Peter Rabbit's Natural Foods Cookbook
By Arnold Dobrin Frederick Warne 1977
I wish I knew more about Dobrin and how he devised his
recipes. They are a fairly standard set of natural food recipes: lots of
sandwiches made with creamed or cottage cheese, some simple soups, and most of
the baked good include whole wheat flour or wheat germ.
There are no meat recipes, though some of the soups call for
the option of chicken stock, so it is not a strictly vegetarian book. I can't
tell if the vegetarianism is deliberate or a result of avoiding the dangers of
sautéing and roasting and the increased food safety issues of raw meat.
But the techniques are not all simple. Dobrin calls for some
surprisingly sophisticated techniques, including blanching tomatoes to remove
their skins, using a food mill, and stir-frying, all advanced moves for an
adult in 1977.
There are technique and safety tips at the back of the book,
but it clearly assumes that children will be cooking with adult supervision.
Dobrin never talks down to his audience, and I like his frequent tag for
optional ingredients like raisins and nuts--use them "if you like
them." What better way to learn about taste than to learn to trust your
own palate?
That being said, some of the recipes have more appeal than
others. Mr. McGregor's Scrumptious Pureed Beets may not get as many takers as
Samuel Whiskers' Roly-Poly Pancakes. The breakfast and dessert sections are the
most appealing, but I love the page entitled "How to Like Onions" which
elucidates the different members of the allium family, their culinary uses, and
how onions enhance the flavors of many dishes.
While I was past the target age for Potter when this book
came out, I remember being fascinated by it and wanting to 1) cook from it and
2) be in Potter's world. I think it may also have been an early experience of
nostalgia. I remembered reading the books as a small child and being frightened
for Peter in the garden. I remembered trying to figure out what cambric tea was
and how it would taste. Just as I had when very small, I identified more with
some characters than others and that spilled over into my liking or disliking
of recipes based on their associated characters rather than their ingredients.
In addition, it was somewhere around this time, or maybe a
bit later, that I read Nothing is Impossible: The Story of Beatrix Potter a biography written for children by Dorothy Aldis.
Although Kirkus slammed its lack of detail and authority, I loved its portrayal
of how a young artist found her medium and her subject matter. It is a very
interior book, but it suited the subject. And while today I am only an
occasional reader of biographies, those I do read tend to be about artists and
musicians.
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| Aren't I sweet? And my cover is washable! |
