THE COOKBOOK TEST #0076: MEMORIES OF A CUBAN KITCHEN

INSTALLMENT #0076 (PAID) THE POWER OF PORK / REMEMBER WHEN / A SANDWICH FROM SCRATCH: PART ONE, BREAD / PART TWO: PORK / PART THREE: MOJO AND ASSEMBLY

Dear Subscribers,

This is one of those newsletter updates that contains the very real possibility of changing (and improving!) your life. With apologies to my kosher and/or vegetarian friends and readers, there is something legitimately powerful and remarkable useful about being able to buy single honkin’ slab of pork and then transforming it into a flavorful protein powerhouse that can effortlessly serve as the cornerstone of breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners. 

MEMORIES OF A CUBAN KITCHEN is a practical book, in the best sense of the word - these are warm, homey, grandma recipes, which means that quite a few of them are designed to be made over the course of a slow-paced Sunday afternoon and then stretched all the way to Thursday or Friday. And as accessible and practical as these recipes are, they are also coherent and enchanting, dressed up with citrus, garlic, herbs, and seafood to create cheerful, balanced, nourishing food that can sustain a family over the course of a busy year.

at your service,

James

MEMORIES OF A CUBAN KITCHEN
JOAN SCHWARTZ AND MARY URRUTIA RANDELMAN
MACMILLAN | 1992 

If you want to win me over with a cookbook introduction, dive deeply into specifics. Nothing irritates me more than a bunch of platitudes that feel like they could be cranked out via AI; nothing charms me more than an eclectic collection of specific memories and insights that could only be curated and shared through the uniquely human attributes of observation and memory.

Here’s a little taste of Mary Urrutia Randelman’s highly effective opening chapter of Memories of a Cuban Kitchen:

Many excellent restaurants dotted the city, serving foods that ranged from Spanish to Italian to French: La Zaragozana was famous for the shellfish prepared by its Spanish chef; El Monsignor, near the Hotel Nacional, where Angelito, the charming maître d’, made sure his regulars got the best tables while they enjoyed the music of violins, was popular with tourists as well as Cubans; La Plaza de la Catedral was filled with Hollywood stars and international glitterati; La Reguladora, popular with the tobacco brokers, was the place my grandfather would meet his friends for lunch and stay on, deep in conversation, until ten at night; El Frascati, in the Prado, was known for its Italian antipasto and its Cuban yemas en Marsala, a dessert rich with custard and Marsala wine; El Carmelo, in the Vedado section, was convenient to the Riviera Theater and the Sociedad pro Arte, the home of musicals, opera, symphony orchestras, and ballet. And there were many others, including Havana 1800, La Roca, El Pacifico, El Miami, El Paris, El Jardin, and Centro Vasco, later reborn in Miami, menu and all.

Throughout the book, there are interjections that recall daily life in pre-Castro Cuba - everything from Friday fish croquettes to big Caribbean barbecue lunches to insights into the syncretic joining of African and New World flavors that defines Caribbean cuisine. The writing is warm without being smotheringly nostalgic, sharply observed and useful from a culinary perspective - even the bits that are personal memories help whet the appetite, and many of the book’s non-recipe passages help contextualize and explain the way foods were prepared and enjoyed in Cuba.

In order to put Memories of a Cuban Kitchen to the test, I decided to make one recipe that was actually three recipes: an ambitious sandwich that demands the making of homemade bread, slow-roasted pork shoulder, and mojo sauce.

A SANDWICH FROM SCRATCH: PART ONE, CUBAN BREAD

Our favorite Cuban restaurant in the metro is called Guavas, and they do some legitimately delicious sandwiches on Cuban bread. My happiness was palpable when I finished baking off this recipe for pan cubano (which arrived in Memories of a Cuban Kitchen via cooking legend James Beard) and found that it was 100 percent evocative of the stuff I’ve grown quite fond of at Guavas. I’m a middling bread baker at best, but I found this recipe both clear and effective.