Flash exhibit: Cooking and baking

Last week we announced we'd be doing a series of flash exhibits, where we focus on a specific topic and publish small but hopefully helpful additions to the schedules. Since many folks are staying safe at home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, there's a lot of discussion of what everyone is eating. While the Dewey schedules already have a lot of provisions in these areas, we found a few more to add to help classify works about food and cooking.

First off, we've added the new number 641.5677 Islamic cooking, where we've added a Relative Index term for Halal cooking. This number was built using 641.567 Cooking for religious limitations and observances and adding the -7 from 297 Islam, Babism, Bahai Faith. We've also mapped Halal food to 297.576 Individual observances, along with Islamic dietary laws. Whether a work is classed in 641.5677 or 297.576 depends on the focus of the work, but hopefully it's clear which discipline the work belongs with: religion or cooking.

Since I've been craving sweet stuff, we added the LCSHs Doughnuts and Cupcakes to 641.8653 Cakes. Cupcakes obviously belong at that number, but you could make an argument for placing doughnuts at 641.8659 Danish, French, related pastries, and in fact, some libraries have classed works about doughnuts classed there. But more have used 641.8653. Maybe we need a new class number for doughnuts, but it would be a missed opportunity if the number didn’t have a zero in it for the sake of donut-shaped aesthetics!

Awhile back we also added the LCSH Smart cookers to 641.587 Steam and pressure cooking. That's the subject heading for Instant Pot and other "multi cookers," which are still enjoying a lot of popularity after being the hot new item a few years ago.

Are there other trends that we should be providing for? Do you see areas where additional numbers or revisions would be helpful? We’d be happy to work with you to make improvements! Get in touch at [email protected].

Comments

[Ann]

It would be really good to have a number for making and cooking with Fermented foods (Kombucha, Kimchi, Kefir, etc.) (apart from the commercial preparation of them in 664.024)
Something in 641.4 for making Fermented foods and a subsequent derived number in 641.61 for cooking with Fermented foods.
AFAICS fermentation doesn't fit in any of the subclasses under 641.4
It's an area growing in popularity, with a consequent increase in books on the subject.

[Alex]

Good suggestion, Ann! I suspect it would go at or near 641.46, since it seems accurate to call fermentation a method of chemical preservation. I'll make a note for us to look into this, though I'd encourage you to get in touch if you'd like to get hands on!