History on Our Plate: Recipes from America's Dutch Past for Today's Cook by Peter Rose is a fascinating book that will appeal to a wide range of food oriented readers.

As a contribution to the field of culinary history I think this not so much adds something new as it brings together many strands and shows how they have survived to the present. The brief history of food and cooking in The Netherlands and New Netherlands was particularly interesting for someone like me who is not well read in the field as a whole or Dutch food in particular.

The recipes are updated for contemporary cooking but without completely removing the traditional aspects. From the inclusion of hearth cooking tips to citing how some of the food would have been served, Rose never completely leaves the historical foundation behind.

I have tried one of the recipes so far. My choice was easy. I wanted to try at least one so I wanted to find one fairly quickly. I also love artichokes, so when one of the first recipes was for an artichoke dish, my decision was made. It was like no other way I had tried artichokes before but it was really quite good. I doubled the recipe because I planned on just having it for my meal (with bread). This recipe illustrates what I mentioned before about tips for serving. I tells you how to spread the leaves, cut the heart, then how to serve. This was from an old Dutch source, not simply Rose telling us how he serves it.

While I think this will appeal to those in culinary history I think it is ideal for those of us who just like to experience new ways of preparing food and enjoy some historical context for it. It is a good book just for reading as well as for cooking. I also think it would be fun to have a themed meal using some of the more traditional (and traditionally prepared) recipes.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss. ( )