For many years, she was the editor in chief of Gourmet which closed in 2009

posted by mumimor (15 comments total)

Ooooh thanks for the link! And it was lovely to remember Greens, that wonderful vegetarian restaurant in San Francisco - I used to live in SF and I miss Greens.
posted by brainwane at 12:56 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

This must have been astounding to the subjects whose dinners this guy analyzed. Like a combination of Sherlock Holmes, a Master sommelier, and a carnival mentalist.
posted by JimInLoganSquare at 1:21 PM on December 5, 2021 [5 favorites]

If Dengler is still around, I bet he's finding this a lot harder nowadays. There may still be a lot of family Thanksgiving menu traditions, but there has also been a lot of mobility between regions, a lot of cultural cross-fertilization due to families themselves become more diverse, and a lot of menu ideas traveling around the internet that were not so easily shared and found, thirty years ago when this piece was written. So today the Thanksgiving table for many people is no longer a straightforward reflection of their family heritage.
posted by beagle at 1:39 PM on December 5, 2021 [5 favorites]

Fantastic article, thanks!

If Dengler is still around, I bet he's finding this a lot harder nowadays.

Maybe, but he also has a bunch more information at his fingertip. He could research things such as, when certain types of recipes were popular online and what types of subcultures would be likely to see them. And of course, the way that tastes map to class lines remain as clear as ever in many ways.
posted by ropeladder at 2:07 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

LAT version of the same story.
posted by Ideefixe at 2:29 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

“She mentioned all the traditional pies, but she didn’t mention mincemeat,” says Dengler. “That’s significant. Jewish families rarely eat mincemeat pie and often don’t even know what it is.”

I mean, this tracks. (WTF is mincemeat and why on earth would the goyim eat it on Thanksgiving?)
posted by BlahLaLa at 3:23 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

My southern non-Jewish family never made mincemeat pie, in fact I don't think I've ever been offered it. Maybe it's a regional thing?
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:43 PM on December 5, 2021

Is the "mincemeat" referred to here fruit mince?
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 4:18 PM on December 5, 2021

My mother made mincemeat pies for the holidays. There's no meat, just dried or candied fruit. They are delicious, IMO. If you like fruitcake, you will like mincemeat.
posted by Bee'sWing at 4:26 PM on December 5, 2021 [4 favorites]

I'm a sucker for old menus, and a sucker for Ruth Reichl, and here's both in one place. Thank you.
posted by offalark at 5:14 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

"They are delicious, IMO"

They are traditional xmas fare here in New Zealand, but also polarising. Some (including me) love them but others find them disgusting. To my amusement when I typed "fruit mince hate" into Google, it responded did you mean fruit mince hat, which certainly would be not be popular...

Anyway, think of them as goyishe hamantashen.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:21 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

fruit mince hat

Which, incidentally, is the name of my new 60's psychedelic rock album.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:37 PM on December 5, 2021

In the original article:

Cottage cheese. He once told me that his favorite meal was canned baked beans, cold, mixed with cottage cheese.

I'm glad this person has found their personal happiness, but it is hard to imagine a dish further from my own tastes.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:37 PM on December 5, 2021 [1 favorite]

when I typed "fruit mince hate" into Google, it responded did you mean fruit mince hat, which certainly would be not be popular...

Anyway, think of them as goyishe hamantashen.

Well, since hamantaschen means "Haman's hat," you DID mean "fruit mince hat," and maybe they would be popular, since plenty of folks do like hamantaschen.
posted by dlugoczaj at 6:55 AM on December 6, 2021

Uh. They look like a tricorn hat (which might date when they became a thing) but "hat" in Yiddish is "hut"; a "tash" is a pocket or pouch (the pastries are stuffed). Sorry to ruin a good gag with pedantry.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:21 AM on December 6, 2021