Hey, this is Christopher Kimball. You know, many folks have asked if they could travel to the same places we do while visiting the same cooks, the same restaurants, the same markets.

Well, now you can. Starting next year, Milks Street will be offering culinary tours in partnership with culinary backstreet.

We're going to Oaxaca, to Athens, to Istanbul, and Mexico City. And you'll get to meet and learn from many of the same people who have changed the way I cook.

Along with a very small group of fellow travelers, you'll visit our favorite bars, restaurants, and street food stalls.

You'll step into the kitchen at hands-on cooking classes with some of our favorite teachers. And you'll meet farmers and artisans who are way off the beaten path.

So if you want to change the way you travel and cook, you might want to check this out.

Trips are capped at just 12 guests, so please reserve now. Learn more at 177milkstreet.com slash tours.

Hi, this is Christopher Kimball. Thanks for listening to Milks Street radio. You can go to our website, 177milkstreet.com, to get our recipes, to stream our television show, or to get our latest cookbooks. Here's this week's show.

This is Milks Street radio from P.R.X. I'm your host, Christopher Kimball.

Our series has a collection of stories and recipes from Syrian refugees, co-authored Gena Masawi, recount stories of food, love, and death from a country that is turned into a war zone.

The one thing that I think people miss the most is food. You crave that thing that reminds you of home.

Before we get to my conversation in the Salwing, it's reporter, Layla Schlack, who's explored the history of the settlement cookbook, all 34 editions and 2 million copies.

Layla, how are you? I'm good, thanks.

So the settlement cookbook, when was it published? Why was it published? Let's just start with the very beginnings here.

The first settlement cookbook was published in 1901. It was all over the country. There were things called settlement houses, which were to help immigrant women from different places integrate into their new life in the US.

Cooking was a big part of it because you had these people coming from places where they had different ingredients.

So the settlement cookbook was from the settlement house in Milwaukee, which was run by an affluent German Jewish woman, but the people coming to it were mostly Russian Jewish immigrants.

So there were recipes to essentially kind of recreate Russian Jewish foods and German Jewish foods in a way that was a little bit more American.

But it also had a lot of tips on housekeeping. It was all about how to have a happy marriage and be a good mother.

I think of it as kind of like a goop or Martha Stewart, where it's really like, it was a lifestyle publication. This is how you be a good, happy, healthy American.

So they would say things like use a tablecloth and your life will be a measurably better, right?

Exactly. Yeah, I would say things like, right, even if you can't afford a nice tablecloth, a cheap tablecloth is better than no tablecloth because it shows that you've put time and thought into this dinner that you're about to have.

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