Grandma’s Gone Global: Recipe Transmission from the Kitchenette to the Internet SUE SAMUELSON AWARD FOR FOODWAYS SCHOLARSHIP HONORABLE MENTION 2011

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Jennifer Rachel Dutch

Abstract

With roots in the oral story-telling traditions of the kitchen, the practice of writing down recipes for other cooks to enjoy fulfills more than just the task of providing the ingredients and instructions for producing tasty dishes; recipes become vehicles for sharing stories, communicating identity, and reaffirming ties with the community. Culinary historians, foodways experts and Women’s Studies specialists now recognize that women’s recipe collections have much to say about their creators’ lives beyond just what they cooked. By tracing patterns of language, teasing out underlying narratives, and piecing together the stories in which recipes are embedded, scholars create a fuller understanding of women’s lives. Here I extend scholarship that uses recipe collections to explore women’s lives in order to discover if the same patterns of sharing recipes and stories persist when women turn to new media, like the internet, to exchange recipes.

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Lead Essays