Onions And Garlic: A Global History (edible)
by Martha Jay /
2016 / English / EPUB
12.3 MB Download
Look at any recipe for a savory dish and chances are it will
start with this step:
Look at any recipe for a savory dish and chances are it will
start with this step:fry onions in a pan over medium
heat
fry onions in a pan over medium
heat. Onions—and their allium family relatives, shallots,
garlic, chives, and leeks—are one of the most heavily used
ingredients in cuisines all over the world. You’ll rarely find
them in the spotlight, though—except for when they are fried into
rings or used to repel vampires. In this book, Martha Jay gives
alliums their due, offering an illuminating history of these
cherished plants that follows the trail of their aromas to every
corner of the globe and from ancient times up to today.
. Onions—and their allium family relatives, shallots,
garlic, chives, and leeks—are one of the most heavily used
ingredients in cuisines all over the world. You’ll rarely find
them in the spotlight, though—except for when they are fried into
rings or used to repel vampires. In this book, Martha Jay gives
alliums their due, offering an illuminating history of these
cherished plants that follows the trail of their aromas to every
corner of the globe and from ancient times up to today.
Going back to the earliest recipes from ancient Mesopotamia, Jay
traces the spread of alliums along trade routes through Central
Asia and into ancient Greece and Rome. Likewise she follows their
spread in East Asia, where they have become indispensable, and of
course into Europe and the Americas, where the onion—and its
odor—gave rise to the name “Chicago” and the leek became the
national symbol of Wales. Celebrated, denigrated, prescribed, and
proscribed, onions, garlic, and their relatives can be found—as
Jay lavishly demonstrates—in the histories of peasants and kings,
in cuisine and art, in tales of colonization and those of
resistance, and in medicinal cures and magical potions alike. Her
book is a welcome celebration of some of the most important
ingredients in the world.
Going back to the earliest recipes from ancient Mesopotamia, Jay
traces the spread of alliums along trade routes through Central
Asia and into ancient Greece and Rome. Likewise she follows their
spread in East Asia, where they have become indispensable, and of
course into Europe and the Americas, where the onion—and its
odor—gave rise to the name “Chicago” and the leek became the
national symbol of Wales. Celebrated, denigrated, prescribed, and
proscribed, onions, garlic, and their relatives can be found—as
Jay lavishly demonstrates—in the histories of peasants and kings,
in cuisine and art, in tales of colonization and those of
resistance, and in medicinal cures and magical potions alike. Her
book is a welcome celebration of some of the most important
ingredients in the world.