Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie: Midwestern Writers on Food

by Peggy Wolff (Editor), Peggy Wolff (Introduction)

Overview

With its corn by the acre, beef on the hoof, Quaker Oats, and Kraft Mac n' Cheese, the Midwest eats pretty well and feeds the nation on the side. But there's more to the midwestern kitchen and palate than the farm food and sizable portions the region is best known for beyond its borders. It is to these heartland specialties, from the heartwarming to the downright weird, that Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie invites the reader.

The volume brings to the table an illustrious gathering of thirty midwestern writers with something to say about the gustatory pleasures and peculiarities of the region. In a meditation on comfort food, Elizabeth Berg recalls her aunt's meatloaf. Stuart Dybek takes us on a school field trip to a slaughtering house, while Peter Sagal grapples with the ethics of paté. Parsing Cincinnati five-way chili, Robert Olmstead digresses into questions of Aztec culture. Harry Mark Petrakis reflects on owning a South Side Chicago lunchroom, while Bonnie Jo Campbell nurses a sweet tooth through a fudge recipe in the Joy of Cooking and Lorna Landvik nibbles her way through the Minnesota State Fair. These are just a sampling of what makes Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie--with its generous helpings of laughter, culinary confession, and information--an irresistible literary feast.

Peggy Wolff has written on food and food culture for publications including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, and Orlando Sentinel. She is the food editor for REALIZE Magazine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803236455
Publisher:	Nebraska Paperback
Publication date:	11/01/2013
Series:	At Table
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

 Peggy Wolff has written on food and food culture for publications including the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, and Orlando Sentinel. She is the food editor for REALIZE Magazine.
 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Midwestern Staples

In the Midwest, It's Meatloaf Elizabeth Berg 3

Field Trips Stuart Dybek 9

Easter Island Almondine Thom Jones 15

The Sandwich That Is Chicago Michael Stern 23

Cincinnati Five-Way Chili: Still Legal Robert Olmstead 33

Corn in Heaven Jacquelyn Mitchard 39

Let Them Eat Pâté Peter Sagal 45

High on the Hog Jon Yates 49

The Chef and the Farmer Gale Gand 57

Recipe: Goat Cheese Panna Cotta with Caramelized Figs 62

Distant Cultures

Art's Lunch Harry Mark Petrakis 65

A Tale of Two Tamales Carol Mighton Haddix 77

Recipe: Beef Brisket, Savory Cherry Compote, and Jalapeño Cheese Tamales 83

Le Dog, Ann Arbor, Michigan Jules Van Dyck-Dobos 87

The Night of the Rhubarb Kuchen Anne Dimock 93

Recipes: Rhubarb Kram; Rhubarb Kuchen with Almond Meringue 98

The Black Migration Donna Pierce 103

Eat Now Phyllis Florin 111

The Door County Fish Boil Peggy Wolff 119

Recipes: White Gull Inn Door County Cherry Pie; White Gull Inn Fish Boil Recipe for Home Cooks 128

Holidays, Fairs, and Events

Thrill Food John Markus 133

Under the Checkered Flag Melanie Benjamin 137

Bicentennial Pie Timothy Bascom 147

So You'll Diet Tomorrow Lorna Landvik 155

Thanksgiving Dinner Mary Kay Shanley 163

Recipe: Thanksgiving Stuffing with Cast-Iron Skillet Corn Bread 173

A Full Belly

The Tam-O-Shanter, Lincoln, Nebraska Sherrie Flick 177

What Was Served Douglas Bauer 185

Tomorrowland Peter Meehan 195

I'll Eat Columbus Molly O'Neill 201

On Cider, Cornmeal, and Comfort Robin Mather 209

Recipe: Buttermilk Doughnuts with Cider Glaze 217

The Midwestern Sweet Tooth

The Great American Pie Expedition Sue Hubbell 221

The Old Sweetness Bonnie Jo Campbell 227

Recipe: Fudge 231

The Little Cake Pan That Could Bonny Wolf 239

Recipes: Chocolate Pistachio Cake; Ella Helfrich's Tunnel of Fudge Cake 243

When a Pie Is More Than a Pie Jeremy Jackson 247

Recipe: Mildred Jackson's Lemon-y Cream Pie 255

Source Acknowledgments 257

What People are Saying About This

Deborah Madison

“Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie—what an eyeful! I so enjoyed reading these personal accounts of midwestern foods and the stories they tell, which is food plus people, place, and history. As Peggy Wolff says at the start, food is not just food; it’s the experience that counts—where you are and who you are with. And that is just what these stories are about: the bigger picture of food that makes its memory poignant and worth telling.”—Deborah Madison, author of Vegetable Literacy

Laura Shapiro

“Fried biscuits, Creole-style spaghetti, carrot shavings in Jell-O, and perfect peach cobbler—this is the food that haunts midwesterners throughout their lives, and it’s inspired a collection of evocative essays by some of the region's most appealing writers.”—Laura Shapiro, author of Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America

Editorial Reviews

08/19/2013
Food writer Wolff, who grew up in the Midwest and still resides there, has amassed a brilliant collection of Heartland food stories. The contents of the book range from essays by novelists (Elizabeth Berg, Jaquelyn Mitchard, and others) to works by newspaper columnists, cookbook authors, and chefs. Some are humorous; others are nostalgic, or are filled with fascinating historical facts and tidbits. The collection is organized into four major parts: “Midwestern Staples” (including an in-depth look at Chicago’s Italian beef sandwiches by Michael Stern and an ode to the fried pork tenderloin sandwich by Jon Yates); “Distant Cultures,” in which Minnesotan Anne Dimock and others examine the foods that arrived with various immigrants (in her case, rhubarb, a German-Scandinavian dessert essential for pie, kuchen, and kram); “Holidays, Fairs, and Events” (readers will be amply sated by Lorna Landvik’s culinary tour of the Minnesota State Fair); “A Full Belly” (including Douglas Bauer’s view of his mother’s hard work in her Iowa farm kitchen) and “The Midwestern Sweet Tooth” (Bundt cakes, fudge, and beyond, as in “When a Pie Is More Than a Pie” by cookbook writer Jeremy Jackson). The 30 essays and 14 recipes (a portion of which are reprints) bring the flavors of the Midwest vividly to life; but, more importantly, they dig deeply into the universal connections between food, family, time, and place. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"This anthology of essays on the Midwest's best and most unpretentious foods should go a long way toward regaining the respect the heartland's cuisine ought to enjoy."—Mark Knoblauch, Booklist

Booklist - Mark Knoblauch

"Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie reads like a feast and roundtrip combined taking in Iowa . . . and skirting the "tan landscape" of the "Corn Belt". The books ends in a selection of desserts, allowing Peggy Woolf to reminisce about pie, stuffed with fruits of Wisconsin . . . plucked from the tops of sunbathed trees."—Times Literary Supplement

Times Literary Supplement

"Thoughtful, addicting."—Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune - Christopher Borrelli

"Heartland natives will embrace the recipes, if not the remembrances of State Fair corn dogs and Lake Michigan fish boils, German kuchen and tamales eaten on Chicago’s Maxwell Street, a.k.a. "the Ellis Island of the Midwest.""—Jenny Rosenstrach, New York Times

New York Times - Jenny Rosenstrach

"A nostalgic trip through Middle America."—Shelf Awareness

Shelf Awareness

Fried biscuits, Creole-style spaghetti, carrot shavings in Jell-O, and perfect peach cobbler—this is the food that haunts midwesterners throughout their lives, and it’s inspired a collection of evocative essays by some of the region's most appealing writers.”—Laura Shapiro, author of Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America

Laura Shapiro

“Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie—what an eyeful! I so enjoyed reading these personal accounts of midwestern foods and the stories they tell, which is food plus people, place, and history. As Peggy Wolff says at the start, food is not just food; it’s the experience that counts—where you are and who you are with. And that is just what these stories are about: the bigger picture of food that makes its memory poignant and worth telling.”—Deborah Madison, author of Vegetable Literacy

Deborah Madison

09/15/2013
Some 30 well-known Midwestern writers reflect on food and family, and their reminiscences provide a feast for the reader in this hearty collection of essays. Jacquelyn Mitchard's "Corn in Heaven" is a joyous celebration of this sweet summer crop, evoking warm and wonderful memories of family gathered around as the corn roasts on an open fire. Writer Elizabeth Berg celebrates her Aunt Lala's meatloaf, recalling her Midwestern middle-class upbringing where "everyone had meatloaf once a week." NPR personality Peter Sagal laments Chicago's 2006 ban on the sale of foie gras, and writer Sue Hubbell offers up "The Great American Pie Expedition." VERDICT A delectable read, sprinkled with recipes and generous helpings of fun and plenty of food for thought.—Graciela Monday, San Antonio

Library Journal