History of Food


Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat - 1987
    From the origins of mankind, and the transition from a vegetable to an increasingly carnivorous diet, the story unfolds of the interrelationship between people and diet, between particular foods and social mores, between dietary custom and cuisine. A strong theme of natural history runs through the book. Bees and honey are examined and discussed, as are pulses, soya, fungi, cereals and the sources of vegetable oils. Game and meat of all kinds from poultry to horsemeat are described, as are all kinds of sea foods. Domestic animals, vegetable and fruit farming, fish farming and other human initiatives are compared with the economic markets they serve, and the dietary effects they have. Foods of pleasure, from confectionery to wine, from coffee to caviar are also covered. This vast survey concludes with an investigation of scientific issues, including methods of food preservation, dietetics and the importance of vitamins. A selection of significant illustrations is included in the text, and there is a comprehensive bibliography and index. The French edition of this book won the History Prize of the Societe des Gens de Lettres de France.

Culinaria Greece: Greek Specialties


Marianthi Milona - 2004
    Since 1990, she has been a journalist for regional, national, and international radio and print media. Because of her in-depth knowledge of Greece and the Balkans, she regularly makes extended research trips to all the important areas of southeast Europe. Werner Stapelfeldt began his career as a photographer for travel guides and magazines. After studying photo design he went to work as a freelance photographer, predominantly in the commercial field, working for agencies and institutions. His assignment with the Culinaria series took him to Greece for eight months, where he uncovered unusual wines, fruits, and various Greek dishes. He spent time with people at work and at play and, of course, at the table, all the while endeavoring to capture the country, its specialties, and its atmosphere in the photographs that illustrate this book.

Crazy Water Pickled Lemons: Enchanting Dishes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa


Diana Henry - 2002
    Lusciously photographed by award-winning lensman Jason Lowe, and compiled by an exciting new voice in the cookery world, these recipes combine flavors in ways long forgotten-or never even discovered-in the western kitchen. Diana Henry uses such classic ingredients as olive oil, coriander, chili, and dates in refreshing new ways, and also incorporates a banquet of exotic and aromatic components, including flower waters, pomegranates, and cardamom. Each selection has an irresistible charm, from the sea-and-salt infused (Catalan Salt Cod and Pepper Gratin) to the heavenly sweet (Middle Eastern Orange Cake).

Eight Flavors: The Untold Story of American Cuisine


Sarah Lohman - 2016
    But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table. Eight Flavors introduces the explorers, merchants, botanists, farmers, writers, and chefs whose choices came to define the American palate.

Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of America's First Lady of Food


Susan Marks - 2005
    Not bad for a gal who never actually existed. "Born" in 1921 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to proud corporate parents, Betty Crocker has grown, over eight decades, into one of the most successful branding campaigns the world has ever known. Now, at long last, she has her own biography. Finding Betty Crocker draws on six years of research plus an unprecedented look into the General Mills archives to reveal how a fictitious spokesperson was enthusiastically welcomed into kitchens and shopping carts across the nation. The Washburn Crosby Company (one of the forerunners to General Mills) chose the cheery all-American "Betty" as a first name and paired it with Crocker, after William Crocker, a well-loved company director. Betty was to be the newest member of the Home Service Department, where she would be a "friend" to consumers in search of advice on baking -- and, in an unexpected twist, their personal lives. Soon Betty Crocker had her own national radio show, which, during the Great Depression and World War II, broadcast money-saving recipes, rationing tips, and messages of hope. Over 700,000 women joined Betty's wartime Home Legion program, while more than one million women -- and men -- registered for the Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air during its twenty-seven-year run. At the height of Betty Crocker's popularity in the 1940s, she received as many as four to five thousand letters daily, care of General Mills. When her first full-scale cookbook, Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book, or "Big Red," as it is affectionately known, was released in 1950, first-year sales rivaled those of the Bible. Today, over two hundred products bear her name, along with thousands of recipe booklets and cookbooks, an interactive website, and a newspaper column. What is it about Betty? In answering the question of why everyone was buying what she was selling, author Susan Marks offers an entertaining, charming, and utterly unique look -- through words and images -- at an American icon situated between profound symbolism and classic kitchen kitsch.

Joy of Cooking


Irma S. Rombauer - 1931
    Rombauer self-published the first three thousand copies of Joy of Cooking in 1931, it has become the kitchen bible, with more than 20 million copies in print. This new edition of Joy has been thoroughly revised and expanded by Irma’s great-grandson John Becker and his wife, Megan Scott.John and Megan developed more than six hundred new recipes for this edition, tested and tweaked thousands of classic recipes, and updated every section of every chapter to reflect the latest ingredients and techniques available to today’s home cooks. Their strategy for revising this edition was the same one Irma and Marion employed: Vet, research, and improve Joy’s coverage of legacy recipes while introducing new dishes, modern cooking techniques, and comprehensive information on ingredients now available at farmers’ markets and grocery stores. You will find tried-and-true favorites like Banana Bread Cockaigne, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Southern Corn Bread—all retested and faithfully improved—as well as new favorites like Chana Masala, Beef Rendang, Megan’s Seeded Olive Oil Granola, and Smoked Pork Shoulder. In addition to a thoroughly modernized vegetable chapter, there are many more vegan and vegetarian recipes, including Caramelized Tamarind Tempeh, Crispy Pan-Fried Tofu, Spicy Chickpea Soup, and Roasted Mushroom Burgers. Joy’s baking chapters now include gram weights for accuracy, along with a refreshed lineup of baked goods like Cannelés de Bordeaux, Rustic No-Knead Sourdough, Ciabatta, Chocolate-Walnut Babka, and Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza, as well as gluten-free recipes for pizza dough and yeast breads. A new chapter on streamlined cooking explains how to economize time, money, and ingredients and avoid waste. You will learn how to use a diverse array of ingredients, from amaranth to za’atar. New techniques include low-temperature and sous vide cooking, fermentation, and cooking with both traditional and electric pressure cookers. Barbecuing, smoking, and other outdoor cooking methods are covered in even greater detail. This new edition of Joy is the perfect combination of classic recipes, new dishes, and indispensable reference information for today’s home cooks. Whether it is the only cookbook on your shelf or one of many, Joy is and has been the essential and trusted guide for home cooks for almost a century. This new edition continues that legacy.

Culinaria Italy


Claudia Piras - 2000
    The rich culture and varied countryside of Italy has attracted and inspired artists and writers through the ages. From the era of the classical "grand tour," when educational visits were made to sites of antiquity on the Apennine peninsula, ever-increasing numbers of tourists have fallen in love with this country. The ars vivendi, or style of living, of its vivacious inhabitants has undoubtedly left just as lasting an impression as the treasures of its cultural heritage. For countless visitors, the simple and yet imaginative cuisine of Italy has now come to symbolize that very Italian love of life.We invite you to accompany us on a culinary giro d'Italia, a tour of Italy that begins in the northeast, leads through he Alpine regions to Liguria in the west, then turns south, through Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, crossing from Calabria to Sicily, and finally ending on the island of Sardinia.In Friuli-Venezia Giulia, we sample ham from San Daniele and admire the largest frico in the world. In Venice and the Veneto, we are invited to drink a glass of prosecco, while in Trentino-Alto Adige we treat ourselves with a snack of home-cured bacon and the local bread specialty. Lombardy tempts us with Milanese salami and pannettone. In Piedmont we get to know the art of making risotto, and in Aosta Valley we find out about a local hard bread and a reviving herb liqueur. Liguria presents is with pesto and the finest olive oil, while Emilia-Romagna provides the products that are emblematic of Italy -- Parma ham, Parmesan, and mortadella. In Tuscany we sample fine wine, in Umbria we go fishing on Lake Trasimeno, and in Marche we stroll along the culinary trail laid by the composer, Rossini. In Lazio, which includes the capital city of Rome, we track down papal cuisine and savor classic pasta dishes. In Abrizzi and Molise, brightly colored confectionary awaits us, in Campania snow-white mozzarella cheese, in Apulia blond wheat, and in Basilisata brilliant red chili peppers. After a robust breakfast in Calabria, we admire deceptively real-looking marzipan fruits in Sicily and catch langoustines off the Sardinian coast.How does the blue mold get into Gorgonzola? Where did ice cream come from, in the days before refrigerators? What is there to tell about the wine of Piedmont? How are tomato preserves made? How does one recognize a genuine balsamic vinegar? What are the marks of quality that help to distinguish genuine products from imitations? What food was eaten in ancient Rome which specialties were served at court during the Middle Ages, and what culinary innovations accompanied the Renaissance? Culinaria italy takes a look behind the scenes and answers these and many other questions of interest to lovers of Italian Cuisine.With 496 pages and 1,294 illustrations, Culinaria Italy shows us not only the food and drink of Italy, but also the country and its people, from its Alpine crest in the north to the tip of its heel in the south. The 386 tried and tested recipes from the various region visited ensure that a treat for the taste buds follows a pleasurable read.

English Food


Jane Grigson - 1974
    Fully updated and revised by Jane Grigson before her death in 1990, this joyful celebration of our national cuisine is a pleasure to cook from and a delight to read. 'This is the perfect English companion' - Guardian 'ENGLISH FOOD is an anthology all who follow her recipes will want to buy for themselves...enticing from page to page' - Spectator 'She restored pride to the subject of English food' - Evening Standard

The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South


John T. Edge - 2017
    Beginning with the pivotal role of cooks in the Civil Rights movement, noted authority John T. Edge narrates the South's journey from racist backwater to a hotbed of American immigration. In so doing, he traces how the food of the poorest Southerners has become the signature trend of modern American haute cuisine. This is a people's history of the modern South told through the lens of food.Food was a battleground in the Civil Rights movement. Access to food and ownership of culinary tradition was a central part of the long march to racial equality. THE POTLIKKER PAPERS begins in 1955 as black cooks and maids fed and supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott and it concludes in 2015 as a Newer South came to be, enriched by the arrival of immigrants from Lebanon to Vietnam to all points in between.Along the way, THE POTLIKKER PAPERS tracks many different evolutions of Southern identity --first in the 1970s, from the back-to-the-land movement that began in the Tennessee hills to the rise of fast and convenience foods modeled on Southern staples. Edge narrates the gentrification that gained traction in North Carolina and Louisiana restaurants of the 1980s and the artisanal renaissance that reconnected farmers and cooks in the 1990s and in the 00s. He profiles some of the most extraordinary and fascinating figures in Southern food, including Fannie Lou Hamer, Colonel Sanders, Edna Lewis, Paul Prudhomme, Craig Claiborne, Sean Brock, and many others.Like many great provincial dishes around the world, potlikker is a salvage food. During the antebellum era, masters ate the greens from the pot and set aside the left-over potlikker broth for their slaves, unaware that the broth, not the greens, was nutrient-rich. After slavery, potlikker sustained the working poor, black and white. In the rapidly gentrifying South of today, potlikker has taken on new meanings as chefs have reclaimed the dish.Over the last two generations, wrenching changes have transformed the South. THE POTLIKKER PAPERS tells the story of that change--and reveals how Southern food has become a shared culinary language for the nation.Music Copyright (c) 2012, Lee Bains III

Pax Romana


Adrian Goldsworthy - 2016
    Yet the Romans were conquerors, imperialists who took by force a vast empire stretching from the Euphrates to the Atlantic coast. Ruthless, Romans won peace not through coexistence but through dominance; millions died and were enslaved during the creation of their empire.  Pax Romana examines how the Romans came to control so much of the world and asks whether traditionally favorable images of the Roman peace are true. Goldsworthy vividly recounts the rebellions of the conquered, examines why they broke out, why most failed, and how they became exceeding rare. He reveals that hostility was just one reaction to the arrival of Rome and that from the outset, conquered peoples collaborated, formed alliances, and joined invaders, causing resistance movements to fade away.

Tea: A Global History


Helen Saberi - 2010
    Perhaps that is because it is a unique and adaptable drink, consumed in many different varieties by cultures across the globe and in many different settings, from the intricate traditions of Japanese teahouses to the elegant tearooms of Britain to the verandas of the deep South.     In Tea food historianHelen Saberi explores this rich and fascinating history. Saberi looks at the economic and social uses of tea, such as its use as a currency during the Tang Dynasty and 1913 creation of a tea dance called “Thé Dansant” that combined tea and tango. Saberi also explores where and how tea is grown around the world and how customs and traditions surrounding the beverage have evolved from its legendary origins to its present-day popularity.Featuring vivid images of teacups, plants, tearooms, and teahouses as well as recipes for both drinking tea and using it as a flavoring, Tea will engage the senses while providing a history of tea and its uses.

BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts


Stella Parks - 2017
    Whether down-home delights like Blueberry Muffins and Glossy Fudge Brownies or supermarket mainstays such as Vanilla Wafers and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, your favorites are all here. These meticulously tested recipes bring an award-winning pastry chef’s expertise into your kitchen, along with advice on how to “mix it up” with over 200 customizable variations—in short, exactly what you’d expect from a cookbook penned by a senior editor at Serious Eats. Yet BraveTart is much more than a cookbook, as Stella Parks delves into the surprising stories of how our favorite desserts came to be, from chocolate chip cookies that predate the Tollhouse Inn to the prohibition-era origins of ice cream sodas and floats. With a foreword by The Food Lab’s J. Kenji López-Alt, vintage advertisements for these historical desserts, and breathtaking photography from Penny De Los Santos, BraveTart is sure to become an American classic.

Le Bernardin Cookbook: Four-Star Simplicity


Eric Ripert - 1998
    The food served in Le Bernardin's beautiful dining room is as subtle and refined as any in the world, and because fish and shellfish are often best turned out quickly and simply, the recipes in this book can be reproduced by any home cook.Maguy Le Coze traces the origins of Le Bernardin's simplicity to her late brother, Gilbert, the restaurant's legendary cofounder and first chef. Today, Chef Eric Ripert carries on Gilbert's simplistic tradition with dishes such as Poached Halibut on Marinated Vegetables, Pan-Roasted Grouper with Wild Mushrooms and Artichokes, and Grilled Salmon with Mushroom Vinaigrette. And, of course, there are the desserts for which Le Bernardin is also so well known--from Chocolate Millefeuille to Honeyed Pear and Almond Cream Tarts.Essential to the experience of dining at Le Bernardin and to the Le Bernardin Cookbook are the dynamic and charming personalities of Maguy Le Coze and Eric Ripert, whose lively dialogue and colorful anecdotes shine from these pages as brightly as the recipes themselves.

The Oxford Companion to Food


Alan Davidson - 1999
    Its combination of serious food history, culinary expertise, and entertaining serendipity was recognized as utterly unique. Including both an exhaustive catalogue of the foods that nourish humankind-fruit from tropical forests, mosses scraped from adamantine granite in Siberian wastes, or ears, eyeballs and testicles from a menagerie of animals-and a richly allusive commentary on the culture of food, whether expressed in literature and cookbooks, or as dishes peculiar to a country or community, the Oxford Companion to Food immediately found distinction.The study of food and food history was a new discipline at the time, but one that has developed exponentially in the years since. There are now university departments, international societies, and academic journals, in addition to a wide range of popular literature exploring the meaning of food in the daily lives of people around the world.Alan Davidson famously wrote eighty percent of the first edition, which was praised for its wit as well as its wisdom. Tom Jaine, the editor of the second edition, worked closely with Jane Davidson and Helen Saberi to ensure that new contributions continue in the same style. The result is an expanded volume that remains faithful to Davidson's peerless work. The text has been updated where necessary to keep pace with a rapidly changing subject, and Jaine assiduously alerts readers to new avenues in food studies. Agriculture; archaeology; food in art, film, literature, and music; globalization; neuroanatomy; and the Silk Road are covered for the first time, and absorbing new articles on confetti; cutlery; doggy bags; elephant; myrrh; and potluck have also found their way into the Companion.

The Roman Emperor Aurelian : Restorer of the World


John F. White - 2006
    This is the first non-specialist book to be devoted to this extraordinary, yet little known, Roman emperor folowing his carrer from obscurity to saviour of the Empire. The author's original research uses the most up to date interpretations of ancient literature and inscriptions to examine Aurelian's methods and achievements .Details of the little described 3rd Century Roman army are also included and the book is illustrated with many photographs.