The Lost Art of Real Cooking

While Sandra Lee has been toiling about any number of craft stores trying to find a “tablescape” to match her curious culinary concoctions and cocktails, Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger have been hard at work on a tome full of recipes for those of us who prefer to linger in the kitchen and cook up something that isn’t “semi-homemade.”

The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time by Ken Albala and Rosanna Nafziger joyously brings it all back to the basics, presenting well-researched recipes from years past that are also surprisingly contemporary. Here are just a few of the many great, homespun classics featured:

Breads, such as sourdough, wholemeal, pizza dough

Beef jerky, roast piggy, braised game, rabbit pie

Wine and beer

Doughnuts, pies and truffles

Cultured butter, yoghurt, crème fraîche and ghee

Pickles and sauerkraut

Preserves, jam, marmalade

These foods can be made in the tiniest of New York kitchens without any extraordinary equipment, turning any house into a home—so get cooking!

The Lost Art of Real Cooking: Rediscovering the Pleasures of Traditional Food One Recipe at a Time is out on Perigee Hardcover July 6.

This article was first published in Next magazine.