Caution: don't read this book when hungry. History of American Cooking provides an overview of cooking techniques, from colonial times to the present. Each chapter focuses on the history of a specific cooking technique, discussing the technique's evolution over time and the types of foods cooked this way, along with other interesting historical tidbits, such as the fact that George Washington recorded attending a barbecue in 1769 in his diary. Chapters cover "Baking," "Barbecuing," "Boiling and Poaching," "Braising," "Broiling and Grilling," "Frying," "Roasting," "Smoking," "Steaming," and "Stewing," with a final chapter on "New Technology and Trends in Cooking." The book is interesting to browse through though the layout is very plain, with the text in traditional chapter layouts and some black-and-white pictures. Historical cookbooks are referenced throughout the text, and every chapter includes examples of recipes from the past (a "New Year's Cookie" recipe from an 1850s text starts out with "One pound of butter"); the author does warn in the introduction that these are included merely as examples and have not been tested for modern kitchens. Recommended for high-school students and adults, this would be an appropriate book for school or public libraries looking to fill a collection gap in this area. Suitable for circulating collections.