The fascinating and wide-ranging history of vanilla, from the sixteenth century to today

Vanilla is one of the most expensive of flavorings—so valuable that it was smuggled or stolen by pirates in the early days—and yet it is everywhere. It is a key ingredient in dishes ranging from crème brûlée to Japanese purin. It is the quintessential ice cream flavor in the United States. Eric T. Jennings explains how the world’s only edible orchid, originally endemic to Central America, became embedded in the international culinary and cultural landscape.

In tracing vanilla’s rise, Jennings describes how in the 1840s an enslaved boy named Edmond Albius discovered a way to pollinate vanilla orchids with a toothpick or needle—an ingenious process that is still in use. This method transformed the vanilla sector by enabling the plant to be grown outside of its natural range. Jennings also looks at how the vanilla craze led to the search for now‑pervasive substitutes, and how a vanilla lobby has fought back. He further unravels how vanilla—the world’s most expensive crop and once considered its most refined fragrance—came to mean “bland.”

This tale of botany, production techniques, consumption habits, and colonial rivalry connects the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, revealing how vanilla has become a potent symbol of the modern global village.

Using data collected from 105 households in Sonora, Mexico, the author combines detailed ethnographic research with quantitative analyses of income, diet, and nutritional status to examine the dietary patterns of residents who "cook and cope among the cacti." Employing a new analytical concept of "available income" - which can differ greatly from total income and provide valuable insight into why people eat what they do - the work explores a variety of social and cultural factors that affect food expenditure and consumption. Home production of food and the extent to which women are employed outside of the home are just two of the many variables discussed that influence available income and how it is used. But even among groups with similar available incomes, variables of ethnicity, prestige, nutritional knowledge, and the desire for consumer goods come into play.

This major reference provides a comprehensive treatment of the physiological effects of foods and food components capable of promoting good health and preventing or alleviating diseases. It assembles, in one volume, extensive recent information on the nature and physiological effects of biologically-active components of major plant foods-cereals, oilseeds, fruits, and vegetables-and dairy and fish products. For the first time in any reference work, internationally renowned specialists discuss how to manufacture and evaluate food products with health enhancing effects, using both traditional and novel processing methods.

Entire chapters are devoted to functional food products from oats, wheat, rice, flaxseed, mustard, fruits, vegetables, fish, and dairy products. The chapter on designer vegetable oils covers all the recent developments in vegetable oils, including genetically modified oils and engineering and production of structured lipids. Functional products from quinoa, amaranth, beans, ginseng, echinacea, and other botanicals are covered in separate chapters.

An authoritative final chapter discusses the present regulatory status of functional foods in the U. S., Japan, Canada, and the European Union. This chapter also discusses the assessment of natural products for use in promoting human health and as medicinal agents, considers where the burden of proof lies for showing the effect of a food product on a physiological or biochemical process, and explores the costs of making health claim.
This comprehensive volume serves the information needs of food scientists and technologists, food process engineers, biochemists, nutritionists, public health professionals, and entrepreneurs involved in the design, processing, and marketing of new functional food products. Anyone who believes in the need for real foods that combine nutritional and medical benefits and who believes that such foods can be produced, will find this book invaluable.

Dining with the Famous and Infamous is an entertaining journey into the gastronomic peccadilloes of celebrities, stars, and notorious public figures. From outrageous artists to masterpiece authors, from rock stars to actors - everybody eats. Based on the findings of the British gastro-detective Fiona Ross, this volume explores the palates, the plates, and the preferences of the famous and infamous. Including recipes and their stories in the lives of those who cooked, ordered or ate them, Ross invites you to taste the culinary secret lives of people like Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Sinatra, and Woody Allen, among many others. Food voyeurism has arrived. If you've ever wondered whether George Orwell really swigged Victory Gin or whether cherries played their part in the fall of Oscar Wilde, then Dining with the Famous and Infamous will satisfy your appetite. 'Marilyn Monroe becomes a different kind of sex goddess when you discover she tried to eat her way out of Some Like It Hot with aubergine parmigiana: every curve you see on film is a protest (plus early signs of pregnancy!). You can recreate a 'Get Gassed' afternoon cocktail with Andy Warhol and Truman Capote; shake up the chocolate martini Liz Taylor and Rock Hudson invented on the set of Giant; and even relive the Swinging Sixties with the foodie tales, hedonism and hashish cookies of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. Who wouldn't want to sit at the table of their favorite film star, writer, artist or warlock and taste a piece of their lives?

By addressing the issue of food and eating in Britain today, this book considers the way in which our food habits are changing, and shows how social and personal identities and perceptions of health and risk influence choices. It also looks at the increase of vegetarianism, and the relative ineffectiveness of official eating advice. The book should be useful to students of anthropology, cultural studies and health promotion as well as to those scientists and policymakers who are concerned with food. The introduction seeks to indicate how social scientists can help us understand why people eat what they do. In the following chapters anthropologists and sociologists discuss themes of change and continuities and identity in food and eating in Britain today.

The key to becoming a successful artisan cheesemaker is to develop the intuition essential for problem solving and developing unique styles of cheeses. There are an increasing number of books on the market about making cheese, but none approaches the intricacies of cheesemaking science alongside considerations for preparing each type of cheese variety in as much detail as Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking. Indeed, this book fills a big hole in the market. Beginner guides leave you wanting more content and explanation of process, while recipe-based cookbooks often fail to dig deeper into the science, and therefore don't allow for a truly intuitive cheesemaker to develop. Acclaimed cheesemaker Gianaclis Caldwell has written the book she wishes existed when she was starting out. Every serious home-scale artisan cheesemaker-even those just beginning to experiment-will want this book as their bible to take them from their first quick mozzarella to a French mimolette, and ultimately to designing their own unique cheeses. This comprehensive and user-friendly guide thoroughly explains the art and science that allow milk to be transformed into epicurean masterpieces. Caldwell offers a deep look at the history, science, culture, and art of making artisan cheese on a small scale, and includes detailed information on equipment and setting up a home-scale operation. A large part of the book includes extensive process-based recipes dictating not only the hard numbers, but also the concepts behind each style of cheese and everything you want to know about affinage (aging) and using oils, brushes, waxes, infusions, and other creative aging and flavoring techniques. Also included are beautiful photographs, profiles of other cheesemakers, and in-depth appendices for quick reference in the preparation and aging room. Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking will also prove an invaluable resource for those with, or thinking of starting, a small-scale creamery. Let Gianaclis Caldwell be your mentor, guide, and cheering section as you follow the pathway to a mastery of cheesemaking. For the avid home hobbyist to the serious commercial artisan, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking is an irreplaceable resource.

Full Contributors:
Hannah Bradby MRC MEdical Sociology Unit, Glasgow University Simon Charsley Dept of Sociology, Glasgow University Simon Cohn^Goldsmiths College Nick Fiddes Lynn Harbottle Medical Anthropologist and Nutritionist Alison James University of Hull Anne Keane Anne Murcott^ South Bank University, London Jacquie Reilly Glasgow University Alan Warde University of Lancaster Anna Willetts I^Janice Williams

Until 30 years ago, restaurateurs were considered the most important figures in any restaurant's success, with chefs consigned to the kitchen. This process began to change with the elevation of chef-patron Paul Bocuse in the late 1970s, and has continued with the rise of the celebrity chef. Restaurateurs are hugely important but rarely written about and significantly under-appreciated. The profession, other than its commercial and social aspects, has a fundamental human appeal: restaurateurs derive their name and profession from the French verb restaurer when their role was to restore the health of travellers battered by the potholes of French roads in the early 19th century. The role has changed a lot since then, and continues to evolve in fascinating ways."

Cheese, wine, honey and olive oil - four of Greece's best known contributions to culinary culture - were already well known four thousand years ago. Remains of honeycombs and of cheeses have been found under the volcanic ash of the Santorini eruption of 1627 BC. Over the millennia, Greek food diversified and absorbed neighbouring traditions, yet retained its own distinctive character.
In Siren Feasts, Andrew Dalby provides the first serious social history of Greek food. He begins with the tunny fishers of the neolithic age, and traces the story through the repertoire of classical Greece, the reputations of Lydia for luxury and of Sicily and South Italy for sybaritism, to the Imperial synthesis of varying traditions, with a look forward to the Byzantine cuisine and the development of the modern Greek menu. The apples of the Hesperides turn out to be lemons, and great favour attaches to Byzantine biscuits.
Fully documented and comprehensively illustrated, scholarly yet immensely readable, Siren Feasts demonstrates the social construction placed upon different types of food at different periods (was fish a luxury item in classical Athens, though disdained by Homeric heroes?). It places diet in an economic and agricultural context; and it provides a history of mentalities in relation to a subject which no human being can ignore.

A deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade from Chef Anthony Bourdain, laying out his more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine--now with all-new, never-before-published material

The egg is a chemical storehouse-within an incubating egg a complicated set of chemical reactions take place that convert the chemicals into a living animal. Using hen eggs as a model, this new text explores the use of eggs for food, industrial, and pharmaceutical applications. It covers the chemistry, biology, and function of lipids; carbohydrates; proteins; yolk antibody (IgY); and other materials of eggs. The novel merits of egg materials over others used in the same products are also discussed. These areas of egg technology have never been compiled before in one source.

Sociology on the Menu is a comprehensive introduction to the sociology of food. Highlighting the social and cultural dimensions of the human food system, from production to consumption, it encourages us to consider new ways of thinking about the apparently mundane, everyday act of eating. The main areas covered include:
* The origins of human subsistence and the development of the modern food system
* Food, the family and eating out
* Diet, health and the body image
* The meanings of meat and vegetarianism.
Sociology on the Menu provides a comprehensive overview of the literature in this field, and it focuses on key texts and studies.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203428714

What are the moral implications of our attitude to food and what are the implications of its importance in our culture? Food for Thought looks at the philosophical issues raised by food. This short and accessible book answers questions about the place food should have in our individual lives.
Food for Thought brings together the work of philosophers from Plato to John Stuart Mill, Aristotle to Kant to help us think about the issues surrounding food. How can we justify the recent explosion of attention given to gourmet food in a world where many are starving? Do we have a duty to be healthy? Are hospitableness and temperance moral virtues? Is the pleasure of good food illusory?

Gain the knowledge to grow bigger and better blueberries!
Blueberries: A Century of Research presents the results of basic and applied research into blueberry science and culture around the world. It contains technical reports on genetics, nutrition, physiology, culture, and harvesting of several blueberry species. Readers will find much current, helpful, and interesting information for their work with blueberries.General areas covered in the book are the blueberry culture and its future, blueberry genetics and diseases, blueberry nutrition, and blueberry fruit quality. Specific chapters address a variety of topics including: utilization of wild blueberry germplasm use of sparkleberry in breeding highbush cultivars identification of markers linked to genes controlling chilling requirement and cold hardiness detection of blueberry scorch virus and red ringspot virus methods of controlling blueberry gall midge damage control ofbunchberry in wild blueberry fields blueberry nitrate reductase activity use of gibberellic acid as a management tool for increasing yield of rabbiteye blueberry blueberry culture and research in JapanIn Blueberries: A Century of Research, small fruit researchers, extension workers, and blueberry specialists will find important new information for continued improvement of blueberry culture and specialization. The book is a vital resource that appeals to a professional audience worldwide.

This supplement to McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods 5th Edition, provides authoritative and evaluated new nutrient composition data for over 280 popular meat-based products and dishes. The coverage reflects the changes to meat-based food now consumed in the UK, and new nutritional information is given for bacon and ham, burgers and grillsteaks, meat pies and pastries, sausages and pates, as well as manufactured ready-meals, healthy-eating options and dishes prepared in the home. The easy-to-read main tables provide composition data (per 100g of food) for up to 40 nutrients, and supplementary tables provide information on vitamin D fractions and individual fatty acids. The appendices detail percentage weight loss on cooking and provide a comprehensive food index. In addition, the book contains recipes for approximately 100 dishes. Meat Products and Dishes updates and greatly extends all existing data for this food group from McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods 5th Edition and is a unique source of new information. This book will have many applications: in planning individual diets and menus, calculating recipes, teaching and research, as well as being of appeal to the layperson with an interest in diet and nutrition.

Cheese puffs. Coffee. Sunscreen. Vapes. Hand sanitiser. George Zaidan reveals the weird science behind everyday items that may or may not kill you, depending on whom you ask. If you want easy answers, this book is not for you. But if you're curious which health studies to trust, what dense scientific jargon really means, and how to make better choices when it comes to food and health - dive right in! Zaidan makes chemistry more fun than potions class as he reveals exactly what science can (and can't) tell us about the packaged ingredients we buy in the supermarket. He demystifies the ingredients of life and death - and explains how we know whether something is good or bad for you - in exquisite, hilarious detail at breakneck speed. PRAISE FOR INGREDIENTS 'If you ever thought that chemistry might be really interesting (it is), but your eyes glazed over in high school chem class, this is the book for you. George Zaidan will keep you laughing out loud as he shares the wonders of our most useful, practical science, with brilliant analogies that even an 11-year old can understand.' Daniel J. Levitin, author of Successful Aging and This is Your Brain on Music 'If you crossed Bill Nye with Stephen Colbert, you'd get George Zaidan. Ingredients is a masterful piece of science writing.' Daniel H. Pink, author of When and Drive 'Ingredients lifts the film from our eyes with humour and reassurance.' Hank Green, author of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing 'At last, a book on nutrition that tries to make you understand how little we know instead of offering blanket prognostications. If instead of a simple solution, you want a guide to how to think about health, this is it.' Zach and Kelly Weinersmith, New York Times best-selling authors of Soonish 'Ingredients, is everything that should lead you to expect: funny, edgy, fascinating, dismaying, reassuring, and overall just incredibly smart.' Deborah Blum, Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Poison Squad 'You should buy Ingredients because it teaches you how to think better - like a smart, informed, and wickedly funny scientist.' Sam Kean, author of The Disappearing Spoon 'Omfg this book is FABULOUS! It's hilarious, insightful, sassy, and reassuring. A delightful roller-coaster of science communication.' Kallie Moore, Co-host of PBS Eons

The enormous interest in recent years in the role of food in history has inspired this scholarly and entertaining collection of ten newly commissioned articles by medievalists from North America, Europe, and Australia that examines the subject of medieval food from a variety of disciplines including English, French, and German literature, history, and history of medicine. Up to now, there had been no such collection of in-depth, cross-cultural studies on medieval food in a variety of culinary, literary, and religious texts. An introduction and subject index are provided.

Meat, Poultry and Game forms a major update to The Composition of Foods 5th Edition, providing new and extensive nutritional composition data for 429 foods in this significant food group. It provides new information on both raw and cooked meats, including lamb, pork, beef, veal, chicken, turkey, duck, grouse, goose, pheasant, pigeon, hare, rabbit, venison, heart, kidney, liver, oxtail, sweetbread and tongue. Easy-to-read tables provide composition data (per 100g of food) for up to 62 nutrients. The main tables list data for 42 nutrients, and supplementary tables include individual fatty acids (expressed per 100g of total fatty acids), retinol fractions, and vitamin D fractions for selected foods. There are also details on cooking methods, weight losses on cooking meats, a listing of taxonomic and alternative food names, and a food index. Meat, Poultry and Game forms an essential, authoritative and up-to-date source of new nutrient data. It is an essential reference source for professionals and students of food science and nutrition and will also be of interest to the layperson with interests in diet and nutrition.

With its emphasis on fresh ingredients, time-honoured heritage, and warm hospitality, Slavic cuisine is having a moment. In 2019, Georgian food was named cuisine of the year by a leading hospitality consulting firm, and the interest in Eastern European and Caucasian cuisines has only continued to rise. And yet for many American home cooks, the dishes and flavours of the former Soviet Republics might seem as far off as Siberia until now. Meaning cheers! in Ukrainian, Budmo! is the first cookbook to celebrate classic Slavic recipes with a modern, creative twist. Presented by Ukrainian-born, California-based chef, blogger, and culinary instructor Anna Voloshyna, bright flavours and vibrant ingredients sing from each plate. A gorgeous magenta pkhali comes alive with roasted beets and a tangy pomegranate molasses. Borscht is reinvented with green sorrels and semi-soft eggs. And Voloshyna even shares a personal recipe for her Ukrainian grandmother s duck roasted to a delicious crispy-brown perfection. These are the dishes that are perfect for gathering your favourite people with, and each one is bound to uncover the mouthwatering flavours and traditions of this endlessly fascinating part of the world.

This supplement to McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods 5th Edition provides the only authoritative, up-to-date and extensive compilation of nutrient composition data for a wide range of miscellaneous foods available in the UK. Miscellaneous Foods provides data on up to 80 nutrients for 418 foods, over half of which have not been reported before. The coverage includes fats, oils, sugars, preserves, confectionery, savoury snacks, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, soups, sauces, pickles and baby foods. The composition data are expressed in the main tables per 100g or 100ml of food for 45 nutrients, which include proximates, individual sugars, fibre, total fatty acids, cholesterol, inorganic constituents, vitamins, and alcohol for the alcoholic drinks. Supplementary tables provide data for vitamin E fractions, individual fatty acids and % alcohol by volume for selected beers and wines. The book also includes new recipes for a significant number of soups, sauces and confectionery items, and a comprehensive index.

First Published in 1994. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

"Meat" is a broad-ranging and provocative study of the human passion for meat. It aims to intrigue anyone who has ever wondered why meat is important to us: why we eat some animals but not others; why vegetarianism is increasing; why we aren't cannibals; and how meat is associated with environmental destruction. Nick Fiddes argues that meat's primary cultural importance is founded on its vividly representing to us the domination we have sought over nature - not as individuals, but as members of a society which has historically placed great value on that power. The book draws on original research and analyzes academic work, trade journals, advertisements, the popular press, fiction and film. It is extensively illustrated by quotes from conversations with farmers, butchers, vegetarian campaigners, and members of the general public. Placing Western preferences in a historical and cross-cultural context, the book questions the rationality of much that we take for granted, and explains many inconsistencies and incongruities in our behaviour. It is a penetrating and original discussion of our "natural" everyday world. This book should be of interest to those in the fields of anthropology

Everything you need to get your catering business up and running

"A solid foundation for anyone looking to begin a career in catering."
-Dr. John J. Bowen, President, Johnson & Wales University

"Very informative, with great tips from experienced chefs."
-Alain Sailhac

"I wish I'd had "Catering Like a Pro" 25 years ago, when I began my career. I would have made fewer mistakes (and more money)."
-Henry Meer

This complete, up-to-date guide to the art of catering presents all the proven business advice you need to put profits and success on your menu. It's packed with practical guidance on event planning, cooking, sanitation, and business practices, as well as wisdom-and recipes-from the biggest stars in catering. You'll find indispensable advice from Francois Dinot, Director of L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Maryland, who has catered many high-level government events in Washington, D.C.; Liz Newmark, President of Great Performances, one of New York's premier caterers; and Jacques Pepin, award-winning cookbook author and Dean of Special Programs at The French Culinary Institute in New York City. And there's more: Complete, step-by-step details and reliable resources for every aspect of the catering business Directories, references, and online resources for convenient access to everything from insurance to software to wine More than 200 surefire recipes Planning and budgeting aids, checklists, and charts; menus and menu worksheets for diverse events; job expense analysis and pricing guides; client interview outlines; and more

This title is part social history, part personal memoir. It is the story of the 1960s era when a small group of Italian immigrants, led by Mario and Franco and all connected to each other, introduced Britain to authentic Italian cooking and to the 'Trattoria style' which transformed our food and restaurant culture.