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A History of America's Favorite Bird
by Emelyn Rude
From the domestication of the bird nearly ten thousand years ago to its current status as our go-to meat, the history of this seemingly commonplace bird is anything but ordinary.
How did chicken achieve the culinary ubiquity it enjoys today? It's hard to imagine, but there was a point in history, not terribly long ago, that individual people each consumed less than ten pounds of chicken per year. Today, those numbers are strikingly different: we consumer nearly twenty-five times as much chicken as our great-grandparents did.
Collectively, Americans devour 73.1 million pounds of chicken in a day, close to 8.6 billion birds per year. How did chicken rise from near-invisibility to being in seemingly "every pot," as per Herbert Hoover's famous promise?
Emelyn Rude explores this fascinating phenomenon in Tastes Like Chicken. With meticulous research, Rude details the ascendancy of chicken from its humble origins to its centrality on grocery store shelves and in restaurants and kitchens. Along the way, she reveals startling key points in its history, such as the moment it was first stuffed and roasted by the Romans, how the ancients' obsession with cockfighting helped the animal reach Western Europe, and how slavery contributed to the ubiquity of fried chicken today.
In the spirit of Mark Kurlansky's Cod and Bee Wilson's Consider the Fork, Tastes Like Chicken is a fascinating, clever, and surprising discourse on one of America's favorite foods.
"Starred Review. "All this from an author who admits, 'I am a chicken historian who does not actually like eating chicken,' but who finds the bird as fascinating as she makes it for readers." - Kirkus Reviews
"In this largely bland culinary history, food writer Rude plucks the bird clean to the bone as she traces the rise of America's culinary love of the chicken from the 15th century, through and Colonial times, and up to the early 21st century." - Publishers Weekly
"The irrepressible yardbird struts through Tastes Like Chicken as Emelyn Rude engagingly explains how this descendant of dinosaurs became the default American dinner." - Joyce E. Chaplin, Harvard University, author of Round About the Earth
"A fun and smart read ... Emelyn Rude is a brilliant writer and by far the most whimsical chicken historian I have ever met." - Einat Admony, chef and owner for the Balaboosta and Bar Bolonat, author of the Balaboosta cookbook
"Until now, I've never read such a comprehensive look at one of my favorite foods and a protein that is so integral to any kitchen. Emelyn does a fantastic job of explaining why chicken is such an important part of our country's culinary fabric." - Marcus Samuelsson, James Beard Award-winning chef, author of Yes, Chef
This information about Tastes Like Chicken was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Emelyn Rude has been a food writer for TIME and Vice and media manager for some of New York City's most acclaimed chefs and restaurateurs. She is a contributor to National Geographic's "The Plate" and is a National Geographic Young Explorer. This is her first book.
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