Aguecheek's Beef, Belch's Hiccup, and Other Gastronomic Interjections: Literature, Culture, and Food Among the Early Moderns

by Robert Appelbaum

We didn’t always eat the way we do today, or think and feel about eating as we now do. But we can trace the roots of our own eating culture back to the culinary world of early modern Europe, which invented cutlery, haute cuisine , the weight-loss diet, and much else besides. Aguecheek’s Beef, Belch’s Hiccup tells the story of how early modern Europeans put food into words and words into food, and created an experience all their own. Named after characters in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night , this lively study draws on sources ranging from cookbooks to comic novels, and examines both the highest ideals of culinary culture and its most grotesque, ridiculous and pathetic expressions. Robert Appelbaum paints a vivid picture of a world in which food was many things—from a symbol of prestige and sociability to a cause for religious and economic struggle—but always represented the primacy of materiality in life.

Peppered with illustrations and a handful of recipes, Aguecheek’s Beef, Belch’s Hiccup will appeal to anyone interested in early modern literature or the history of food.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction

397 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2006

Reviews

[Annabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fascinating critical work is an important piece of literature in the field of Early Modern history. Appelbaum presents interesting and new ideas about food during this period and directly and relevantly interweaves them with literature of the time, such as Shakespeare. This clever way of writing means that all of Appelbaum's ideas become clearer and stick in the reader's mind long after reading. He also uses other critical material well, and this book never becomes boring.

[Candace]

that dear miss tiffani jones gave me this book to me awhile ago, because she knows what i like. somewhere along the line, it got buried and i recently uncovered it. oooooh, excited to read it someday.