For the past ten years, Jean Anderson has been on a quest: to search out the most popular recipes of the 20th century and to chronicle 100 years of culinary change in America. The result is a rich and fascinating look at where we've been, at the recipes our mothers and grandmothers loved, and at how our own tastes have evolved.

The more than 500 cherished recipes in these pages are mainstays of American home cooking, the recipes that have remained favorites year after year. For the smallest sampling:

California dip . . . Buffalo chicken wings . . . vichyssoise . . . tuna-noodle casserole . . . Swiss steak . . . frosted meat loaf . . . tamale pie . . . corn dogs . . . lobster rolls . . . classic green bean bake . . . perfection salad . . . green goddess salad . . . frozen fruit salad . . . chiffon cake . . . brownies . . . chocolate chip cookies . . . chocolate decadence

Beyond this collection is Jean's exploration of the diversity of our nation's cuisine and our adoption of such "foreign" dishes as pizza, gazpacho, lasagne, moussaka, and tarte tatin. Her painstakingly researched text includes extensive headnotes, thumbnail profiles of important people and products (from Fannie Farmer to James Beard and from electric refrigerators to the microwave), and a timeline of major 20th-century food firsts. 

In recording popular recipes that might have been lost, in setting them in richly detailed historical context, Jean Anderson has written her masterwork. The American Century Cookbook may well be the most important new cookbook of the decade; it is certainly the book America will love.

goodreads.com

I got this book for $1.00 on the last day of the library book sale. And it's one terrific book. It's not just recipes but mostly all kinds of fascinating info about the invention of popular foods (e.g, Jell-O, Fritos, Oreos), personalities (e.g., Howard Johnson, Duncan Hines), food trends, leading food companies). Open this book to any page, and there's something to capture reader interest. Loved this book!