Books in the Edible series

In Coffee: A Global History, Jonathan Morris explains how the world acquired a taste for coffee, yet why coffee tastes so different throughout the world. Written in an engaging style, and featuring wonderful recipes, stories and facts, the book explores who drank coffee, as well as why and where, how it was prepared and what it tasted like.

The rich history of the intoxicating and evocative spice, vanilla.

Through lively anecdotes, colourful pictures and delicious recipes, Jeff Miller explores the meteoric rise of the avocado.

In the history of food, the tomato is a relative newcomer outside its ancestral home in Mesoamerica. And yet, as we devour pizza by the slice, dip French fries in ketchup, delight in a beautiful Bolognese sauce, or savor tomato curries, it would now be impossible to imagine the food cultures of many nations without the tomato. The journey taken by the tomato from its ancestral home in the southern Americas to Europe and back is a riveting story full of culinary discovery, innovation, drama, and dispute. Today, the tomato is at the forefront of scientific advances in cultivation and the study of taste, as well as a popular subject of heritage conservation (heirloom tomato salad, anyone?). But the tomato has also faced challenges every step of the way into our gardens and kitchens--including that eternal question: is it a fruit or a vegetable? In this book, Clarissa Hyman charts the eventful history of this ubiquitous everyday edible that is so often taken for granted. Hyman discusses tomato soup and ketchup, heritage tomatoes, tomato varieties, breeding and genetics, nutrition, tomatoes in Italy, tomatoes in art, and tomatoes for the future. Featuring delicious modern and historical recipes, such as the infamous "man-winning tomato salad" once featured in Good Housekeeping, this is a juicy and informative history of one of our most beloved foods.

From the spirit's most recognized examples to often overlooked varieties such as Armagnac, this book delves into the fascinating history of this globally consumed beverage.

Gin: A Global History features many enticing recipes and images from the past and present of gin. The book will entice both cocktail aficionados and students of socio-political change, as it chronicles gin's evolution from humble berry to modern alcoholic marvel.

Originally a food for the poor in eighteenth-century Naples, pizza is a source of national and regional pride in Italy as well as of cultural identity. This title documents the history and cultural life of this chameleon-like food.

A global history of breakfast cereal, from the first grain porridges to off-brand Cheerios. Simple, healthy, and comforting, breakfast cereals are a perennially popular way to start the day. This book examines cereal's long, distinguished, and surprising history--dating back to when, around 10,000 years ago, the agricultural revolution led people to break their fasts with wheat, rice, and corn porridges. Only in the second half of the nineteenth century did entrepreneurs and food reformers create the breakfast cereals we recognize today: Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Cheerios, and Quaker Oats, among others. In this entertaining, well-illustrated account, Kathryn Cornell Dolan explores the history of breakfast cereals, including many historical and modern recipes that the reader can try at home.

The global history of coconut from its origin to its recent elevation to 'super-food' status.

A broad introduction to the role of insects as human food.

Complete with recipes, a mouthwatering look at the complicated origins and rise of the world's favorite garbanzo bean spread and dip. This is a global history of hummus bi-tahina, the delicious combination of chickpeas, tahini, lemon, and garlic that we know and love as hummus. The story begins in the medieval kitchens of the Near and Middle East and culminates with hummus's rise in popularity in the Western world at the end of the twentieth century. This book also addresses the international controversy over ownership of the dish and illustrates the extent to which hummus has been embraced by Western food culture today. Though other Mediterranean dishes have become popular in the West, none can be compared to hummus, which can be found in any supermarket and in vast numbers of eating establishments. Hummus has become a global phenomenon and our very favorite dip.

A global history of fizzy drinks, from their invention to vast consumer industry today.

A history of the sweet treats jam, jelly and marmalade.

An engaging account of foie gras, a luxurious yet controversial ingredient.

A delectable tour of the rich history of yoghurt.

The dramatic history of the world's most expensive spice.

The pie, to quote one Victorian writer, is 'a great human discovery which has universal estimation among all civilized eaters'. It is astonishing, given the widespread appeal of this humble dish, that the pie does not appear to have had a single book devoted to its complex but fascinating story; this book redresses a glaring omission from culinary history.

A vivid journey through the gastronomical, botanical, cultural and political history of beans.

A delightful global history of mustard, one of the world's most loved condiments.

What's your favorite cookie (or biscuit, for any British baking show buffs)? Chocolate chip, ginger spice, or Oreo? Oatmeal-and-raisin, black-and-white, digestive, or florentine? Or do you just prefer the dough? Our choice biscuits and cookies are as diverse as the myriad forms and flavors these chewy treats take, and well they should be. These baked delights have a history as rich as their taste: evidence of biscuit-making dates back to around 4000 BC. In Biscuits and Cookies, Anastasia Edwards explores the delectable past of these versatile snacks, from their earliest beginnings through Middle Eastern baking techniques, to cookies of Northern Europe in the Middle Ages, and on into the New World. From German lebkuchen to the animal cracker (more than half a billion of which are produced each year in the United States alone), from brownies and sugar cookies in the United States to shortbread and buttery tea biscuits in the United Kingdom, to Anzac and Girl-Guide biscuits in New Zealand and Australia, this book is crammed with biscuit and cookie facts, stories, images, and recipes from around the world and across time. And there's no need to steal from the cookie jar.

In Pickles, author Jan Davison explores the cultural and gastronomic history of fermented vegetables, from the earliest civilizations to the twenty-first century.

Filled with fascinating facts and recipes for everything from French cabbage soup to sauerkraut chocolate cake, this lively book traces cabbage's culinary paradox, exploring the cultural and chemical basis for its smelly reputation and enduring popularity.

Lorna Piatti-Farnell describes the story of how this fruit (which is technically a berry) has become one of the most popular foods on the planet.

Edible Flowers is the fascinating history of how flowers have been used in cooking from ancient customs to modern kitchens. It also serves up novel ways to prepare and eat soups, salads, desserts and drinks. Discover something new about the flowers all around you with this surprising history.

Chillies traces the culinary journey of the spice and uncovers cultural and spiritual links between chillies and humans, from their use as an aphrodisiac, to the recent discovery that chilli heat shows promise as a treatment for neuropathic pain, prostate cancer and leukaemia.

Martha Jay traces the history of allium family - onions, shallots, garlic, chives, and leeks - back to the earliest civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and the recipes of ancient Mesopotamia.

A lively history of tequila, an unusual liquor that can only be produced in Mexico. This book relates the beginnings of tequila and how it was introduced into the global market, and contains many recipes for tequila-based cocktails, as well as advice on buying, storing, tasting and serving tequila.

Exploring sugar's reputation as one of the most beloved yet reviled substances that we consume, this compelling history of the infamous ingredient is peopled with determined adventurers, relentless sugar barons and greedy plantation owners.

Rice: A Global History presents in detail the historical journey that rice has taken, from its early origin as a staple food in Asian and West African countries to its ubiquitous place in meals across the world today.

Proposing that the 'forbidden fruit' eaten by Adam and Eve was in fact a fig rather than an apple, this book explores the history of the fruit in fascinating detail, from the Crusaders to the wonderful fig festivals of the modern world.