Repeal and Beyond
When Prohibition was repealed, the breweries were eager to get beer back into American homes. They published many cookbooks explaining how to cook with beer and promoted pairing beer with food hoping that beer's return would be through the kitchen. This sort of marketing continued into WWII when the breweries' recipes showed women how to use beer in dishes that included produce from their victory gardens. Later in the fifties some cookbooks were aimed exclusively or in part at men and, of course, used beer in many if not all of their recipes.Craft Beer
Somewhere along the way, beer began to lose its flavor. By the seventies when the first seeds of the craft beer revolution had already been sown, most American beer was produced by a small handful of huge breweries. Almost all of it was of the pale, virtually flavorless style that has come to be called American Light. In many ways the American diet had gone down a similar path in the post war years. But increasing wealth and travel by students and servicemen was contributing to a rebirth of flavor. Beer would soon follow.Today, though American Light is still dominant, there is a much wider selection of beer, both in brand and style. There has also been a reawakening of the joy of good beer with good food. This was the only area where I found the book lacking. I would have liked to have seen some more discussion about this latest rediscovery that beer and food belong together.
History or Cookbook?
Celebrating the union of American beer and food and tracing its origins is Skilnik's stated goal for Beer & Food: An American History. It accomplishes this and more. Besides being an entertaining and fascinating history, the book is also a great collection of beer recipes. Throughout the history Skilnik includes lots of contemporary recipes and the last chapter contains 38 pages of modern beer and food recipes contributed by various breweries from around the country. Once you read it you'll want to put it in your kitchen with your other cookbooks rather than store it on a bookself.
