Today we mark the 75th anniversary of the release of The Joy of Cooking. That first edition of what would become the classic, beloved cookbook was self-published back in 1931. According to Ethan Becker, son of Marion Rombauer Becker and grandson of original Joy author Irma Rombauer, TheJoy of Cooking was the right title for a country sliding into the Great Depression. (来源：http://www.EnglishCN.com)

Nine editions later, the term cockaigne still appears in the name of recipes that were family favorites of the authors. Cockaigne is the name of Ethan Becker’s home, the country home built (and named) by his parents.

Where does cockaigne come from? According to the foreword to the 1975 edition, cockaigne was a mythical land of peace and plenty. According to its French linguistic ancestor, pais de cockaigne translates as "land of plenty." During the Middle Ages, Cockaigne was imagined as a utopia where the hardworking peasants were treated to the good life. The Brothers Grimm told the tale of the Land of Cockaigne and 16th century painter Pieter Brueghel the Elder painted a picture of happily prostrate peasants passed out from its delights (described in a 13th century French poem as "houses…of barley sugar and cakes…[and] the streets paved with pastry").

Speaking of pastries and cakes, we’ll close with this tasty tidbit: a prominent philologist believed cockaigne ultimately derives from—or perhaps is an adaptation of—the word for a small sweet cake sold to a child at the fair.