Monday, September 16, 2013
Fire Fuels the Soul
This entire first section of the book focuses on fire. As a guy I find this quite appealing. While reading I noticed that fire must be something that appeals to all men due to the fact the many of the chefs that were discussed were men. The section opens by talking about nothing other than good ole pork barbecue. I have grown up in North Carolina and this was right up my alley. Pollan ends the section with a discussion of the importance of cooking over a wood fire to create the perfect flavors. The two commonalities that I found in the section were men and meat bound together by fire. Men are always ragged on for being so-called pyromaniacs but in this case I don't consider that a bad thing at all. Men are also associated with loving meat. Again, not an issue with me. With this combination, I also wondered about the other things that people commonly associate with fire. Destruction is the one thing that continued to swim around in my mind. However, I enjoyed that in the section we were able to see a completely unexpected view point of fire. Fire was seen as pleasing to all, both the earthly and the divine, and as a means of creation. Fire is used to create delicious meat filled meals and along with wood it can create amazing flavor. It is fascinating to see that fire can be used to create, which is the exact opposite of destruction. Fire truly fuels the soul, well at least the souls of several men. The manliness that emanates from cooking meat over a fire is a powerful feeling. Men have always been the front runners when it comes to cooking meat, especially pork barbecue. Men and fire make a killer combination that Pollan clearly defines in this section.
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I like the dualism between creation and destruction with fire as the common element. Your focus on the creation side, while valid and important, does neglect the thing (animal or plant or other) being fired - i.e., destroyed. I think Pollan does a commendable job of at least pausing to recognize the role of sacrifice in fire cooking. While a small section of part one, CAFOs, especially those focusing on pigs, are extremely brutal and destructive for what are on the whole, very intelligent animals. I, like you, prefer to focus on the creation side of the cook fire.
ReplyDeleteI would agree. Give me a man a fire and he can be entertained for hours. And whereas cooking has traditionally remained the domain of the female, males curiously have always taken advantage of the meat and fire loophole. It is a point of pride for many men to be able to ply his trade on the grill with precision and finesse. I wonder if there has ever been a culture in which those traditional gender roles have been reversed?
ReplyDeleteThe facets of gender and food are fascinating - it is just another area in which we struggle to discern whether nature or nurture take the lead on interactions.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem that food prepared with fire seems to be a male-dominated trade (think traditional bakers/bread-makers, pizza in a brick oven, and yes, barbecue) and yet food cooked and baked in an over or on the stove is very female associated. If we even stop to consider what scents we associate with genders. Masculine smells often include wood or woodsy scents and female scents are often sweet. So I are such associations inherent or merely tradition?