The making of mamaliga : transimperial recipes for a Romanian national dish / Alex Drace-Francis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Drace-Francis, Alex, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Polenta--Romania--History.

Polenta.

National characteristics, Romanian.

National characteristics.

Cooking (Corn)--Romania--History.

Cooking (Corn).

Romania--History.

Romania.

Romania--Social life and customs.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (227 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Budapest, Hungary : Central European University Press, [2022]

Summary:

Mămăligă, maize porridge or polenta, is a universally consumed dish in Romania and a prominent national symbol. But its unusual history has rarely been told. Alex Drace-Francis surveys the arrival and spread of maize cultivation in Romanian lands from Ottoman times to the eve of the First World War, and also the image of mămăligă in art and popular culture. Drawing on a rich array of sources and with many new findings, Drace-Francis shows how the making of mămăligă has been shaped by global economic forces and overlapping imperial systems of war and trade. The story of maize and mămăligă provides an accessible way to revisit many key questions of Romanian and broader regional history. More generally, the book links the history of production, consumption, and representation. Analyses of recipes, literary and popular depictions, and key vocabulary complete the work.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Graphs, Tables

Introduction: The Land is Waiting

Chapter 1. From the Caribbean to the Carpathians: The Coming of Cucuruz, c.1492–1700

Chapter 2. Conquerors, Cultivators and Collaborators: Maize at Empire’s Edge, 1700–1774

Chapter 3. Climate, Conflict, Contagion and Commerce: The Triumph of Maize, 1774–1812

Chapter 4. Maize, Raki or Death: The Revolt of 1821 Reconsidered

Chapter 5. Mămăligă 2.0: Maize on the World Market, 1829–1856

Chapter 6. Independence, Capitalism, Disease and Revolt; Or, Why the Mămăligă Exploded, 1856–1907

Chapter 7. Manna valachorum: Recipes at the Interface

Chapter 8. ‘The sparrow dreams of cornmeal, and the idle man of a feast day’: Mămăligă as Metaphor

Conclusion: The Land is Waiting

Appendix: Words and Things

Glossary

Mămăligography

Illustration Credits

Acknowledgements

Index

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-003-72274-1

963-386-584-0

9781003722748

OCLC:

1338298405