The Can-Opener Cookbook

Inbunden bok. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. 1951. 281 sidor.

Mycket gott skick. Skyddsomslag i dåligt skick. 210 x 140 mm. Omslaget trasigt (se bild). Inlagan fin om än namnad. En amerikansk klassiker! Språk: engelska/ English.

A guide for gourmet cooking with canned or frozen foods and mixes. “It is quite possible-and it’s fun-to be a ‘chef’ even before you can really cook.” Poppy Cannon was not a natural cook. But she did not let that hold her back, believing that all you had to do was doctor up canned, boxed and frozen foods to create meals and flavors that are close to the original. An example of this would be that she felt by adding red wine, garlic, parsley, bay leave and “a flicker of mixed herbs” to a can of stew, one could easily create a gourmet meal similar to the French classic stew dish, Le Boeuf en Daube .

This thought process and working women were the inspiration to creating recipes for her cookbooks especially her best known The Can-Opener Cookbook. In the introduction to the book Cannon writes “…today the can opener is fast becoming a magic wand, especially in the hands of those brave young women, nine million of them (give or take a few thousand here and there), who are engaged in frying as well as bringing home the bacon”.

She explains in The Can-Opener Cookbook that the difference between just cooking and gourmet cooking is “the difference in the way the food is served”. The cookbook explains how to garnish the meal and what to serve with it so you have contrasting colors, tastes and textures. She also was not above using her favorite technique to add drama: flambé.