The Joy of Cooking

This poem confused me upon reading it the first time because the author seems to be literally describing how she went about cooking her sister's tongue and brother's heart. However, after reading it a few more times, I have a suspicion about the metaphorical meaning behind the poem. I think that the author's discussing of her sisters tongue might hold similar to the meaning of the phrase "hold your tongue" or someone who has a "sharp tongue" in reference to their manner of speaking. It is a possibility that the author, Elaine Magarrell is very bitter towards her siblings, as the tone suggests, and therefore composed the poem in an expression of this bitterness. Having resenent for her sister's "tongue" would perhaps prompt her to write about the joy of cooking it in a metaphorical sense. She describes preparing the tongue for the meal and how perhaps it will grow back. She also says "next time perhaps a creole sauce or mold of aspic?" which alludes tkt he fact that she dislikes her sisters words (tongue) so much that she would cook it again should it grow back. Similarly, her brother apparently has a dad heart, which means to me that he is a bad person. I get the indication that he is a bad person by her describing the heart as "firm and rather dry" and saying that it "needs an apple-onion stuffin to make it interesting at all". Overall, she describes these pieces of her siblings with only negative details which characterize her brother and sister as a whole only negatively as well. Clearly, The Joy of Cooking is a somewhat disturbing illustration of Magarrell's bitterness towards ER siblings.