An informative, fun guide to making your own wine

It's estimated that one million North Americans make their own wine. Relatively inexpensive to make (a homemade bottle costs from $2 to $4), a bottle with your own label (and grapes) is a fantasy even someone with modest aspirations can fulfill. Author Tim Patterson, an award-winning home winemaker, shows how it's possible for anyone to create a great wine. In "Home Winemaking For Dummies," he discusses the art of winemaking from grape to bottle, including how to get the best grapes (and figure out how many you need); determine what equipment is required; select the right yeast and figure out if any other additives are needed; and store, age, and test wine. With detailed tips on creating many varieties -- from bold reds and demure whites to enchanting roses and delightful sparkling wines -- this guide is your ultimate winemaking resource.

Between 2000 and 2010, many contemporary US-American women writers were returning to the private space of the kitchen, writing about their experiences in that space and then publishing their memoirs for the larger public to consume. Season to Taste: Rewriting Kitchen Space in Contemporary Women's Food Memoirs explores women's food memoirs with recipes in order to consider the ways in which these women are rewriting this kitchen space and renegotiating their relationships with food. Caroline J. Smith begins the book with a historical overview of how the space of the kitchen, and the expectations of women associated with it, have shifted considerably since the 1960s. Better Homes and Gardens, as well as the discourse of the second-wave feminist movement, tended to depict the space as a place of imprisonment. The contemporary popular writers examined in Season to Taste, such as Ruth Reichl, Kim Sunee, Jocelyn Delk Adams, Julie Powell, and Molly Wizenberg, respond to this characterization by instead presenting the kitchen as a place of transformation. In their memoirs and recipes, these authors reinterpret their roles within the private sphere of the home as well as the public sphere of the world of publishing (whether print or digital publication). The authors examined here explode the divide of private/feminine and public/masculine in both content and form and complicate the genres of recipe writing, diary writing, and memoir. These women writers, through the act of preparing and consuming food, encourage readers to reconsider the changing gender politics of the kitchen.

'Just the sort of creative prompts any cook could use right now' - The Wall Street Journal 'A fascinating, thought provoking, palette-teasing read for anyone interested in food' - New York Journal of Books 'We build tools to create culinary happiness' - Foodpairing.com 'There is a world of exciting flavour combinations out there and when they work it's incredibly exciting' - Heston Blumenthal Foodpairing is a method for identifying which foods go well together, based on groundbreaking scientific research that combines neurogastronomy (how the brain perceives flavour) with the analysis of aroma profiles derived from the chemical components of food. This groundbreaking new book explains why the food combinations we know and love work so well together (strawberries + chocolate, for example) and opens up a whole new world of delicious pairings (strawberries + parmesan, say) that will transform the way we eat. With ten times more pairings than any other book on flavour, plus the science behind flavours explained, Foodpairing will become THE go-to reference for flavour and an instant classic for anyone interested in how to eat well. Contributors: Astrid Gutsche and Gaston Acurio - Astrid y Gaston - Peru Andoni Luiz Aduriz - Mugaritz - Spain Heston Blumenthal - The Fat Duck - UK Tony Conigliaro - DrinksFactory - UK Sang Hoon Degeimbre - L'Air du Temps - Belgium Jason Howard - #50YearsBim - UK/Caribbean Mingoo Kang - Mingles - Korea Jane Lopes & Ben Shewry - Attica - Australia Virgilio Martinez - Central - Peru Dominique Persoone - The Chocolate Line - Belgium Karlos Ponte - Taller - Venezuela/Denmark Joan Roce - El Celler de Can Roca - Spain Dan Barber - Blue Hill at Stone Barns - USA Kobus van der Merwe - Wolfgat - South Africa Darren Purchese - Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio - Melbourne Alex Atala - D.O.M - Brazil Maria Jose San Roman - Monastrell - Spain Keiko Nagae - Arome conseil en patisserie - Paris Peter Coucquyt - Chef and co-founder of Foodpairing (TM) Bernard Lahousse - Bio-engineer and co-founder of Foodpairing (TM) Johan Langenbick - Entrepreneur and co-founder of Foodpairing (TM)

Sydney, famed for its setting and natural beauty, has fascinated from the day it was conceived as an end-of-the-world repository for British felons, to its current status as one of the world's most appealing cities. This book recounts, and celebrates, the central role food has played in shaping the city's development from the time of first human settlement to the sophisticated, open, and cosmopolitan metropolis it is today. The reader will learn of the Sydney region's unique natural resources and come to appreciate how these shaped food habits through its pre-history and early European settlement; how its subsequent waves of immigrants enriched its food scene; its love-hate relationship with alcohol; its markets, restaurants, and other eateries; and, how Sydneysiders, old and new, eat at home. The story concludes with a fascinating review of the city's many significant cookbooks and their origins, and some iconic recipes relied upon through what is, for a global city, a remarkably brief history.

In Near a Thousand Tables, acclaimed food historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto tells the fascinating story of food as cultural as well as culinary history -- a window on the history of mankind.

In this "appetizingly provocative" (Los Angeles Times) book, he guides readers through the eight great revolutions in the world history of food: the origins of cooking, which set humankind on a course apart from other species; the ritualization of eating, which brought magic and meaning into people's relationship with what they ate; the inception of herding and the invention of agriculture, perhaps the two greatest revolutions of all; the rise of inequality, which led to the development of haute cuisine; the long-range trade in food which, practically alone, broke down cultural barriers; the ecological exchanges, which revolutionized the global distribution of plants and livestock; and, finally, the industrialization and globalization of mass-produced food.

From prehistoric snail "herding" to Roman banquets to Big Macs to genetically modified tomatoes, Near a Thousand Tables is a full-course meal of extraordinary narrative, brilliant insight, and fascinating explorations that will satisfy the hungriest of readers.

The big fact about Archestratus is that the fragments that survive constitute the earliest written culinary text to come down to us from the classical world (pedants might argue that the Babylonian and Egyptian materials are earlier but they in no way resemble a book.)This remarkable and almost unique work was written in the 4th century BC by the poet Archestratus, from Gela, a Greek colony in Sicily. The complete text has long since vanished but these fragments or quotations enshrined in a much later book by Athenaeus have come down to us. Archestratus' description of the foods, particularly fish, available, how they should be cooked and where found in the best condition is precious testimony of the strength of the Mediterranean culinary tradition. His style of cooking can best be called the nouvelle cuisine of the ancient world, and contrasts piquantly with the elaborate and strongly flavoured dishes of Apicius, the much later and perhaps coarser Roman author.The Greek verse has been translated into prose by John Wilkins and Shaun Hill, who set it in context in their introduction, and pursue byways of ancient Greek cookery in their commentary. Archestratus' poem has been the subject of a major new edition by Olsen & Sens. However, its price is prohibitive and the text is much concerned with linguistic and editorial matters, thus making it much less accessible to people interested in the history of food rather than the development of Greek prosody.

Keith Waterhouse is very particular about what lunch is not: 'It is not prawn cocktail, steak and Black Forest gateau with your bank manger. It is not civic, commemorative, annual office or funeral. It is not when either party is on a diet, on the wagon or in a hurry.' He is equally precise about what lunch is: 'It is a mid-day meal taken at leisure by, ideally, two people. Three's a crowd, four always split like a double amoeba into two pairs, six is a meeting, eight is a conference... A little light business may be touched upon but the occasion is firmly social. Whether they know it or not, for as long as they linger in the restaurant they are having an affair. The affair is lunch.' The Theory and Practice of Lunch is an authoritative and delightfully witty manual on the art of taking the most agreeable meal of the day, written by a shrewd observer of the passing show who listed his sole hobby in Who's Who as 'Lunch'.

AS SEEN ON TV Easy feasting is back on the menu with this new collection from TV's Jeremy Pang. Bringing together the best flavours from across East and South East Asia, Jeremy Pang's Simple Family Feasts includes more than 80 irresistible recipes for the whole family to enjoy. Nine of the ten chapters in the book are dedicated to a different country in East and South East Asia, each one offering a range of dishes inspired by that particular cuisine. The recipes within those chapters can be enjoyed individually as a simple meal, built up with one or two other dishes or the whole chapter combined for a full-on banquet for friends and family. To simplify the cooking process, most of the recipes can be prepared using Jeremy's signature 'wok clock' technique, where the ingredients are laid out in a clock formation in the order they will be cooked. The new 'feasting wheels' will help you find a balance of colour, flavour and texture across dishes, as well as providing the order of preparation, so you have a clear process for building a delicious, crowd-pleasing feast. With food that everyone will love, Jeremy Pang's Simple Family Feasts will uncover new family favourites that you'll want to share again and again.

Baked Alaska presents 72 recipes for favorite home-baked desserts enjoyed by people living in the North Country. Readers will discover a rich variety of recipes for muffins, cookies, steaming berry pies or cobblers, and much more. The book is highlighted with colorful illustrations and delightful Alaskan anecdotes.

Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the "Six Great Tea Mountains" of Yunnan Province. In imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing. In the 1990s, as the tea's noble lineage and unique process of aging and fermentation were rediscovered, it achieved cult status both in China and internationally. The tea became a favorite among urban connoisseurs who analyzed it in language comparable to that used in wine appreciation and paid skyrocketing prices for it. In 2007, however, local events and the international economic crisis caused the Puer market to collapse.

"Puer Tea" traces the rise, climax, and crash of this cultural phenomenon. With ethnographic attention to the spaces in which Puer tea is harvested, processed, traded, and consumed, anthropologist Jinghong Zhang constructs a vivid account of the transformation of a cottage handicraft into a major industry--with predictable risks and unexpected consequences.

Jinghong Zhang is a lecturer at Yunnan University.

"This is an engrossing study of the Puer tea industry and the many cultural spheres that surround it. It will be of keen interest to the Western tea trade as well as historians, connoisseurs, and enthusiasts. Tea publications rarely, if ever, discuss the complex relationships that quite literally bring tea to the table. Never has the anatomy of tea been dissected in such a wide ranging, thorough, and engaging way."--Steven D. Owyoung, co-translator of Korean Tea Classics

For today’s easy entertaining—a date night, get together with family and friends, or festive holiday parties— thoughtfully arranged spreads of foods, drinks and decorations have guests feeling special. Using seasonal food styling tips, ingredient lists, drink pairings and décor inspiration, this year-round guide inspires simple yet memorable gatherings. Professional foodie Sarah Tuthill draws from her experience running EZPZ Gatherings to give all the how-to-do-it details for preparing and serving a wide variety of charcuterie and cheese boards plus a creative assortment of food and seasonally themed special boards, all beautifully photographed. This is a must-have asset for trendy hosts.

This book explores the transformation of Chinese food in the U.S. after 1965 from a cultural perspective. The author asks how Chinese food reflects the racial relation between the Chinese community and the mainstream white society and investigates the symbolic meanings as well as the cultural functions of Chinese food in America. She argues that food is not only a symbol that mirrors social relations, but also an agent which causes social and cultural change. A particular geographic focus of this book is California.

Awaken both your inner foodie and your inner yogi as you journey into the consciousness of everyday foods, from their origins in myth to modern interpretations today. Have you ever considered the cultural origins and meanings of your favorite foods? The Complete Language of Foodties ingredients back to mythological and folklore roots for a unique and appetizing exploration of the foods we eat. Presented alphabetically, each food entry includes: A beautiful illustration concise summary of the food's mythology and folklore How the food is used in certain cultures and traditions Correlations to chakras, elements, and deities With everyday ingredients like acai, bok choy, and cauliflower, you're bound to learn more than you ever imagined about your household favorites as you discover the symbolic meanings, uses, and facts behind each. The knowledge gained will bring new meaning and intention to your mealtime. Some of the exciting lore behind certain foods will include: Borage was a common motif in medieval needlework, especially in scarf designs where they were intended to be worn by knights as a symbol of courage Archaeologists have found evidence of pickled cucumbers that date as far back to 2030 BCE (in northern regions of what is now Iraq) Macedoine, a precursor to ice cream, is a type of jelly dessert that was served in snow and thought to be a favorite of Alexander the Great. It was known that the ancient Greeks used honey in their skincare! Elegantly designed and beautifully illustrated, the Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia series offers comprehensive, display-worthy references on a range of intriguing topics, including dream interpretation, techniques for harnessing the power of dreams, flower meanings, and the stories behind signs and symbols. Also available in the series: Complete Book of Dreams, Complete Language of Flowers, Complete Language of Herbs, Signs & Symbols of the World, and Complete Guide to Astrological Self-Care.

A food-choice toolkit and recipe book perfect for fans of the Low Tox Life podcast, Cornersmith, Anna Jones, War on Waste, Matthew Evans. What are the best foods to put in your shopping basket for your health and for the planet? Is it necessary to cut out meat, almonds and go organic? Who can afford it anyway? Bestselling author of Low Tox Life and 'ultimate gentle activist' Alexx Stuart clears a path through the rules so stridently laid down by proponents of particular diets. She turns the tables on a supermarket system that is geared strongly against our health and the environment, and points to the how rather than the what. Because questioning how your food is grown is the key to unlocking dependence on a broken food system and to finding easy and delicious answers to that daily conundrum: what's for dinner? Low Tox Life Food is packed with inspiration and stories from regenerative farmers, checklists for what to ask about the produce you buy, ways to afford better choices, as well as 80 of Alexx's most requested recipes for budget-friendly, easily adaptable meals without waste. If you want to feel more certain and more hopeful about the future of food and our planet, this book is for you.

Over 100 recipes, plus time-saving planning tips and sanity-saving suggestions
Serve terrific food confidently and calmly, and wow your crowd!
Panicky about cooking for a casual church dinner, a posh graduation party, or a holiday feast for 50? With terrific recipes plus tips for everything from planning menus to preparation and presentation, you can serve a hungry crowd without getting all steamed up about it. You'll quickly grasp the basics you need to know to cook like an experienced pro.
Discover how to
* Serve great dishes, from appetizers through desserts
* Determine food quantities when cooking for groups
* Handle food safely
* Add ambience with easy decorations

A paperback edition of a classic of 17th-century English writing about food and drink. There is perhaps none more frequently quoted than this, no title more familiar. Its reappearance, therefore, will be very welcome to both the academic market, and the general reader. Digby was a European figure of some renown in scientific, philosophical and mathematical circles (besides being a military man, a pirate and a womaniser). This recipe collection made by him (in line with similar collections made by male enthusiasts and intellectuals of the time, for example the diarist John Evelyn) was published after his death by his former assistant George Hartman. It is perhaps the most literate of such cookery books. Digby was a natural writer, as entertaining as instructive. Many of the recipes are for drinks, particularly of meads or metheglins, but the culinary material provides a remarkable conspectus of accepted practice among court circles in Restoration England, with extra details supplied from Digby's European travels. The editors also include the inventory of Digby's own kitchen in his London house, discovered amongst papers now deposited in the British Library, and they have provided a few modern interpretations of Digby's recipes. The work was last printed in 1910, in a sound edition that is no longer easily available. This new version has several improvements. The editors discuss the role of George Hartman in the compilation of the book, and relate its contents to the work that appeared in 1682 under Hartman's own name, The True Preserver and Restorer of Health . There is a full glossary and the reader will be helped by the extensive biographical notes about people named in the text as the source of recipes. Sir Kenelm Digby (1611-1665) was born of gentry stock, but his family's adherence to Roman Catholicism coloured his career. His father, Sir Everard, was executed in 1606 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot. Digby went to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, in 1618. He spent three years in Europe between 1620 and 1623. Around 1625, he married Venetia Stanley. He had also become a member of the Privy Council. In 1628, Digby became a privateer, with some success, particularly in the Mediterranean. He returned to become a naval administrator and later Governor of Trinity House. His wife died suddenly in 1633. Digby, stricken with grief and the object of enough suspicion that the Crown had ordered an autopsy (rare at the time) on Venetia's body, secluded himself in Gresham College and attempted to forget his personal woes through scientific experimentation. Digby received the regional monopoly of sealing wax in Wales and the Welsh Borders and monopolies of trade with the Gulf of Guinea and with Canada. In the Civil War he went into exile in Paris, where he spent most of his time until 1660. He became Chancellor to Queen Henrietta Maria. Digby was regarded as an eccentric by contemporaries, partly because of his effusive personality, and partly because of his interests in scientific matters. Notable among his pursuits was the concept of the Powder of Sympathy. This was a kind of sympathetic magic to cure injuries. His book on this salve went through 29 editions. He was a founding member of the Royal Society. His correspondence with Fermat contains the only extant mathematical proof by Fermat. His Discourse Concerning the Vegetation of Plants (1661) proved controversial. He is credited with being the first person to note the importance of "vital air," or oxygen, to the sustenance of plants. Digby is also considered the father of the modern wine bottle. During the 1630s, Digby owned a glassworks and manufactured wine bottles which were globular in shape with a high, tapered neck, a collar, and a punt.

What do eggs, flour, and milk have in common? They form the basis of waffles, of course, but these staples of breakfast bounty also share an evolutionary function: eggs, seeds (from which we derive flour by grinding), and milk have each evolved to nourish offspring. Indeed, ponder the genesis of your breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and you'll soon realize that everything we eat and drink has an evolutionary history. In Dinner with Darwin, join Jonathan Silvertown for a multicourse meal of evolutionary gastronomy, a tantalizing tour of human taste that helps us to understand the origins of our diets and the foods that have been central to them for millennia--from spices to spirits. A delectable concoction of coevolution and cookery, gut microbiomes and microherbs, and both the chicken and its egg, Dinner with Darwin reveals that our shopping lists, recipe cards, and restaurant menus don't just contain the ingredients for culinary delight. They also tell a fascinating story about natural selection and its influence on our plates--and palates. Digging deeper, Silvertown's repast includes entrees into GMOs and hybrids, and looks at the science of our sensory interactions with foods and cooking--the sights, aromas, and tastes we experience in our kitchens and dining rooms. As is the wont of any true chef, Silvertown packs his menu with eclectic components, dishing on everything from Charles Darwin's intestinal maladies to taste bud anatomy and turducken. Our evolutionary relationship with food and drink stretches from the days of cooking cave dwellers to contemporary creperies and beyond, and Dinner with Darwin serves up scintillating insight into the entire, awesome span. This feast of soup, science, and human society is one to savor. With a wit as dry as a fine pinot noir and a cache of evolutionary knowledge as vast as the most discerning connoisseur's wine cellar, Silvertown whets our appetites--and leaves us hungry for more.

Cook like an Amazon with this official cookbook inspired by DC Comics' beloved Super Hero Wonder Woman. An enduring symbol of truth, justice, and equality, Wonder Woman has inspired comic readers of all ages for nearly eighty years with her unwavering moral compass and commitment to preserving peace on Earth. Now, fans can celebrate their love of this iconic hero with this fun cookbook inspired by all things Wonder Woman. Illustrated by gorgeous full-color photography, the book features over 50 delectable recipes--including Greek Goddess Salad, Themysciran Flatbread Pizzas, and Lasso of Truth Cupcakes--for cooks of all skill levels. With simple recipe instructions, suggested ingredient modifications, and prepared menus for several delightful Wonder Woman-themed parties, this is the perfect cookbook to share with friends, family, and Amazon warriors both big and small.

Renowned food scholar Carole Counihan serves up a delicious narrative about family and food in twentieth-century Florence. By looking at how family, and especially gender relations, have changed in Florence since the ending of World War II and continuing on to an examination of current food practices today, "Around the Tuscan Table" offers a portrait of the changing nature of modern life as exemplified through food. How food is produced, distributed, and consumed speaks volumes about a given culture, and this compelling and artfully narrated book aims to preserve, propagate, and interpret Florentines' world-renowned cuisine and culture.
At the market, in the kitchen, and around the table, Counihan gives readers a taste of everyday life in this region of Italy: how eating together unites the family; how the production of food is gendered; how food is a key tool of socialization, and how culture forms aesthetic tastes.
With more than 20 illustrations and age-old family recipes, this is a treat for the senses and the intellect.