A visit to Mckay Books

I am always amused when I go to McKay Used books to see that the cookbooks on the shelves labelled "High Demand" are not. The same books are always there, and most are by the cooks who have shows on the Food Network. I gave up on that network when Mario Batali left , so none of these books appeal to me. I am positive that the real "High Demand" books are snatched up right after the stockers shelve them. That is the reason I never see anything there by Julia Child.

I have learned that when I see a cookbook I want at McKay I need to buy it. She who hesitates is lost. I am still upset at thinking there would be a second chance at one of the old faux leather brown and gilt Gourmet Magazine Cookbooks I saw one night. Unless one is looking for "The Frugal Gourmet" or a Food Network book, there is no next time at Mckay Books.

On my last trip to McKay I found a book I was looking for, and that is a rare thing. Most of the cookbooks I buy there are ones I have never heard of , and did not know I wanted until I saw them. The book I knew I wanted was "Pork", one of the books in Richard Olney's " The Good Cook" series. I paid $4.00 for it, a bargain since I have seen the whole series for sale on the Internet for $600. I own five of these books now with 20 or so left to go. Finding them could take years.

My "Mrs Appleyard's Kitchen" came from McKay, as did "The New York Times Cookbook", Craig Claiborne's "Southern Cooking", "Italian Slow and Savory" by Joyce Goldstein, and "Michael Field's Cooking School". And there are so many others, and not all by authors of such note.

On the night I found "Pork" I also found an unusual old import from England. The title "A Cook"s Calendar" baited the hook, and the introduction by Jane Grigson reeled me in. The author is a Mrs Francis Bissell, a private chef and food writer. My copy was a gift in 1989 to someone named "Louis" from "Bill + Vernell". It is one of those little mysteries one finds at McKay. Who were these people? What happened to Louis? How did the book come to be at McKay? I will never know.

I knew I had a little treasure when I saw Mrs Bissell's recipe for "Chicken Breasts with Preserved Fruits". It sounded wonderful, and I had preserved fruits or at least thought I did. I had dried apricots, and dried cranberries- But wait. Oh no. She means something called "mostarda", which I would have to buy at an Italian grocer. Try finding one of those in Nashville-. Then, as I turned to page 25, where Mrs Bissell described "mostarda" in more detail, I discovered the author was a woman after my own heart.She was a Substitutor! Just like me! There was now hope. Instead of waiting for mostarda to be shipped from Cremona I had two possible substitutes- Mango Chutney or apricot jam mixed in equal measure with mustard. The latter I can do. And will do. Tonight. There will be pictures-

Before I end this post I will go back to Louis and Bill and Vernell. There is a scene in the movie "Out of Africa" where Denys Finch Hatton asks Baroness Blixen to make up a story, but only after he gives her the first line. Food for thought.

"It was Louis and Robert's first dinner party as a couple, and Bill and Vernell were puzzled over what they should bring as a hostess gift-".