What Cookbooks Really Teach Us Reading Answers

Dec 5, 2022

What Cookbooks Really Teach Us Reading Answers has 13 questions that need to be answered in 20 minutes. What Cookbooks Really Teach Us Reading Answers comprises three types of questions, namely- complete the summary, identify the paragraph and write the correct letter. Candidates are required to write the correct letter from the given options A-E for the statements given based on the information provided in the IELTS reading passage. Candidates must read the IELTS Reading reading passage to complete the summary in no more than two words. Candidates are required to read the passage and take notes of the keywords that will help them in questions that require them to identify the paragraph. To practise on more topics, candidates can undertake IELTS Reading practice papers.

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Reading Passage Question

Shelves bend under the weight of cookery books. Even a medium-sized bookshop contains many more recipes than one person could hope to take in a lifetime. Although the recipes in one book are often similar to those in another, their presentation varies wildly, from an array of vegetarian cookbooks to instructions on cooking the food that historical figures might have eaten. The reason for this abundance is chat cookbooks promise to bring about a kind of domestic transformation for the user. The daily routine can be put on one side and they liberate the user, if only temporarily. To follow their instructions is to turn a task which has to be performed every day into an engaging, romantic process. Cookbooks also provide an opportunity to delve into distant cultures without having to turn up at an airport to get there.
The first Western cookbook appeared just over 1,600 years ago. De re couquinara (it means ‘concerning cookery’) is attributed to Roman gourmet named Apicius. It is probably a compilation of Roman and Greek recipes, some or all of them drawn from manuscripts that were later loss. The editor was sloppy, allowing several duplicated recipes to sneak in. Yet Apicius’s book set the tone of cookery advice in Europe for more than a thousand years. As a cookbook, it is unsatisfactory with very basic instructions. Joseph Vehling, a chef who translated Apicius in the 1930s, suggested the author had been obscure on purpose, in ease his secrets leaked out.
But a more likely reason is that Apicius’s recipes were written by and for professional cooks, who could follow their shorthand. This situation continued for hundreds of years. There was no order to cookbooks: a cake recipe might be followed by a mutton one. But then, they were not written for careful study. Before the 19* century few educated people cooked for themselves. The wealthiest employed literate chefs; others presumably read recipes to their servants. Such cooks would have been capable of creating dishes from the vaguest of instructions.
The invention of printing might have been expected to lead to greater clarity but at first, the reverse was true. As words acquired commercial value, plagiarism exploded. Recipes were distorted through reproduction. A recipe for boiled capon in Vk Good Huswives Jewell, printed in 1596, advised the cook to add three or four dates. By 1653. when the recipe was given by a different author in A Book of Fruits & Flowers, the cook was told to see the dish aside for three or four days.
The dominant theme in 16th and 17th-century cookbooks was ordered. Books combined recipes and household advice, on the assumption that a well-made dish, a well-ordered larder and well-disciplined children were equally important. Cookbooks thus became a symbol of dependability in chaotic times. They hardly seem to have been affected by the English civil war or the revolutions in America and France.
In the 1850s, Isabella Becton published the Book of Household /Management. Like earlier cookery writers she plagiarized freely, lifting not just recipes bur philosophical observations from other books. If Becton’s recipes were not wholly new. though, the way in which she presented them certainly was. She explains when the chief ingredients arc most likely to be in season, how long the dish will take to prepare and even how much it is likely to cost. Bee ton’s recipes were well suited to her times. Two centuries earlier, an understanding of rural ways had been so widespread that one writer could advise cooks to heat water until it was a little hotter than milk comes from a cow. By the 1850s Britain was industrializing. The growing urban middle class needed details, and Becton provided them in the hill.
In France, cookbooks were fast becoming even more systematic. Compare with Britain, France had produced few books written for the ordinary householder by the end of the 19th century. The most celebrated French cookbooks were written by superstar chefs who had a clear sense of codifying a unified approach to sophisticated French cooking. The 5.000 recipes in Auguste Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire (The Culinary Guide), published in 1902, might as well have been written in stone, given the book’s reparation among French chefs, many of whom still consider it the definitive reference book.
What Escoffier did for French cooking. Fannie Farmer did for American home cooking. She not only synthesized American cuisine; she elevated it to the status of science. ‘Progress in civilization has been accompanied by progress in cookery,’ she breezily announced in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, before launching into a collection of recipes that sometimes resembles a book of chemistry experiments. She was occasionally over-fussy. She explained that currants should be picked between June 28th and July 3rd, but not when it is raining. But in the main, her book is reassuringly authoritative. Its recipes arc short, with no unnecessary chat and no unnecessary spices.
In 1950, Mediterranean Food by Elizabeth David launched a revolution in cooking advice in Britain. In some ways, Mediterranean Food recalled even older cookbooks but the smells and noises that filled Davids books were not mere decoration for her recipes. They were the point of her books. When she began to write, many ingredients were not widely available or affordable. She understood this, acknowledging in a later edition of one of her books that ‘even if people could not very often make the dishes here described, it was stimulating to think about them.’ Davids books were not so much cooking manuals as guides to the kind of food people might well wish to eat.

Solution and Explanation

Questions 1-3:
Complete the summary below.
Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 1-3 on your answer sheet.

Why are there so many cookery books?

There are a great number more cookery books published than is really necessary and it is their 1………………………….. which makes them differ from each other. There are such large numbers because they offer people an escape from their 2………………………….. and some give the user the chance to inform themselves about other 3………………………………..

Question 1:

Answer: 1 PRESENTATION
Supporting Sentence: Although the recipes in one book are often similar to those in another, their presentation varies wildly, from an array of vegetarian cookbooks to instructions on cooking the food that historical figures might have eaten.
Keyword Location: Section A, 2nd line
Explanation: The second line of section A notes that the recipes in different books are frequently identical. However, their presentation varies greatly, ranging from a variety of vegetarian cookbooks to directions on how to prepare cuisine. It quoted that historical characters would have eaten. Therefore, Presentation is the correct answer.

Question 2:

Answer: 2 (DAILY) ROUTINE
Supporting Sentence: The daily routine can be put on one side and they liberate the user, if only temporarily.
Keyword Location: Section A, 3rd line
Explanation: According to the third line of section A, the user can be temporarily freed from their daily routine by using these devices. So, Routine is the appropriate answer.

Question 3:

Answer: 3 CULTURES
Supporting Sentence: Cookbooks also provide an opportunity to delve into distant cultures without having to turn up at an airport to get there.
Keyword Location: Section A, last line
Explanation: The last sentence of section A states that reading cookbooks offers the chance to explore foreign cultures without having to fly elsewhere. Thus, Culture is the correct answer.

Questions 4-8

Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A-I. Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter, A-l, in boxes 4-8 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.

cookery books providing a sense of stability during periods of unrest

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: Cookbooks thus became a symbol of dependability in chaotic times.
Keyword: sense of stability, periods of unrest
Keyword Location: Section E, 2nd line
Explanation: Section E's second line explains that, in these turbulent times, cookbooks came to represent reliability. So, E is the right answer.

details in recipes being altered as they were passed on

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: Recipes were distorted through reproduction.
Keyword: recipes
Keyword Location: Section D, 1st line
Explanation: Details in recipes were changed as they were passed down, according to the first sentence of section D. So, D is the right answer.

knowledge which was in danger of disappearing

Answer: F
Supporting Sentence: Two centuries earlier, an understanding of rural ways had been so widespread that one writer could advise cooks to heat water until it was a little hotter than milk comes from a cow. By the 1850s Britain was industrializing. The growing urban middle class needed details, and Becton provided them in hill.
Keyword: knowledge
Keyword Location: Section F, Last line
Explanation: The final sentence of section F reads, "Two centuries ago, an understanding of country methods had been so common that one writer could instruct cooks to heat water until it was just a touch hotter than milk comes from a cow." British industry was developing by the 1850s. Details were needed by the expanding urban middle class, and Becton delivered them on the hill. So, F is the right answer.

the negative effect on cookery books of a new development

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: The invention of printing might have been expected to lead to greater clarity but at first, the reverse was true.
Keyword: negative, cookery books
Keyword Location: Section D, 1st line
Explanation: The development of printing would have been anticipated to result in increased clarity. But initially the opposite was true, according to the opening line of paragraph D. So, D is the correct answer.

a period when there was no need for cookery books to be precise

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: But a more likely reason is that Apicius’s recipes were written by and for professional cooks, who could follow their shorthand.
Keyword: cookery books, precise
Keyword Location: Section C, 1st line
Explanation: The first sentence of paragraph C states that the fact that Apicius's recipes were prepared by and for skilled cooks. These cooks could follow their shorthand makes this explanation more plausible. Therefore, C is the right answer.

Questions 9-13:
Look at the following statements (Questions 9-13) and list of books (A-E) below. Match each statement with the correct book A-E
Write the correct letter A-E. In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

List of cookery books

De re couquinara
The Book of Household Management
Le Guide Culinaire
The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book
Mediterranean Food

Its recipes were easy to follow despite the writer’s attention to detail.

Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: ‘Progress in civilization has been accompanied by progress in cookery,’ she breezily announced in The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, before launching into a collection of recipes that sometimes resembles a book of chemistry experiments.
Keyword: Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, recipes
Keyword Location: Section H, 2nd Line
Explanation: It is stated in the second sentence of section H that “advancement in civilization has been accompanied by improvement in cuisine.' It was declared briskly in The Boston Cooking-School CookBook. Before plunging into a compilation of recipes that occasionally resembled a book of chemistry experiments. The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book was simple to follow and resembles a book of chemistry experiments. Thus, Option D The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book is suitable for this statement.

Its writer may have deliberately avoided passing on details.

Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: De re couquinara (it means ‘concerning cookery’) is attributed to a Roman gourmet named Apicius. It is probably a compilation of Roman and Greek recipes, some or all of them drawn from manuscripts that were later loss. Joseph Vehling, a chef who translated Apicius in the 1930s, suggested the author had been obscure on purpose, in ease his secrets leaked out.
Keyword: writer, details
Keyword Location: Section B, 1st line
Explanation: De re coquinaria, which translates as "concerning cookery," is credited to a Roman gourmet named Apicius, according to the opening sentence of section B. It is most likely a collection of Roman and Greek recipes, some or all of which were taken from lost texts. Joseph Vehling, who translated Apicius in the 1930s, hypothesised that the author had been deliberately evasive to make it easier for his secrets to slip out. Option A, De re coquinaria Food, is appropriate for this statement since De re coquinaria avoids passing on specifics and is the aggregation of numerous works.

It appealed to ambitious ideas people have about cooking.

Answer: E
Supporting Sentence: Mediterranean Food by Elizabeth David launched a revolution in cooking advice in Britain. David’s books were not so much cooking manuals as guides to the kind of food people might well wish to cat.
Keyword: ambitious ideas, cooking advice
Keyword Location: Section I, 1st and last line
Explanation: Mediterranean Food by Elizabeth David sparked a revolution in British cooking guidance, according to the first and last lines of section I. David's publications were more cookbooks than instruction manuals for the kind of cuisine that people might like to cook. Option E Mediterranean Food is appropriate for this statement. Because although there aren't many cooking books for this cuisine, people were drawn to it because of the way it was written.

Its writer used ideas from other books but added additional related information.

Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: In the 1850s, Isabella Becton published the Book of Household Management. If Becton’s recipes were not wholly new. though, the way in which she presented them certainly was. She explains when the chief ingredients are most likely to be in season, how long the dish will take to prepare and even how much it is likely to cost.
Keyword: other books, related
Keyword Location: Section F, 1st and 2nd line
Explanation: It is stated in the first two sentences of section F that Isabella Becton published the Book of Household Management in the 1850s. Even if Becton's recipes weren't entirely original, the way she presented them was. She details how long the dish will take to create, how much it will probably cost, and when the main components are likely to be in season. Option B, The Book of Household Management, is appropriate for this statement. Since it borrows concepts from previous books and presents them in a certain manner despite the fact that it was written in the 1850s.

It put into print ideas which are still respected today.

Answer: C
Supporting Sentence: Le Guide CuJinaire (The Culinary Guide), published in 1902, might as well have been written in stone, given the book’s reparation among French chefs, many of whom still consider it the definitive reference book.
Keyword: print ideas
Keyword Location: Section G, Last line
Explanation: The Culinary Guide, published in 1902, may have been written in stone. According to the final sentence of section G, given the book's reputation among French cooks, many of whom still regard it as the standard reference work. Option C, Le Guide Culinaire, is appropriate for this statement. Since it contains print ideas from the 1902 publication of Le Guide CuJinaire (The Culinary Guide), which are still used by French cooks today.

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