Rothbard Reviews Liberated Cooking: Rabble-Rousing Recipes from Assorted Libertarian Luminaries (Liberty, December 1987)

From the vault: Murray N. Rothbard’s review of a libertarian cookbook, Libertarian Cooking: Rabble-Rousing Recipes from Assorted Libertarian Luminaries, Marty Zupan and Lou Villadsen, eds. Santa Monica, CA: Marty Zupan, 1987, 96pp., $8.95, Liberty (December, 1987): 23–25.

I cannot find the book online (if anyone has a copy please contact me), and Wikipedia and Tyler Cowen’s review (below) indicate the actual title is Liberated Cooking: Rabble-Rousing Recipes from Assorted Libertarian Luminaries.

This reminds me of a cookbook idea some of us were kicking around years ago with our friend Brad Edmonds, author of There’s a Government in Your Soup: Why There’s Too Much Government in Your Kitchen, and What You Can Do About It (2004), which I reviewed in “Eat This Book: Review of Brad Edmonds’s There’s a Government in Your Soup: Why There’s Too Much Government in Your Kitchen, and What You Can Do About It,” LewRockwell.com (July 24, 2004). The idea was for Brad to assemble favorite recipes from various libertarians, to be entitled Man, Economy, and Steak or perhaps Manicotti and Steak. Alas. The idea never bore fruit.

Here’s Rothbard’s review.

Libertarian [sic: Liberated] Cooking: Rabble-Rousing Recipes from Assorted Libertarian Luminaries, Marty Zupan and Lou Villadsen, eds. Santa Monica, CA: Marty Zupan, 1987, 96pp., $8.95,

This delightful booklet reveals far more about the personalities of the vari0us leading libertarians than it adds to the applied science of cookery; but whether a stroll through this little book is worth the steep price depends on the conscience, and the pocketbook, of each potential reader.

Examples: Milton Friedman, contributing a veteran Jewish recipe for stuffed cabbage, praises his wife’s cooking as compared to his mother’s. David Friedman follows his passion, contributing several recipes for medieval cooking (Yechh). Leonard Liggio, a historian who claims Albanian and Sicilian ancestry, contributes several brief recipes, prefaced by lengthy historical disquisitions about the greatness of both the Sicilians and the Albanians, whom, we are all astonished to find, are the oldest and noblest people in Europe, contributing kings and statesmen everywhere. James Buchanan, determined to be a southern redneck to the last, provides a recipe for “the best dish in the world,” which turns out to be, mirabile dictu, Middle Tennessee field corn [fit for cattle, that is] which takes an hour to cook. At least! Karl Hess’s favorite dish, which he mysteriously calls “Untitled,” turns out, to even the minimally discerning, to be not very esoteric peanut butter cookies. – MNR

Cowen’s review:

Tyler Cowen, *Liberated Cooking*, Marginal Revolution (May 16, 2010)

I’ve been browsing this 1987 book, edited by Marty Zupan and Lou Villadsen, of recipes from libertarians and classical liberals.  Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan offers up his take on Middle Tennessee Fried Corn, claiming “Properly done, this is the best dish in the world!”

Select several ears of fresh field corn (not sweet corn), preferably Hickory King white corn.  Husk ears, then cut tips of kernels into bowl.  Then scrape remaining milk of kernels into bowl.

Add water and salt to mixture.  Add 2 tbsp. lard (or other fat) to mixture.

Put in skillet and cook over moderate heat (simmer) for one hour.  Add water as needed.  Stir to prevent sticking.

You’ll also find recipes from Robert Heinlein, Murray Rothbard (he claims his favorite dessert of Cherry Clafouti violates the otherwise praxeological law of diminishing marginal utility), two from David Friedman (medieval and Icelandic), Buchanan’s pizza recipe, Ron Paul, David Henderson, Henry Hazlitt, and last but not least Milton Friedman’s account of the stuffed cabbage which Rose cooked for him, inspired by her mother Sarah Director.  Buchanan’s is the only one which sounded tasty to me, possibly the Friedman recipe also.