All Stirred Up: Suffrage Cookbooks, Food, and the Battle for Women's Right to Vote

by Laura Kumin

Overview

In honor of the centenary of the 19th amendment, a delectable new book that reveals a new side to the history of the suffrage movement.

We all likely conjure up a similar image of the women’s suffrage movement: picket signs, red carnations, militant marches through the streets. But was it only these rallies that gained women the exposure and power that led them to the vote?

Ever courageous and creative, suffragists also carried their radical message into America’s homes wrapped in food wisdom, through cookbooks, which ingenuously packaged political strategy into already existent social communities. These cookbooks gave suffragists a chance to reach out to women on their own terms, in nonthreatening and accessible ways. Cooking together, feeding people, and using social situations to put people at ease were pioneering grassroots tactics that leveraged the domestic knowledge these women already had, feeding spoonfuls of suffrage to communities through unexpected and unassuming channels.

Kumin, the author of The Hamilton Cookbook, expands this forgotten history, she shows us that, in spite of massive opposition, these women brilliantly wove charm and wit into their message. Filled with actual historic recipes (“mix the crust with tact and velvet gloves, using no sarcasm, especially with the upper crust”) that evoke the spirited flavor of feminism and food movements, All Stirred Up re-activates the taste of an era and carries us back through time.

Kumin shows that these suffragettes were far from the militant, stern caricatures their detractors made them out to be. Long before they had the vote, women enfranchised themselves through the subversive and savvy power of the palate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643134529
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Laura Kumin is the author of The Hamilton Cookbook: Cooking, Eating, and Entertaining in Hamilton's World and runs the popular blog "Mother Would Know" Kumin earned a law degree from Columbia Law School and practiced in Washington D.C. for more than two-decades. She lives in Washington D.C. where she now teaches cooking and food history.

Table of Contents

Timeline ix

Introduction xxxiii

Part 1 The Suffrage Battle 1

1 Time Travel: Imagining the Pre-Suffrage World 3

Breads, Breakfast, and Brunch 15

2 Launching the Campaign 37

Appetizers, Finger Food, and Beverages 47

3 From Seneca Falls to the Ballot Box 61

Soups and Salads 91

4 We Can Peel Potatoes and Fight for the Vote, Too! Suffrage Strategies and Battle Tactics 113

Meat and Poultry 147

Part 2 Food for the Suffrage Legions 165

5 Revolution in the Kitchen 167

Fish and Seafood 185

6 Unique, Yet Connected: The Suffrage Cookbooks 195

Rice, Noodles, and Vegetables 221

7 Entertaining and Eating, Suffrage-Style 239

Condiments, Pickles, and Preserves 259

Part 3 Beyond Suffrage 273

8 What Suffrage Means for Us 275

Desserts and Other Sweets 285

Acknowledgments 317

Endnotes 319

Chapter Heading Image Credits 345

Color Insert Image Credits 346

Index 347

Editorial Reviews

"Laura Kumin’s new book about the suffrage movement is a fascinating story of the struggle women faced in the mid 19th-century to win the right to vote. It puts into context the way women have always had to fight for equal rights, to have our voices heard. All Stirred Up is equal parts women’s history and a cookbook with terrific recipes."

Kathy Gunst

A fascinating examination of this pivotal movement in American history—and the irrepressible women who used food as a way to bring their message home. Well-researched, engaging and filled with delicious recipes that will entertain the mind as well as the palate.

Pamela S. Nadell

Laura Kumin's All Stirred Up is revelatory. The way women suffragists used food and cooking— their deepest burdens and familial connective tissue—to change the world for themselves and future generations is a story perfect for the centennial of women's voting rights and years beyond.

Michael Twitty

While it did not surprise me to learn that suffragists deployed culinary tactics to promote their cause, the breadth of Laura Kumin’s research delighted me chapter after chapter. The book’s opening timeline is especially helpful for placing their efforts into historical, global context. And thanks to Laura’s deep dive into suffrage cookbooks, I’ll feel connected to this voting rights’ revolution whenever I make one of All Stirred Up’s thoughtfully adapted recipes.

Bonnie S. Benwick

In All Stirred Up, Kumin’s research into the suffrage cookbooks and their place in the American food story reveals a colorful, dynamic tale. Stir up a cake, make a pot of tea, and tuck in for a great read that inspires.

Cathy Barrow

An an engaging read about the time when women were struggling to get the right to vote, and also a charming view of how cookbooks and recipes were part of the suffrage movement. Kumin’s recipes are clear and thoughtful and her mastery of adapting from historic cookbooks shines through in this interesting work.

Kalyn Denny

A delicious read! All Stirred Up mixes together an appetizing account of suffragists’ use of food as persuasion, a dollop of suffrage history, and some tasty adaptations of recipes from 40 years of suffrage cookbooks. Laura Kumin’s book will delight foodies and feminists alike!

Mary Chapman

2020-04-27
Part cookbook and part spirited history lesson, this book examines a little-known aspect of the women's suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Among the many techniques used by American suffragists to persuade voters was the production and distribution of “suffrage cookbooks” with titles such as Little Tastes of Enfranchisement. Kumin, a former Washington, D.C., attorney who now teaches cooking and food history, makes a case for the importance of “mainstream” suffragists, who often play second fiddle to their more colorful “militant” sisters in history books. The author opens with an extensive timeline of the history of the suffrage movement in the U.S., including not just noteworthy political events, but such culinary landmarks as the invention of the Moon Pie (1917) and the opening of the first A&W root beer stand (1919). Kumin intersperses the history of the movement with sizable collections of recipes in categories such as “Breads, Breakfast, and Brunch” and “Condiments, Pickles, and Preserves.” For each recipe, the author provides the original and a modern reinterpretation, often tossing in more vegetables and seasonings and including more detailed instructions. Some readers might complain that the portion of the book devoted to analysis of significant cookbooks and booklets and their roles in the suffrage movement is relatively small compared to the pages devoted to rehashing others' studies of the movement as a whole—not to mention that many of the recipes are comparable to others of the day. However, it’s difficult to question the author’s enthusiasm and impossible to resist the kind of historical tidbits that pop up frequently along the way—e.g., novelist Jack London's recipe for stuffed celery, which he suggests is “a very appropriate prelude to a dinner of roast duck.”

Kumin makes some thorny history go down easily.

Kirkus Reviews