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Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens
“In this savory feast of ideas, Andrew Beahrs employs his curiosity and wit to reconstitute Twain’s original literary ingredients into an American meal that is both delicious and elucidating.” — Nick Offerman
One young food writer's search for America's lost wild foods, from New Orleans croakers to Illinois prairie hens, with Mark Twain as his guide. In 1879, Mark Twain paused during a European tour to compose a fantasy menu of the American dishes he missed the most. A true love letter to American food, the menu included some eighty specialties, from Mississippi black bass to Philadelphia terrapin. Andrew Beahrs chooses eight of these regionally distinctive foods, retracing Twain's footsteps as he sets out to discover whether they can still be found on American tables. Weaving together passages from Twain's famous works and Beahrs's own adventures, this travelogue-cum-culinary-history takes us back to a bygone era when wild foods were at the heart of American cooking.
One young food writer's search for America's lost wild foods, from New Orleans croakers to Illinois prairie hens, with Mark Twain as his guide. In 1879, Mark Twain paused during a European tour to compose a fantasy menu of the American dishes he missed the most. A true love letter to American food, the menu included some eighty specialties, from Mississippi black bass to Philadelphia terrapin. Andrew Beahrs chooses eight of these regionally distinctive foods, retracing Twain's footsteps as he sets out to discover whether they can still be found on American tables. Weaving together passages from Twain's famous works and Beahrs's own adventures, this travelogue-cum-culinary-history takes us back to a bygone era when wild foods were at the heart of American cooking.
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 26, 2010
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About the author
Andrew Beahrs
6 books13 followersAndrew Beahrs’s writing takes deep dives into unexpected historical pools. In Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens, he explored the links between flavor and place that defined Mark Twain’s favorite wild dishes–and have since caused them to disappear from American tables. He has written about food and history for Smithsonian, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Gastronomica, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many more. His pair of historical novels, Strange Saint and The Sin Eaters, drew on his graduate work in archaeology to offer a unique vision of early America. Andrew lives in Berkeley with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 187 reviews
August 21, 2020
(3.5) In 1879, Mark Twain, partway through the Grand Tour immortalized in A Tramp Abroad, was sick of bland, poor-quality European food and hankering for down-home American cooking. He drew up a list of 80 foodstuffs he couldn’t wait to get back to: everything from soft-shell crabs to proper ice water. “The menu shouts of a joyous abundance,” Beahrs writes. “It testifies to a deep bond in Twain’s mind between eating and tasting and celebrating … rooted food that would live forever in his memory.”
Beahrs goes in search of some of those trademark dishes and explores their changes in production over the last 150 years. In some cases, the creatures and their habitats are so endangered that we don’t eat them anymore, like Illinois’ prairie chickens and Maryland’s terrapins, but he has experts show him where remnant populations live. In San Francisco Bay, he helps construct an artificial oyster reef. He meets cranberry farmers in Massachusetts and maple tree tappers in Vermont. At the Louisiana Foodservice EXPO he gorges on “fried oysters and fried shrimp and fries. I haven’t had much green, but I’ve had pecan waffles with bacon, and I’ve inserted beignets and café au lait between meals with the regularity of an Old Testament prophet chanting ‘begat.’”
But my favorite chapter was about attending a Coon Supper in Arkansas, a local tradition that has been in existence since the 1930s. Raccoons are hunted, butchered, steamed in enormous kettles, and smoked before the annual fundraising meal attended by 1000 people. Raccoon meat is greasy and its flavor sounds like an acquired taste: “a smell like nothing I’ve smelled before but which I’ll now recognize until I die (not, I hope, as a result of eating raccoon).” Beahrs has an entertaining style and inserts interesting snippets from Twain’s life story, as well as recipes from 19th-century cookbooks. There are lots of books out there about the country’s increasingly rare wild foods, but the Twain connection is novel, if niche.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
Beahrs goes in search of some of those trademark dishes and explores their changes in production over the last 150 years. In some cases, the creatures and their habitats are so endangered that we don’t eat them anymore, like Illinois’ prairie chickens and Maryland’s terrapins, but he has experts show him where remnant populations live. In San Francisco Bay, he helps construct an artificial oyster reef. He meets cranberry farmers in Massachusetts and maple tree tappers in Vermont. At the Louisiana Foodservice EXPO he gorges on “fried oysters and fried shrimp and fries. I haven’t had much green, but I’ve had pecan waffles with bacon, and I’ve inserted beignets and café au lait between meals with the regularity of an Old Testament prophet chanting ‘begat.’”
But my favorite chapter was about attending a Coon Supper in Arkansas, a local tradition that has been in existence since the 1930s. Raccoons are hunted, butchered, steamed in enormous kettles, and smoked before the annual fundraising meal attended by 1000 people. Raccoon meat is greasy and its flavor sounds like an acquired taste: “a smell like nothing I’ve smelled before but which I’ll now recognize until I die (not, I hope, as a result of eating raccoon).” Beahrs has an entertaining style and inserts interesting snippets from Twain’s life story, as well as recipes from 19th-century cookbooks. There are lots of books out there about the country’s increasingly rare wild foods, but the Twain connection is novel, if niche.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
November 1, 2022
A very interesting book for those curious about food-oriented history. Beahrs, in a personable tone, explores Twain's list of most-beloved American foods and hones in on several to explore them within the context of the 19th century and what has happened to them now--if they still exist. This, in many ways, is a book about conservation, ecology, and how tastes and perspectives of foods can evolve over time. The book discusses Midwest prairie hens, racoons and possum, Lake Tahoe trout, oysters and mussels of San Francisco, Philadelphia terrapin, New Orleans sheephead fish, and cranberries. Twain's life and stories are woven throughout.
October 14, 2016
Twain’s early days in New Orleans begin with his arrival with little more than $9 in his pocket and an ambition to become a river boat pilot on the bustling Mississippi. Beahrs continues to trace Twain’s later voyage, not as a pilot, but as a passenger down the river when river boats were becoming an antiquated form of transportation. Twain describes the Mississippi as “a wonderful book…which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice” (185-86). I wonder if Twain viewed New Orleans in the same way, as a city with a wonderful story to unfold to people in tune enough to hear her secrets.
I don’t think I would get too much of an argument by saying that New Orleans may be the most culinary city in the U.S. (and maybe the world). Beahrs concurs that New Orleans may have more traditional food than any other city but he focuses on some once popular seafood:
"Whether you’re talking about Cajun or Creole food, you don’t often hear about sheepshead and croaker. That’s probably in part because they get lost among the riches—New Orleans easily as more beloved traditional dishes than any other American city. Barbecue shrimp, shrimp étouffée , beignets, calas, daube glacé, po’boys, muffalettas, trout meuniére, trout amandine, boiled crawfish, soft-shell crabs, red beans and rice, pain perdu, pecan pie, bananas Foster, bread pudding with whisky sauce… "(191)
Beahrs gets “deep in the woods” with sheepshead and croaker, two forgotten forms of seafood that Twain would have eaten. Sheepsheads are ugly critters. Croakers, on the other hand seem a bit daintier and, according to Beahrs can be fried whole. In Twain’s day, these fish were on even some of the finer menus in New Orleans and were even served at Antoine’s. These “trash” fish fell out of favor and only recently are reappearing on menus because of the sustainable harvest movement.
I enjoyed the book but I found that Beahrs sometimes wandered a bit off topic for me. Maybe that was necessary as he rediscovered (or tried to rediscover) Twain’s favorites. The process took him to the tall grass prairie to see booming prairie chickens, the Mississippi Delta, and New England cranberry bogs just to name a few places. Does he become that “freaky Twain guy” as his wife predicts at the beginning of his quest? Perhaps he does, but Beahrs is fulfilling a passion and is another author that is prodding us to think about sustainability, local eating, and the history of our American meals.
I don’t think I would get too much of an argument by saying that New Orleans may be the most culinary city in the U.S. (and maybe the world). Beahrs concurs that New Orleans may have more traditional food than any other city but he focuses on some once popular seafood:
"Whether you’re talking about Cajun or Creole food, you don’t often hear about sheepshead and croaker. That’s probably in part because they get lost among the riches—New Orleans easily as more beloved traditional dishes than any other American city. Barbecue shrimp, shrimp étouffée , beignets, calas, daube glacé, po’boys, muffalettas, trout meuniére, trout amandine, boiled crawfish, soft-shell crabs, red beans and rice, pain perdu, pecan pie, bananas Foster, bread pudding with whisky sauce… "(191)
Beahrs gets “deep in the woods” with sheepshead and croaker, two forgotten forms of seafood that Twain would have eaten. Sheepsheads are ugly critters. Croakers, on the other hand seem a bit daintier and, according to Beahrs can be fried whole. In Twain’s day, these fish were on even some of the finer menus in New Orleans and were even served at Antoine’s. These “trash” fish fell out of favor and only recently are reappearing on menus because of the sustainable harvest movement.
I enjoyed the book but I found that Beahrs sometimes wandered a bit off topic for me. Maybe that was necessary as he rediscovered (or tried to rediscover) Twain’s favorites. The process took him to the tall grass prairie to see booming prairie chickens, the Mississippi Delta, and New England cranberry bogs just to name a few places. Does he become that “freaky Twain guy” as his wife predicts at the beginning of his quest? Perhaps he does, but Beahrs is fulfilling a passion and is another author that is prodding us to think about sustainability, local eating, and the history of our American meals.
January 25, 2022
I listened to an Audible Original but that edition was not available here. The narration was like a conversation/interview and I enjoyed the different voices.
Telling Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain's life and views through menu of his favorite foods was an interesting construct. Partway through the Grand Tour immortalized in A Tramp Abroad, Twain grew homesick for his American cooking. So he wrote a list of his favorite foods and the author put together an 8-course meal served in his Connecticut home. Starting with prairie chickens and raccoon of his youth in Missouri through cranberries and maple syrup in New England, the author discussed his stage in life, his life's journey westward and then eastward, the ecology of the food choice and man's impact on the environment.
Unique perspective. I liked it a lot.
Telling Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain's life and views through menu of his favorite foods was an interesting construct. Partway through the Grand Tour immortalized in A Tramp Abroad, Twain grew homesick for his American cooking. So he wrote a list of his favorite foods and the author put together an 8-course meal served in his Connecticut home. Starting with prairie chickens and raccoon of his youth in Missouri through cranberries and maple syrup in New England, the author discussed his stage in life, his life's journey westward and then eastward, the ecology of the food choice and man's impact on the environment.
Unique perspective. I liked it a lot.
April 30, 2012
I am enjoying this book so much. It's beautifully written, flowing across the pages with the effortless grace that only truly great writers can achieve. Part travelogue, part cookbook, part conservationist's and ecologist's commentary on what's lost and what might yet be saved, the book takes us all over America and introduces us to the cuisines of Mark Twain's lifetime. I'm pretty sure I'll never cook or eat 'coon, and I can't bear oysters, but it's been fascinating to read about the lives of those who did and still do enjoy these foodstuffs. It's been equally sad to read about the loss of the habitats that gave us such remarkable creatures as 60+lb freshwater trout. If you like tales well-woven and told, and non-fiction that stands up to scrutiny, you'll enjoy this book
January 11, 2024
When I started this book I loved it and was salivating at the description of Twain's breakfast the author was cooking. The author lost me after that, going into Prairie Chickens, and I stuck it out. Following that, however, I completely lost interest and started flipping through chunks of it. Andrew Beahrs truly loves his subject and it shows; a bit too much for me, though. I've enjoyed food related books in the past but this one just goes too deep into culinary history for me (the Twain part of it all). I really thought I'd get into all of that, but it just never clicked for me. I feel as if I once again read a completely different book from all the others.
October 24, 2015
What a wonderful book! What a supremely corny author! Ought to have known better than to try playing funny-man beside Twain. Great information about present and past American ecology. Who ate what and why (and how! live turtles buried in burning coals), what happened when we ate too much of these things, what we are eating now, etc. As much of a natural history book as a gastronomic one, as it ought to be. Twain's Feast reaffirms that our relationship to the land and its animals is a living and incredibly vulnerable network. Want to see more food writing that follows this approach.
November 14, 2012
Andrew Beahrs mines two of my favorite topics, Mark Twain and food, to produce an appetizing and thought-provoking new book, Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens.
Appetizing because he seeks and finds some of Twain’s (and my) favorite American foods in their places of origin: shrimp, trout and oysters; cranberries, maple syrup and more. Thought-provoking because it underscores how we have lost the “bond between food and place.”
Beahrs uses Twain’s dismissing of European food (when on his A Tramp Abroad excursion) and his compiling a lengthy list of superior American dishes as a springboard for his search for honest, local food. Sadly, it is not an easy task thanks to the corporatization of our food supply, the diminution of habitat for both comestible flora and fauna, and the degradation of the environment.
Contrary to the local, seasonal and naturally flavorful fare Twain enjoyed a mere hundred years ago, most of us today regularly consume dubious dishes, Beahrs points out, compiled of increasingly insipid ingredients shipped at great cost (both monetary and environmental) often from other countries and continents. The book underscored for me how rare the table of my childhood on Long Lake in Southern Illinois, when at times we dined solely on foods taken entirely from our small environs: fish we caught in the lake, rabbits we trapped in the cabbage patch, potatoes we dug from the garden, asparagus we cut from the ground, the corn, berries, beans and fruits we picked. Who does that today? Perhaps not even farm families.
That childhood introduction to fresh, local food entranced me. (My mother liked to recount the surprise and obvious pleasure I registered when she first fed me table food instead of jarred baby puree). It also created in me a lifelong lust for simply prepared fresh food that parallels Twain’s. (“Lust” is the right word. Beahrs quotes Twain on his dinner at Lake Ponchatrain: “The chief dish was the renowned fish called the pompano, delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.”
Beahrs quotes Twain extensively—a dangerous ploy for a writer, as Beahrs own functional prose pales beside it. But the reader benefits by hearing Twain in his own words on the beauties of place—Lake Tahoe and Louisiana, Missouri and the Mississippi—and the bounties that issued forth from them to his table.
Ultimately Beahrs’ book left me nostalgic and saddened (as well as hungry). To read of Twain gorging on ripe tomatoes he discovers on a misguided turkey hunt and eating fried fish pulled fresh from the lake made me long for the simple yet formidable pleasures of my childhood when I did likewise. Yet it also educated me (for example, on the extensive influence of African cuisine and cooking methods on American fare, via kitchen slaves) and stimulated my thoughts on (and my appetite for) honest American food eaten in its own environment.
Appetizing because he seeks and finds some of Twain’s (and my) favorite American foods in their places of origin: shrimp, trout and oysters; cranberries, maple syrup and more. Thought-provoking because it underscores how we have lost the “bond between food and place.”
Beahrs uses Twain’s dismissing of European food (when on his A Tramp Abroad excursion) and his compiling a lengthy list of superior American dishes as a springboard for his search for honest, local food. Sadly, it is not an easy task thanks to the corporatization of our food supply, the diminution of habitat for both comestible flora and fauna, and the degradation of the environment.
Contrary to the local, seasonal and naturally flavorful fare Twain enjoyed a mere hundred years ago, most of us today regularly consume dubious dishes, Beahrs points out, compiled of increasingly insipid ingredients shipped at great cost (both monetary and environmental) often from other countries and continents. The book underscored for me how rare the table of my childhood on Long Lake in Southern Illinois, when at times we dined solely on foods taken entirely from our small environs: fish we caught in the lake, rabbits we trapped in the cabbage patch, potatoes we dug from the garden, asparagus we cut from the ground, the corn, berries, beans and fruits we picked. Who does that today? Perhaps not even farm families.
That childhood introduction to fresh, local food entranced me. (My mother liked to recount the surprise and obvious pleasure I registered when she first fed me table food instead of jarred baby puree). It also created in me a lifelong lust for simply prepared fresh food that parallels Twain’s. (“Lust” is the right word. Beahrs quotes Twain on his dinner at Lake Ponchatrain: “The chief dish was the renowned fish called the pompano, delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.”
Beahrs quotes Twain extensively—a dangerous ploy for a writer, as Beahrs own functional prose pales beside it. But the reader benefits by hearing Twain in his own words on the beauties of place—Lake Tahoe and Louisiana, Missouri and the Mississippi—and the bounties that issued forth from them to his table.
Ultimately Beahrs’ book left me nostalgic and saddened (as well as hungry). To read of Twain gorging on ripe tomatoes he discovers on a misguided turkey hunt and eating fried fish pulled fresh from the lake made me long for the simple yet formidable pleasures of my childhood when I did likewise. Yet it also educated me (for example, on the extensive influence of African cuisine and cooking methods on American fare, via kitchen slaves) and stimulated my thoughts on (and my appetite for) honest American food eaten in its own environment.
July 16, 2010
This book really wasn't my thing, but i found it interesting nevertheless. The author opens up brilliantly with Mark Twains thoughts on European cuisine. His thoughts could successfully be described as eating out of a pigs troth. Upon arriving back in the United States Mark Twain made a list of foods he wished to eat. Ranging from simple American butter to any kind of American pastry. The book follows the author as he goes around sampling the best cuisine that America has to offer. Inside the book there are historic cooking instructions, descriptions of the food being eaten, and a variety of historical references. Anyone who is a fan of Bravo's "Top Chef" would surely enjoy this book.
October 7, 2013
I was hooked by the intro. Great concept. Beautifully written and conceptualized. Eye-opening in the sense that I didn't realize overzealous consumption wasn't a late-20th-century thing... we've been ruining our environment for much longer than that in the pursuit of human sustenance (I mean, I knew about desertification, but not that we had overfished and over-hunted and habitat-destroyed so early in our country's existence). Whee!
Also, awesome to know where the pen name Mark Twain came from :D
Also, awesome to know where the pen name Mark Twain came from :D
November 24, 2023
My review is for the Audible Original version of this title, which seems to be a related offshoot from this book rather than an audiobook edition. In the approximately 4 hour Amazon Original production, Andrew Beahrs, Nick Offerman, and their production team explore American culture and Mark Twain's life through foodways. Inspired by an imagined menu that Twain wrote, 8 foods were selected to serve as a lenses into Twain's lived experiences, and to be recreated by a chef for a private dinner party held at Twain's Hartford, Connecticut home (now a museum). What ensues, through a combination of narration and podcast-like interviews, is a fascinating exposition into literature, biography, place, geography, natural history, and American cultural history, touching on ecological change through human behavior, racism, and nostalgia.
It was slightly disappointing that the chef created dishes reflected modern high culinary culture (using selected historically exotic food), rather than taking an interest in recreating historic dishes similar to something Twain and his contemporaries might have eaten. However, the rest of the content, was thoughtful, well-researched, and interestingly assembled and presented by Beahrs, Offerman, and their production team, with curiosity, sensitivity, and intelligence. (The production does have a note regarding mature listening content).
With its reflections on American past to present through a foodways lens, this was a terrific title to listen to while cooking Thanksgiving dinner, especially since the last two foods discussed remain common ingredients in American autumnal culinary traditions. Really enjoyable!
It was slightly disappointing that the chef created dishes reflected modern high culinary culture (using selected historically exotic food), rather than taking an interest in recreating historic dishes similar to something Twain and his contemporaries might have eaten. However, the rest of the content, was thoughtful, well-researched, and interestingly assembled and presented by Beahrs, Offerman, and their production team, with curiosity, sensitivity, and intelligence. (The production does have a note regarding mature listening content).
With its reflections on American past to present through a foodways lens, this was a terrific title to listen to while cooking Thanksgiving dinner, especially since the last two foods discussed remain common ingredients in American autumnal culinary traditions. Really enjoyable!
June 25, 2025
I love this charming book! After reading it, I feel as though I know Mark Twain personally, especially his passionate love of food. I also feel the love in Andrew Beahrs’ words, love of Twain and love of cuisine. In fact, I could listen to Beahrs wax poetic about food all day, everyday. Twain’s feast is a brilliant study of literary history, ecology, and cuisine. The author has even included recipes from back in Twain’s day. When I arrived at the New Orleans chapter, I almost fell out of my chair when I recognized a friend I grew up with in those pages. Beahrs visited New Orleans (my home town) and my friend and her family when he was researching this book. And damnit, now I really want charbroiled oysters, and I just concluded my visit to New Orleans two weeks ago, but I digress. This book is a feast of both scholarship and imagination. I was put right there with Twain, the prairie hens from Illinois, and the trout from Lake Tahoe, just as I would be had I been reading a stellar work of literary fiction. I also learned so much about the history of food in every region of America and how tastes and culinary habits have changed due to our changing environment. And as much of a self-proclaimed glutton and gourmand filled with joie de vivre that Twain was, he also lived a life of suffering and loss, especially toward the end. Thank you, Andrew Beahrs for a wonderfully original and engaging book! I found it through pure serendipity on the St. Louis public library’s online database while looking for the new Chernow biography of Twain/Clemens (1200 pages is too long!), and this one looked much more interesting, as food is one of my greatest pleasures after literature. As a teacher of high school American literature, I have gathered so many fascinating anecdotes to make my lesson on Twain more engaging. I highly recommend this book!
September 13, 2023
When Mark Twain was touring through Europe he made a list of foods he was craving that were impossible to get properly in Europe. This book is part biography, part history of the second half of the 19th century seen through the lens of Twain’s menu.
For example: raccoon. It’s literally never crossed my mind to eat a raccoon. But in the 1800’s Southern slaves had to eat what they get their hands on, and figure it a way to make it tasty.
With the shift to factory farming from family farming Americans tend to only eat beef, pork, and chicken. Maybe lamb once in awhile. We used to eat whatever was around us that we could catch and trap. Possum is another dish in this vein.
Another example is turtle soup. It was extremely popular for 100 years in America. Prohibition killed the dish since sherry is a main ingredient. Now the Diamondback Terrapin (AKA the species of turtle that actually tastes yummy) is endangered and it’s illegal to eat them.
I’ve been getting interested in etymology lately and I think I’m also getting fascinated by food history. I love how it changes and evolves and what it says about a society on an individual and systemic level.
For example: raccoon. It’s literally never crossed my mind to eat a raccoon. But in the 1800’s Southern slaves had to eat what they get their hands on, and figure it a way to make it tasty.
With the shift to factory farming from family farming Americans tend to only eat beef, pork, and chicken. Maybe lamb once in awhile. We used to eat whatever was around us that we could catch and trap. Possum is another dish in this vein.
Another example is turtle soup. It was extremely popular for 100 years in America. Prohibition killed the dish since sherry is a main ingredient. Now the Diamondback Terrapin (AKA the species of turtle that actually tastes yummy) is endangered and it’s illegal to eat them.
I’ve been getting interested in etymology lately and I think I’m also getting fascinated by food history. I love how it changes and evolves and what it says about a society on an individual and systemic level.
November 22, 2020
This is a review for the audio book. It was the perfect pre-Thanksgiving book. I love Nick Offerman's voice and diction, and the other contributors were pretty good to listen to, too. Those who were annoying had brief-enough parts so they weren't much of an annoyance.
Listening to it made me hungry and the descriptions of classic American dishes, some you never knew were anything of the sort, were very captivating. Mark Twain himself was complicated, and I liked that the authors were not afraid to delve into nuance and weirdness and racism surrounding him.
Least Valuable Player goes to the chef. He substituted something for every dish. We end up not really getting the full menu the book is originally supposed to be about, which was annoying. But, part of the theme and foreshadowing throughout the book is the story isn't about the meal, but about the journey etc etc.
I enjoyed it. I want more meal and food content lol. It was a short and entertaining read/listen.
Listening to it made me hungry and the descriptions of classic American dishes, some you never knew were anything of the sort, were very captivating. Mark Twain himself was complicated, and I liked that the authors were not afraid to delve into nuance and weirdness and racism surrounding him.
Least Valuable Player goes to the chef. He substituted something for every dish. We end up not really getting the full menu the book is originally supposed to be about, which was annoying. But, part of the theme and foreshadowing throughout the book is the story isn't about the meal, but about the journey etc etc.
I enjoyed it. I want more meal and food content lol. It was a short and entertaining read/listen.
July 20, 2021
Very readable and packs a wide range of topics into a fairly short book. Each chapter is devoted to a different food that Mark Twain wrote about (mostly in his memoires and letters): prairie chickens, possum and raccoon, trout, oysters and mussels, terrapin, sheep-head and croakers, cranberries, and maple syrup. Each section is combination of biography, travelogue, food microhistory, and discussion of the environments that produce the different foods, as the foods Twain loved are, or at least were, wild foods. He goes further into how changes in the environment and technology change the production of these foods, and how food production can, in turn, change the local environment. The book doesn't shy away from the fact that slavery was intimately connected with more than a few of these foods during parts of Twain's life. Also includes a number of period recipes from the 18th and 19th Centuries. The author even manages to work in a brief history of the Thanksgiving holiday. 3.75 stars.
September 14, 2024
I picked this book up on a whim out of a Little Free Library in our neighborhood. It had been inscribed as a birthday present to someone - someone who is a FOOL because they gave this book away!
It's about food, to be sure, but also a musing on some of the ways America has changed, both since Twain's time and during it; often the author notes how different the country of Twain's youth is different from what he saw as he looked back; a reminder that the past isn't a unitary thing ("the olden days"), but a time that changed internally all on its own, and the people who experienced it noticed those changes as much as we do today. Beahrs ability to write about place - and the sense of it - was very moving; it's factual and lyrical and he describes some thing better than anyone I have ever read: like the feeling of being near the Chesapeake when you live in California.
Highly recommended.
It's about food, to be sure, but also a musing on some of the ways America has changed, both since Twain's time and during it; often the author notes how different the country of Twain's youth is different from what he saw as he looked back; a reminder that the past isn't a unitary thing ("the olden days"), but a time that changed internally all on its own, and the people who experienced it noticed those changes as much as we do today. Beahrs ability to write about place - and the sense of it - was very moving; it's factual and lyrical and he describes some thing better than anyone I have ever read: like the feeling of being near the Chesapeake when you live in California.
Highly recommended.
January 24, 2020
Have to give this non-fiction a 3 STAR even though so much of it was dry and boring. The author takes Mark Twain's favorite foods and goes on a journey around the country explaining them and what has happened to those same foods over the years (as in Oysters and Maple syrup plus other foods). Of course cooking has drastically changed as well as the environment so those same oysters Twain was eating out of the bay are no longer possible. The bits about Twain were so interesting as well as all the historical facts. (less)
July 26, 2023
I listened to Nick Offerman's riff on this book while researching turn-of-the-century eating habits for a book I was ghostwriting in early 2023. The audiobook meant I could research and clean house at the same time. I didn't expect to enjoy the book as much as I did, and want to read the print version now.
August 3, 2010
**Warning! Do not read this book on an empty stomach!**
Andrew Beahrs’s Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens covers quite a lot of ground in its 323 pages. The author makes it his mission to discover what happened to the dishes Mark Twain loved and to find out if the ingredients still exist. To accomplish this endeavor Beahrs moves the narrative rather quickly from his own travels in search of the legendary ingredients to Twain’s personal history and literature before moving on to the history of the foods in general and the repercussions of human activity on their existence. While this quick pace can be a bit jarring at times (sometimes amounting to literary whiplash), Beahrs does ensure the reader of a journey that is anything but monotonous.
I somehow managed to get through school without reading a single work by Twain; yet, this ignorance did not hinder my enjoyment of the book. Beahrs discusses the author’s life and works in a way that is completely understandable. Quotes by the famous author “pepper” the text, so to speak, and I found them to be humorous, thoughtful, and utterly enjoyable.
Other positive aspects of the book include fantastic descriptions of the food that made my mouth water and a decent bibliography that should be useful for any scholar dealing with similar subjects.
On the negative side, however, is the fact that this book could have benefited from a few illustrations. What does the prairie chicken look like? What about a diamondback terrapin? A hand-drawn illustration of the food at the beginning of each chapter would have been fitting. A map of Twain’s feasting across America would also have been a thoughtful addition. Yet the greatest disappointment is, unfortunately, (besides the touting of Alison Bell’s biscuit recipe and the horrendous oversight to include it in the book) that for all the attention the author draws to destructive human activity and for all the encouragement given to buying local food, no resources are given to the reader. What really would have completed this book is a short list in the back of websites or organizations that the reader could contact to make a difference. Instead, the book as it stands is slightly depressing. Enjoyable, but depressing.
Cooks should note that although this book contains a number of old recipes, it is not a cookbook. It does not update the recipes in any way or even really discuss them. It is really a book about one man’s journey to have an encounter with Twain and his world across the divide of the table.
Note: I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.
Andrew Beahrs’s Twain’s Feast: Searching for America’s Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens covers quite a lot of ground in its 323 pages. The author makes it his mission to discover what happened to the dishes Mark Twain loved and to find out if the ingredients still exist. To accomplish this endeavor Beahrs moves the narrative rather quickly from his own travels in search of the legendary ingredients to Twain’s personal history and literature before moving on to the history of the foods in general and the repercussions of human activity on their existence. While this quick pace can be a bit jarring at times (sometimes amounting to literary whiplash), Beahrs does ensure the reader of a journey that is anything but monotonous.
I somehow managed to get through school without reading a single work by Twain; yet, this ignorance did not hinder my enjoyment of the book. Beahrs discusses the author’s life and works in a way that is completely understandable. Quotes by the famous author “pepper” the text, so to speak, and I found them to be humorous, thoughtful, and utterly enjoyable.
Other positive aspects of the book include fantastic descriptions of the food that made my mouth water and a decent bibliography that should be useful for any scholar dealing with similar subjects.
On the negative side, however, is the fact that this book could have benefited from a few illustrations. What does the prairie chicken look like? What about a diamondback terrapin? A hand-drawn illustration of the food at the beginning of each chapter would have been fitting. A map of Twain’s feasting across America would also have been a thoughtful addition. Yet the greatest disappointment is, unfortunately, (besides the touting of Alison Bell’s biscuit recipe and the horrendous oversight to include it in the book) that for all the attention the author draws to destructive human activity and for all the encouragement given to buying local food, no resources are given to the reader. What really would have completed this book is a short list in the back of websites or organizations that the reader could contact to make a difference. Instead, the book as it stands is slightly depressing. Enjoyable, but depressing.
Cooks should note that although this book contains a number of old recipes, it is not a cookbook. It does not update the recipes in any way or even really discuss them. It is really a book about one man’s journey to have an encounter with Twain and his world across the divide of the table.
Note: I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.
November 26, 2011
Twain’s Feast is equal parts biography, travelogue, culinary, literature and history. In it, Andrew Beahrs goes in search of the foods that Mark Twain included on a list of American foods Twain longed for while he was traveling in Europe. I had no idea that Twain was such a foodie.
The author succeeded in making me feel nostalgic for foods I have never had and, in some instances, did not know existed. So many of Twain’s favorite foods are now gone entirely or on the endangered species list or nearly so: Lake trout (now known as Lahontan cutthroat trout), Midwest prairie-hens, San Francisco Bay oysters, Philadelphia Terrapin. We can treasure the ones we still enjoy in abundance, such as cranberries and Maple syrup. For all of these foods, Mr. Beahrs provides an entertaining description of each food, describes where it’s found or was found. He travels to those locations to find the foods or what’s left of them. He describes what happened to those that are gone.
He visits a modern-day prairie in Illinois, an oyster-bed restoration project in San Francisco Bay, a tribal Lahontan trout fishery in Nevada, fish markets in New Orleans, a possum dinner in Arkansas, cranberry bogs in Massachussetts, and sugar maples in Connecticut. His travels are guided by the geographic timeline of Twain’s life from his childhood and the foods he enjoyed at a young age in Missouri, through each phase of his life, including travels along the Mississippi River to New Orleans as a riverboat pilot, through the rugged West to Lake Tahoe and San Francisco during the Civil War era, and to New England later in life.
Twain’s own insightful writing about his favorite foods seasons the book throughout. One of my favorite observations was, “I think that there is but a single specialty with us, only one thing that can be called by the wide name ‘American.’ That is the national devotion to ice-water.” So true.
The author channels Twain in his comedic observations also, “My grandmother spent decades trying to roast a good, moist bird. Still, her turkeys were dry enough that after carving one you had to dust the mantel; cranberry sauce was less a condiment than a survival tactic.”
I counted this book a treat to read. I enjoyed all aspects of the book and recommend it heartily.
The author succeeded in making me feel nostalgic for foods I have never had and, in some instances, did not know existed. So many of Twain’s favorite foods are now gone entirely or on the endangered species list or nearly so: Lake trout (now known as Lahontan cutthroat trout), Midwest prairie-hens, San Francisco Bay oysters, Philadelphia Terrapin. We can treasure the ones we still enjoy in abundance, such as cranberries and Maple syrup. For all of these foods, Mr. Beahrs provides an entertaining description of each food, describes where it’s found or was found. He travels to those locations to find the foods or what’s left of them. He describes what happened to those that are gone.
He visits a modern-day prairie in Illinois, an oyster-bed restoration project in San Francisco Bay, a tribal Lahontan trout fishery in Nevada, fish markets in New Orleans, a possum dinner in Arkansas, cranberry bogs in Massachussetts, and sugar maples in Connecticut. His travels are guided by the geographic timeline of Twain’s life from his childhood and the foods he enjoyed at a young age in Missouri, through each phase of his life, including travels along the Mississippi River to New Orleans as a riverboat pilot, through the rugged West to Lake Tahoe and San Francisco during the Civil War era, and to New England later in life.
Twain’s own insightful writing about his favorite foods seasons the book throughout. One of my favorite observations was, “I think that there is but a single specialty with us, only one thing that can be called by the wide name ‘American.’ That is the national devotion to ice-water.” So true.
The author channels Twain in his comedic observations also, “My grandmother spent decades trying to roast a good, moist bird. Still, her turkeys were dry enough that after carving one you had to dust the mantel; cranberry sauce was less a condiment than a survival tactic.”
I counted this book a treat to read. I enjoyed all aspects of the book and recommend it heartily.
March 31, 2014
My Review Excerpt:
I had not read much Twain since high school, although a copy of Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii has been sitting on my to-read pile for quite a while. In Twain's Feast, author Beahrs takes Twain's list or fantasy menu of the American foods and dishes (about 80 items long) that Twain was missing in 1879, while at about a year into the European tour that led to his A Tramp Abroad. Beahrs then explores some of the more obscure regional ingredients to see if Americans are still consuming them today.
Author Beahrs has a true passion for his subject that comes across in the way he researches the roots of the main food items he covers--prairie hens, 'possum and raccoon, trout, oysters and mussels, terrapin (turtle), sheep-head and croakers (fish), cranberries, and maple syrup. He then travels to the locations where Mark Twain would have eaten the ingredient, detailing both the history and the current state today. You can't help but admire his spirit and dedication--although sometimes the in-depth looks at some of the items made the non-meat eater in me a little queasy. I learned far more about the preparation and consumption of raccoon than I ever wanted to. ;-) But, Beahrs' writing, Twain's interesting life, and the focus on real regional American food and its background give this book heart and keep it moving along.
You can see my full review and see a recipe inspired by the book for the Cook the Books blogging event here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...
I had not read much Twain since high school, although a copy of Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii has been sitting on my to-read pile for quite a while. In Twain's Feast, author Beahrs takes Twain's list or fantasy menu of the American foods and dishes (about 80 items long) that Twain was missing in 1879, while at about a year into the European tour that led to his A Tramp Abroad. Beahrs then explores some of the more obscure regional ingredients to see if Americans are still consuming them today.
Author Beahrs has a true passion for his subject that comes across in the way he researches the roots of the main food items he covers--prairie hens, 'possum and raccoon, trout, oysters and mussels, terrapin (turtle), sheep-head and croakers (fish), cranberries, and maple syrup. He then travels to the locations where Mark Twain would have eaten the ingredient, detailing both the history and the current state today. You can't help but admire his spirit and dedication--although sometimes the in-depth looks at some of the items made the non-meat eater in me a little queasy. I learned far more about the preparation and consumption of raccoon than I ever wanted to. ;-) But, Beahrs' writing, Twain's interesting life, and the focus on real regional American food and its background give this book heart and keep it moving along.
You can see my full review and see a recipe inspired by the book for the Cook the Books blogging event here: http://kahakaikitchen.blogspot.com/20...
August 3, 2010
This was a charming book, full of the history of food and ecology in the nineteenth century United States. Apparently Twain went through a period of great homesickness during his travels abroad, and wrote a huge list of foods that he intended to eat as soon as he got back to the States. Beahrs traces some of the items on the feast, learning about prairie chickens in Illinois, oysters from San Francisco, and maple syrup from New England. Along the way, we learn some things about Twain's life and why certain regional foods were likely important to him. We get scraps of cookbooks from the nineteenth century, giving advice on how to cook possum. And we see how changing ecology has made some foods rare to the point of nonexistence, where once they were plentiful. Lots of fun for anyone interested in food history.
March 7, 2011
A delightful book........it's always interesting reading about food, but this book actually seemed a feast in itself. The writer (and I think this is his first book) is a trained archaeologist and he seemed to delight in bringing bits and pieces of the past to light, finding the connections, breathing life into his project....as if it was an archaeology site. His project is intertwining Mark Twain's joy in life with his love of eating good food, then the writer searches what the 19th century turtle soup or fresh caught Lake Tahoe trout or San Francisco oysters remains and gets lost in the 21st century of these foods. He is a warm, witty, and very companionable writer who seems to really want to share his food adventures, old recipes, and his own joy in cooking southern fried chicken, buttermilk biscuit and good, strong coffee that Mark Twain, himself, might think up to snuff.
July 31, 2011
This book was a delight to read. At the same time as it was a sad and sobering experience. The reminiscences of Twain experiences reminds us of an all too often extinct time of plenty. Often told in his own voice these vignettes of Samuel Clements times and places are powerfully evocative. It makes me want to run out and find those experiences which, alas, are no longer to be had.
But all is not lost. The author's stories of his own experiences with small scale artisanal farmers to restore "America's lost foods" is both enjoyable and encouraging. These efforts to restore pieces of Twain's experiences balance nicely against the regret and sadness for the losses.
I highly recommend this book for any fans of Twain, historic American foodways, or modern sustainable food.
But all is not lost. The author's stories of his own experiences with small scale artisanal farmers to restore "America's lost foods" is both enjoyable and encouraging. These efforts to restore pieces of Twain's experiences balance nicely against the regret and sadness for the losses.
I highly recommend this book for any fans of Twain, historic American foodways, or modern sustainable food.
February 9, 2012
The book begins as a well-rooted look at what Mark Twain would have eaten and where these foods can still be found in modern America. But the narrative quickly dissolves into something else. Something unpleasant.
It's clear that Beahrs enjoys food. And he has a passion for it. His facts are well-researched, and his ideas are interesting. But the presentation, as you read through the book itself, becomes increasingly disjointed and unfocused. The last fifth was a chore to read, and I managed to slog through it by chanting my usual mantra for bad books: "I've wasted enough time getting to this point that I might as well finish the damn thing."
And finish it I did... though I'd advise against almost anyone else doing the same.
It's clear that Beahrs enjoys food. And he has a passion for it. His facts are well-researched, and his ideas are interesting. But the presentation, as you read through the book itself, becomes increasingly disjointed and unfocused. The last fifth was a chore to read, and I managed to slog through it by chanting my usual mantra for bad books: "I've wasted enough time getting to this point that I might as well finish the damn thing."
And finish it I did... though I'd advise against almost anyone else doing the same.
July 21, 2010
A must for food lovers that are interested in the history of American regional foods. Beahrs writes with true affection and passion for what regional foods are, how they developed, and how the changing tastes and industries of our growing nation have played a role in their availability or disappearance. This book is a coast-to-coast journey that tells the tale of America's people and their traditions through food.
I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.
I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.
July 21, 2010
It's easy to think of ideas like sustainable foods, food deserts and locally sourced foods as trendy, hipster concepts that are easily mocked, but Mr. Bearhs makes the point that such concepts are in fact a return to the source of good, truly American cuisine. He also makes a strong case for the necessity of sustainable and locally-sourced food as a way of preserving the environment, and he does all of this in eminently readable prose, both his own and in well-selected quotes from Mark Twain.
February 12, 2014
I just didn't enjoy this book very much and really only made it half way through. It's not that it's bad. I just couldn't get enough interest in it to keep going. Halfway through and still not connected to the topic, I decided just to stop reading it.
It's an interesting topic and Beahrs clearly loves writing about it. It all was monotonous to me, so it's time to move on instead of plodding through the book.
It's an interesting topic and Beahrs clearly loves writing about it. It all was monotonous to me, so it's time to move on instead of plodding through the book.
December 12, 2018
Very interesting. I listened to the audiobook which is a bit more like an extended podcast than a book. Nick Offerman adds his wonderful dulcet tones and the information on Samuel Clemens is new and interesting. Of course, I appreciate any book that has as rapturous an appreciation of food as I do.
August 17, 2012
Very, very much enjoyed. It even almost made me hungry. Top job, old chap.
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