Of recipes and stories past

and a recipe from Gourmet magazine for turkey chili to warm your insides

You might say I have a magazine obsession.

And it will be no surprise that culinary magazines are my jam.

If you’ll forgive the pun, when you own a house with a basement, collecting magazines - lots and lots of magazines - is not an issue. One becomes ingenious at finding ways to store reams of paper. My inner librarian comes out, and I have my own Dewey Decimal system in place.

A tiny glimpse of my culinary magazine collection

With literally hundreds of magazines, you’d think I’d have a hard time remembering where my favourite recipes are. But somehow little details stick. So I know that the best jerk chicken recipe is from Food & Wine’s July 1995 issue, that the veal, pork and fennel meatballs from Donna Hay’s August 2007 issue are divine, that if you’re going to make fresh ricotta then it’s worth looking up the recipe from Bon Appetit in January 2009.

I know what you’re thinking. Everything’s online, you say. Are you really going to ever go back and use all of these recipes, let alone read those magazines? What about the wasted space and clutter?

Herein lies the dilemma. There’s a part of me that is loathe to miss the hidden gem. What if, just what if that brilliant technique for perfect panna cotta lies buried deep in the pages of a back issue of Cook’s Illustrated ? What about that story about sherry in Jerez from Saveur, meticulously researched, cleverly written, beautifully photographed? And, most of all, what about the fact that many of these wonderful publications are no more?

A platform for creativity

While the first “magazine” was published in England in 1731, it was really in the 19th century that magazines actually came into their own. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the United States, where magazine empires began and flourished.

Yet, even as the new medium proliferated, with every innovation - radio, television, the internet - reports of the demise of the printed word have proliferated too.

And indeed, magazines in particular have borne the brunt of the long-predicted fallout. It didn’t take a pandemic to pull the plug on Gourmet in 2009, a beloved magazine first published in January 1941. A cultural icon that encompassed culture, travel, and lifestyle, along with the food coverage, Gourmet created a singular style of food journalism.

Gourmet cared about great writing as much as it cared about food. The magazine's contributors were a luminary cast of literary as well a culinary characters, with everyone from James Beard, Laurie Colwin and M.F.K. Fisher to George Plimpton, Paul Theroux, Ray Bradbury and David Foster Wallace amongst its contributors.

A prized issue of Gourmet from 1984 with Thanksgiving recipes and fiction from American novelist Richard Cordon

In fact, magazines have long provided a platform for new and exciting talent. Beyond the writers made famous by periodicals, there are countless artists and photographers, who cut their teeth in a monthly mag. Andy Warhol moved to New York and worked for Glamour. Robert Rauschenberg, one of the most influential modern artists, created iconic covers for Time and Life. Renowned conceptual artist Barbara Kruger started in the design department at Mademoiselle magazine. And of course Annie Lebovitz, perhaps one of the most iconic portrait artists, started in the 1970s at Rolling Stone magazine.

The pleasures of a slow read

Is there anything more satisfying than curling up with a new issue of your favourite magazine? Whether your passion is music, food, long-form fiction writing, fashion….there is a periodical just for you.

Magazines are personal and broad-ranging, bespoke and unexpected. The shiny pages beguile, the crack and whisper of the pages, even the advertising (especially in those back issues), intrigue. It is a joy to be able to dip into both past and present with a turn of the page.

And yet I know that I need to part ways with my collection. Slowly, I’m sifting through the pages, bundling up the boxes, trying to decide whether it’s worth selling my treasures, donating them or simply adding to the city’s recycling burden.

To be sure there will be those that remain. And the many “recipe collection” cookbooks from some of these publications have captured the best of the best already. There are beautiful collections of great writing too (if you love Paris, be sure to look up Remembrance of Things Paris, an edible tour of Paris through six decades of writing from Gourmet magazine).

While many more magazines will cease to be, I am encouraged by the heroic rise of the magazines of the future. Even in the depths of the pandemic, 60 new publications came to be.

So as I sift and sort, cooking my way through the years of great food writing, I am grateful that my obsession has resulted in years of pleasure, knowledge and good eating.

And, if you’re interested in a full set of Gourmet magazines from 2003, let me know. I may just be able to hook you up.

Chipotle Turkey Chili

From Gourmet magazine, December, 1992

Serves 6-8

In a pantheon of great magazines, what makes one recipe stand out over another? Perhaps it’s a mood, a season, an occasion, an education. Whatever the inspiration, I never lose the thrill of discovery that a new recipe gives me. When it’s wrapped in a story, as the best of food writing is, it’s all the more magical. And the beauty of it all is that a recipe can be as good and relevant today as it was in 1992.

Ingredients

2 canned whole chipotle chilies in adobo

1 cup water

3 18-ounce cans whole tomatillos, drained, and puréed in a food processor or blender

2 large onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon tomato purée

4 pounds ground turkey

2 cups chicken broth

1 bay leaf

1½ dried oregano, crumbled

2 teaspoons salt, or to taste

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 tablespoon pickled jalapeño chili, chopped

1 tablespoon cornmeal

a 19-ounce can (about 2 cups) white beans, rinsed and drained

½ cup chopped fresh coriander, optional

1. In a blender purée chipotle chilies with the water and reserve the purée.

2. In a large Dutch oven, cook the onions and the garlic in the oil over medium heat, stirring, until the onions are softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add the cumin, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 30 seconds.

3. Add the turkey and cook the mixture, stirring and breaking up the lumps, until the turkey is no longer pink, about 6-8 minutes.

4. Add the reserved chipotle purée, the tomatillo purée, the broth, bay leaf, oregano and the salt and bring to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered, adding more water if necessary to keep the turkey barely covered, for 1 hour.

5. Stir in the bell pepper, jalapeño pepper and the cornmeal and simmer, stirring occasionally, for another 30 minutes. Stir in the white beans and the coriander if using. Simmer the chili for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the beans are heated through, and discard the bay leaf. Taste and adjust for salt. Serve.

6. The chili may be frozen or made 3 days in advance, cooled, uncovered, and kept covered and chilled.