Tell me what you cook, and I will tell you what you are.

November 20, 2024 4:57 PM

"When we initially reached out to scores of chefs, recipe writers, historians, and food luminaries for nominations for their most important American recipes of the past 100 years—Which written recipes were the most influential, pivotal, or transformative for American home cooking between 1924 and 2024?—we expected strong opinions, but we didn’t anticipate the philosophical quandaries that adjudicating and assembling them would bring up."

The 25 Most Important Recipes of the Past 100 Years, from Dan Kois and J. Bryan Lowder at Slate.

"After all, what or who confers 'importance'? Our experts do, for one thing. But we also determined it had to do with reach and scale, with the sense that a recipe represented a clear shift in some aspect of home cooking for some significant number of Americans. 'American cooking'? Rightly and necessarily a sprawling thing made by immigrants, shaped by the push and pull of assimilation, separatism, and syncretism, utterly dependent on the open migration of flavors and ideas. Last, what even is a 'recipe'? There are many excellent dishes from the past century that, upon examination, are innovations rather than discrete entities recorded for replication in the kitchen. Roasted Brussels sprouts, fajitas, chili crisp, and Spam musubi were all nominated and ultimately dismissed for this reason."


Part of a new set of articles, also titled The 25 Most Important Recipes of the Past 100 Years

posted by Frayed Knot (15 comments total)

snickerdoodle or gtfo
posted by sammyo at 5:22 PM on November 20 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed every part of reading this, and am going to try that Chicken Marbella recipe out of curiosity. I wish they had included (as a primary recommendation, not a loving also-ran) a Samin Nosrat recipe--I really think Salt Fat Acid Heat is that important, and it could replace the green pea guac thing is more a notable internet moment than a recipe moment.
posted by verbyournouns at 5:23 PM on November 20

That is a great list, but anyone who has seen the movie Dick knows that Hello Dolly bars are one of the most important American recipes ever.
posted by TedW at 5:56 PM on November 20

Green Pea Guacamole

ahem
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:23 PM on November 20

Wow, this is an awesome article. I'm really enjoy the many individuals mentioned, the discussion of all the different cookbooks and how they came to be, the journeys people took in their culinary careers - all of it.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the set. This installment was fun and inspiring.

Thank you so much for posting this, Frayed Knot!
posted by kristi at 6:31 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]

I just came here to post this, but couldn't find a way to frame it that wasn't rage-baiting. Caesar salad, Tollhouse cookies, green bean casserole, SURE. But I'm sorry BISCUITS with a date of 1976????? And NOBODY gives a shit about that goddamn green pea guacamole, it was a flash in the pan of outrage but hasn't changed anyone's guacamole ever at all, except maybe to give folks a little more pride in their guacamole that they don't put peas in.
posted by Grandysaur at 6:32 PM on November 20 [3 favorites]

Okay I RTFA and I do agree the focus on popularization of the recipes as country-wide staples is pretty cool -- like yes, people have been making enchiladas in this country for a long time, but your Boomer Aunt Dorothy probably wasn't until the cookbooks made them available to the masses. FINE. BUT THE PEA GUACAMOLE COMMENT STILL STANDS!
posted by Grandysaur at 6:40 PM on November 20

I'm surprised this glorious dish wasn't mentioned
posted by bluefrog at 6:52 PM on November 20

LIKE THEY WERE MAKING BISCUITS AND PANCAKES IN LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE! Sorry, still a bit outraged.
posted by Grandysaur at 6:55 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]

Tell me what you cook, and I will tell you what you are.

If memory serves me correctly, a yellow bell pepper, bitten into like an apple.
posted by zamboni at 7:40 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]

>that goddamn green pea guacamole (...) was a flash in the pan of outrage

I think that's the point, Grandysaur; they're using it as a marker of an early controversy about cultural appropriation driven by twitterati (notably satirized in this SLYT skit). There may be earlier examples of this kind of backlash, but I think the authors' point is that this is a turning point in the discourse around food, rather than the guac itself being interesting on a culinary level.
posted by choom at 7:52 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]

I think they were right to include the abominable pea guacamole. It was a legit cultural moment.

Also I have had Chicken Marbella and it is tasty. Make it!
posted by janell at 7:54 PM on November 20

The bit about the Last Word cocktail is as strange as its choice.
posted by slkinsey at 8:50 PM on November 20 [1 favorite]

Thrilled to see the Roberto soup listed here. I normally don't get too enthused about canned tomatoes and beans in combination, but it really is an incredible soup. Just tonight, actually, I finished the last serving from the freezer that I made in this batch.

Its versatility is matched only by its ability to put many servings of vegetables into a bowl that is neither cold nor crunchy (disqualifying traits, this time of year).
posted by mediterranean spurge at 9:34 PM on November 20

Biscuitgate has caused me to go back over the posted article for a definition of terms. Is there something about the American biscuit -- flour, lard, baking powder -- that was transformative in 1924 or after? Which raises the question: "Why am I so bothered by a silly list of the sort that always bothers me?"

BTW, I think some soul food should be on that list (chicken and waffles isn't really what I'm talking about) because it really was an integral part of a momentous cultural/political transformation for Black America.
posted by CCBC at 11:17 PM on November 20