Home Food

For more than 10,000 years, humans have been fascinated by a seemingly innocuous plant with bright-colored fruits that bite back when bitten. Ancient New World cultures from Mexico to South America combined these pungent pods with every conceivable meat and vegetable. In Chile Peppers: A Global History, Dave DeWitt, a world expert on chiles, travels from New Mexico across the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia chronicling the history, mystery, and mythology of chiles around the world and their abundant uses in 70 mouth-tingling recipes.

Meg Muckenhoupt begins with a simple question: When did Bostonians start making Boston Baked Beans? Storekeepers in Faneuil Hall and Duck Tour guides may tell you that the Pilgrims learned a recipe for beans with maple syrup and bear fat from Native Americans, but in fact, the recipe for Boston Baked Beans is the result of a conscious effort in the late 19th century to create New England foods. This toothsome volume reveals the effort that went into the creation of these foods and lets us begin to reclaim the culinary heritage of immigrant New England.

Charles E. Hires and the Drink That Wowed a Nation chronicles the humble origin and meteoric business success of this extraordinary entrepreneur. Author Bill Double uses published interviews, correspondence, newspaper reports, magazine articles, financial data, and a small family archive to tell this story of native ingenuity. Here, the rough-hewn capitalism of the gilded age, the evolution of the neighborhood drugstore, the rise of advertising in creating mass markets, and the emerging temperance movement all come together in a biography that fizzes with entrepreneurial spirit.

Most people don’t expect wood to flavor their food beyond the barbecue, if at all, and gastronomists rarely discuss the significance that wood has on ultimate taste. But trees and wood have a far greater influence over our plate and palate than you might think. A world trip brimming with fascinating encounters, unexpected turns, beautiful landscapes, scientific discoveries, and historic connections, The Flavor of Wood is the story of a passionate flavor hunter, and offers listeners unparalleled access to some of the world’s highest quality cuisine and unknown tree flavors.

The characters in Tasting the Past include a young Swiss scientist who set out to decode the DNA of every single wine grape in the world; Middle Eastern researchers who seek to discover the wines that King David drank; and a University of Pennsylvania academic who has spent decades analyzing wine remains. The science illuminates wine in ways no critic can, and demolishes some of the most sacred dogmas of the industry: well-known French grapes aren't especially noble.

From the Lambic breweries of Belgium, where beer is fermented with wild yeasts drawn down from the air around the brewery, to the aquifers below Burton-on-Trent, where the brewing water is rumored to contain life-giving qualities, Miracle Brew tells the full story behind the amazing role each of these fantastic four - a grass, a weed, a fungus, and water - has to play.

At the age of 47, when he was a successful publishing executive and living with his wife and four children in an affluent Chicago suburb, John Shafer made the surprise announcement that he had purchased a vineyard in the Napa Valley. In 1973, he moved his family to California and, with no knowledge of winemaking, began the journey that would lead him, 30 years later, to own and operate what distinguished wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. called "one of the world’s greatest wineries".

You probably don't realize that your supermarket is filled with foods that have a military origin: canned goods, packaged deli meats, TV dinners, cling wrap, energy bars…the list is almost endless. In fact, there's a watered-down combat ration lurking in practically every bag, box, can, bottle, jar, and carton Americans buy. Anastacia Marx de Salcedo shows how the Department of Defense Combat Feeding Directorate plans, funds, and spreads the food science that enables it to produce cheap, imperishable rations.

There is a corner of every town and city in Britain where the air is tangy with vinegar and thick with the scent of frying. It is almost impossible not to follow this mesmeric vapour trail, fuelling a nostalgic rush of parents across the land declaring ‘Chippy tea!’, followed by the golden anticipation of the chip shop queue. In this lively and relatable book, acclaimed author Daniel Gray ponders the magic of chippies and rejoices in the delights they have sprinkled among us over the last 150 years.

Bourbon whiskey is perhaps Kentucky's most distinctive product. Despite bourbon's prominence in the social and economic life of the Bluegrass state, many myths and legends surround its origins. In Kentucky Bourbon, Henry C. Crowgey claims that distilled spirits and pioneer settlement went hand in hand; Isaac Shelby, the state's first governor, was among Kentucky's pioneer distillers. Crowgey traces the drink's history from its beginnings as a cottage industry to steam-based commercial operations in the period just before the Civil War.

Food consumption is a significant and complex social activity - and what a society chooses to feed its children reveals much about its tastes and ideas regarding health. In this groundbreaking historical work, Amy Bentley explores how the invention of commercial baby food shaped American notions of infancy and influenced the evolution of parental and pediatric care. Until the late 19th century, infants were almost exclusively fed breast milk. But over the course of a few short decades, Americans began feeding their babies formula and solid foods....

In this book, Rob Arnold reveals how innovative whiskey producers are recapturing a sense of place to create distinctive, nuanced flavors. He takes listeners on a world tour of whiskey and the science of flavor, stopping along the way at distilleries in Kentucky, New York, Texas, Ireland, and Scotland. Arnold puts the spotlight on a new generation of distillers, plant breeders, and local farmers who are bringing back long-forgotten grain flavors and creating new ones in pursuit of terroir.

Odd Eldritch headphones, lunches with audiobook legends, and seeing celebrities in the wild! These and other strangeness await the listener along with twelve episodes of the Geekery & Wine podcast! Pairing some of Colby's favorite bottles with the best of Geek culture and including liner notes from the audiobooks made along the way, it’s part memoir, part critique and part how-to.

Unleash the flavors of beer in your kitchen! The Ultimate Beer Cookbook features creative recipes that pair perfectly with your favorite brews. From savory dishes to delightful desserts, this cookbook offers chef tips, historical insights, and food pairing charts to elevate your culinary experience. Whether you're a novice or an expert, discover how to advance your cooking with beer's unique taste. Cheers to delicious meals!

Begin your journey to sustainable living, even if you've never held a tool in your life! Are you ready to embrace off-grid living but feel overwhelmed by where to start? Do you dream of gaining independence from modern utilities or preparing for emergencies with confidence? This audiobook is your gateway to self-reliance and sustainability.

Discover the joy of creating your own exquisite wines with "Home Wine Making for Absolute Beginners: Unlocking the Secrets of Homemade Wines." This powerful guide takes you from the very basics to advanced techniques, allowing you to freely expand your skills in an easily understandable way. Whether you're in a cramped city apartment or a spacious country house, this book has everything you need to start your winemaking journey.

Welcome to the world of Companion Planting. This book, aimed at novice gardeners, dives deep into Companion Planting, a time-tested method that the ancients practiced, which has gained immense popularity among modern gardeners. There's no sorcery here; there are just proven scientific techniques and strategies to make your garden a verdant Midwest paradise, no matter where you live.

This audiobook is a celebration of snacks in all their glorious forms, guaranteed to fill your day with snacking joy. It will take you from your morning coffee (cinnamon crumble cakes and cherry-marzipan hand pies) to your evening wine (oeufs durs mayonnaise and mushroom pate) via salsas, hot dips, crispy bits, crab nachos and frozen piña coladas in the sun. The Joy of Snacks will lift your spirits while satisfying your deepest snacking desires, helping you squeeze the joy out of life's big and small moments, whether it's party time or Monday morning.

The egg is a paradox―both alive and not alive―and a symbol as old as culture itself. In this wide-ranging and delightful journey through its natural and cultural history, Lizzie Stark explores the egg’s deep meanings, innumerable uses, and metabolic importance through a dozen dazzling specimens. Egg is playful, informative, and guarantees that you’ll never take this delicate ovoid for granted again.

Perché gli Italiani mangiano la pasta al dente? La "tempura" è davvero un'invenzione giapponese? Perché la pizza ha conquistato il mondo? E perché il sushi ha conquistato noi? E cosa c'entrano il baccalà con il Concilio di Trento e il caffè con la nascita delle compagnie di assicurazioni? Sono alcuni degli argomenti affrontati da questo libro. Tradizioni gastronomiche, modi di cuocere il cibo, maniere di comportarsi a tavola, passioni, repulsioni, valori estetici, tipicità, territori, sono altrettanti specchi del rapporto che gli uomini hanno con se stessi.