Maybe it’s the autumn temperatures and colors, but as winter approaches, I start thinking about spices. This year, I’m finding several recent books to love—books that not only suggest new ways to use familiar favorites, but books that tell me about the folklore, the history, and even the politics of the spices on my pantry shelf. Here are three that currently intrigue me.
Spice: The History of a Temptation, by Jack Turner
From the publisher: In this brilliant, engrossing work, Jack Turner explores an era—from ancient times through the Renaissance—when what we now consider common condiments were valued in gold and blood.
Spices made sour medieval wines palatable, camouflaged the smell of corpses, and served as wedding night aphrodisiacs. Indispensable for cooking, medicine, worship, and the arts of love, they were thought to have magical properties and were so valuable that they were often kept under lock and key. For some, spices represented Paradise, for others, the road to perdition, …
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