I’m starting to think I might be getting a little old to appreciate late Gen Z/early Gen Alpha influencer-types. I wasn’t the hugest fan of Dylan Hollis’ first book, although I applaud the premise. I was thusly a bit unsure about the second book, but this one has some things going for it the first one did not. Our author hit the big time as a YouTube/social media foodie influencer with a focus on vintage Americana cookery. Baking Across America is framed as a “vintage” “road trip”, with a variety of mostly baked 20th-century content, with most of the states represented. Each region has a “cultural capitol” that gets a bit more attention than the rest. For the most part, this makes sense to choose a major representative of historical culinary representation. So far so good.
Here’s where a few complaints from me appear; in some sections, such as the Great Lakes, it is abundantly clear that states not containing the cultural capitol have not been that thoroughly researched, probably not visited either. The Great Lakes region is represented here by Chicago and Illinois in general. Chicago is definitely the most recognizable city in the region, so that does make a certain degree of sense. However, the one recipe from Wisconsin contains an introduction referring to “the pride of Wisco”. My dude, no one anywhere in that state or even in the region has ever called it that; cringey at best, ignorant at worst. Kringle as the recipe, I’ll accept as culturally specific enough. There are also a few snarky remarks about Minnesota having a fondness for gelatin salads, but then a couple of gelatin salads are included representing other states as perfectly acceptable. While it is true that the Protestant Midwest may indeed have had a weird old time with “lime Jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise” (iykyk), why pick on one state for that, while allowing others to be fine with it? There are also things like the fried pie being supposedly representative of Oklahoma (Southern Interior, not Great Lakes). Maybe they like them in OK, but fried pies are most definitely not specific to that one state. Not buying it. And classifying red velvet as being from NY?
That’s not to say there is not a “nailed it” moment or two. Nebraska is very rightly represented by (among other things) the runza, as is good and proper. The recipe is mostly acceptable, but how it’s even a little vintage and ‘accurate’ with cabbage instead of kraut? So close. The first recipe I tried, a molasses spice cookie called a “Joe Frogger” from Massachusetts, actually turned out really well. Now, full disclosure, I used sorghum instead of molasses (that’s what I had needed using), bourbon instead of rum (I didn’t have dark rum), and doubled all spice levels like Grandma says to, but the basic foundation is pretty darn good.