Herbs And Spices

Herbs & Spices is the essential cook's companion, now redesigned and updated with all new recipes. A classic reference, the best-selling Herbs & Spices is a trusted resource in the kitchen, with more than 200 unique herbs and spices from around the world showcased alongside gorgeous, full-color photography, flavor notes, and pairings. This new, updated edition includes the newest herbs, spices, and flavorings influencing global cuisine today, plus more than 180 recipes for main dishes, marinades, pastas, pickles, and sauces. Part spice cookbook, part kitchen encyclopedia, Herbs & Spices offers handy seasoning how-tos: How to identify and choose the best herbs, spices, and other flavorings. How to prepare and cook with them to ensure you are making the most of their flavors. How to make your own blends, spice rubs, sauces, and more - then customize them for your family's palate. Herbs & Spices is perfect for beginning cooks just setting up a kitchen, foodies exploring the deliciously exotic mash-ups of today's modern cooking, and experts looking for ways to experiment with new flavor combinations. This practical illustrated reference book gives you all the guidance you need to become a master of seasonings and to make tantalizing food from around the world.

Woodhead Publishing in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition‘... a good reference book for food processors and packers of herbs and spices.’Food Technology (of Volume 1)‘... a standard reference for manufacturers who use herbs and spices in their products.’Food Trade Review (of Volume 2)The final volume of this three-volume sequence completes the coverage of the main herbs and spices used in food processing. The first part of the book reviews ways of improving the safety of herbs and spices. There are chapters on detecting and controlling mycotoxin contamination, controlling pesticide and other residues, the use of irradiation and other techniques to decontaminate herbs and spices, packaging and storage, QA and HACCP systems. Part two reviews the potential health benefits of herbs and spices with chapters discussing their role in preventing chronic diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease and promoting gut health. The final part of the book comprises chapters on twenty individual herbs and spices, covering such topics as chemical composition, cultivation and quality issues, processing, functional benefits and uses in food. Herbs and spices reviewed range from asafoetida, capers and carambola to perilla, potato onion and spearmint.The final volume will consolidate the reputation of this three-volume series, providing a standard reference for R&D and QA staff using herbs and spices in their food products. The final volume of this three-volume sequence completes the coverage of the main herbs and spices used in food processing Incorporates safety issues, production, main uses and regulations Reviews the potential health benefits of herbs and spices

Together with its companion volume, Handbook of herbs and spices: Volume 2 provides a comprehensive and authoritative coverage of key herbs and spices. Chapters on individual plants cover such issues as description and classification, production, chemical structure and properties, potential health benefits, uses in food processing and quality issues. Authoritative coverage of more than 50 major herbs and spices Provides detailed information on chemical structure, cultivation and definition Incorporates safety issues, production, main uses, health issues and regulations

From the Emmy-nominated host of the award-winning Top Chef, an A-to-Z compendium of spices, herbs, salts, peppers, and blends, with beautiful photography and a wealth of explanation, history, and cooking advice. “A beautiful book by Padma Lakshmi featuring an extensive catalogue and helpful recommendations on how best to use these ingredients to create full-flavored dishes. A great resource for any chef or home cook.” -- Eric Ripert Award-winning cookbook author and television host Padma Lakshmi, inspired by her life of traveling across the globe, brings together the world’s spices and herbs in a vibrant, comprehensive alphabetical guide. This definitive culinary reference book is illustrated with rich color photographs that capture the essence of a diverse range of spices and their authentic flavors. The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs includes complete descriptions, histories, and cooking suggestions for ingredients from basic herbs to the most exotic seeds and chilies, as well as information on toasting spices, making teas, and infusing various oils and vinegars. And no other market epitomizes Padma’s love for spices and global cuisine than where she spent her childhood—lingering in the aisles of the iconic gourmet food store Kalustyan’s, in New York City. Perfect for the holiday season and essential to any well-stocked kitchen or cooking enthusiast, The Encyclopedia of Spices and Herbs is an invaluable resource as well as a stunning and adventurous tour of some of the most wondrous and majestic flavors on earth.

For centuries herbs and spices have been an integral part of many of the world’s great cuisines. But spices have a history of doing much more than adding life to bland foods. They have been the inspiration for, among other things, trade, exploration, and poetry. Priests employed them in worship, incantations, and rituals, and shamans used them as charms to ward off evil spirits. Nations fought over access to and monopoly of certain spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, when they were rare commodities. Not only were many men’s fortunes made in the pursuit of spices, spices at many periods throughout history literally served as currency. In Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World, Ben-Erik van Wyk offers the first fully illustrated, scientific guide to nearly all commercial herbs and spices in existence. Van Wyk covers more than 150 species—from black pepper and blackcurrant to white mustard and white ginger—detailing the propagation, cultivation, and culinary uses of each. Introductory chapters capture the essence of culinary traditions, traditional herb and spice mixtures, preservation, presentation, and the chemistry of flavors, and individual entries include the chemical compounds and structures responsible for each spice or herb’s characteristic flavor. Many of the herbs and spices van Wyk covers are familiar fixtures in our own spice racks, but a few—especially those from Africa and China—will be introduced for the first time to American audiences. Van Wyk also offers a global view of the most famous use or signature dish for each herb or spice, satisfying the gourmand’s curiosity for more information about new dishes from little-known culinary traditions. People all over the world are becoming more sophisticated and demanding about what they eat and how it is prepared. Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World will appeal to those inquisitive foodies in addition to gardeners and botanists.

Many herbs and spices, in addition to their culinary use for taste, contain chemical compounds which have medicinal uses. For this reason, herbs and spices have been used for treating various ailments since ancient times. Modern scientific methods have enabled researchers to isolate bioactive compounds from herbs and spices and perform chemical analyses, which can be used to develop medicines to treat different diseases. This book series is a compilation of current reviews on studies performed on herbs and spices. Science of Spices & Culinary Herbs is essential reading for medicinal chemists, herbalists and biomedical researchers interested in the science of natural herbs and spices that are a common part of regional diets and folk medicine.

More than 85 familiar and exotic plants are illustrated and examined for legendary lore and current use. The book also includes 73 recipes, a spice chart, and tips for gardening, drying, freezing, and more.

The Mystery of Herbs and Spices offers 53 tell-all biographies of celebrated spices and herbs. Tales of war, sex, greed, hedonism, cunning, exploration and adventure reveal how mankind turned the mere need for nourishment into the exaltation of culinary arts. Is it a spice or herb? Where does it come from and what causes its taste? What legends or scandals embellish it? To what curious uses has it been put? How can you use it today? Neither a cookbook nor dry scholarship, the book employs anecdotes and humor to demystify the use and character of every spice or herb. Sample chapters from The Mystery of Herbs and Spices follow. INTRODUCTION “Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fatted calf with hatred.” — Proverbs 15:17 Herbs and spices. They impart glory to food, and variety to life. They are what separate the mere cook from the gourmet. But they can be confusing. What is the difference between a herb and a spice? What foods do they go with? And don’t you feel silly, not knowing if you are supposed to say “herb” or “erb”? You might think a gourmet, who understands such things, is a sort of wizard — that’s what people thought in the Middle Ages, when users of herbal medicines were accused of witchcraft and burnt! But to people who grow up in India or Thailand, exotic spices are common. They use a wealth of seasonings as casually as we scatter ketchup and pepper. Cooking with cardamom or cumin might seem a mystery of subtle kitchens, but did you know that ordinary pepper was once precious and rare? If you lived in Europe seven hundred years ago, you could pay your rent or taxes in peppercorns, counting them out like coins. You could have bought a horse for a pound of saffron; a pound of ginger would get you a cow; and a pound of nutmeg was worth seven fat oxen. If you were an exceptionally lucky bride, your father might give you peppercorns as a dowry. Now consider how casually we dash a bit of pepper over a fried egg today! Like anything else, herbs and spices are easy to use when you are familiar with them. But, like nothing else, the story of spices is laced with adventure. Ferdinand Magellan launched the first voyage around our planet. By the time he reached the Pacific Ocean, he had been out of touch with civilization for a year. Sailing from the west coast of South America, he headed out onto a briny desert of burning glass. He had no maps. He had no radio. He had ridiculously small and leaky ships. He was going where no one had ever gone before. The hissing swells of the Pacific would take him four frightening months to cross, without laying eyes once on land. There would be nothing like this adventure for another five hundred years — not until our exploration of space. Magellan died out there in the unknown. Only eighteen of his 237 sailors straggled back to Spain. What did they have to show for it? Silver? Gold? Scientific discoveries? No...nutmegs and cloves! Twenty-six tons of them — enough to pay for the entire cost of the voyage and make a profit of 500 gold ducats for every shareholder. No one doubted for one second that the whole adventure had been worth it! Spices. They enhance our food. That’s all. But, since the human race began to dream, the story of spices has enchanted our fantasy as well. Where do they come from? Why are they so enticing? In what new ways can we use them? This is a book of discovery. Unfurl your sails, like Magellan, and follow the fragrance of spices and herbs to their source, gather their lore, and let them not only season your cooking, but enrich your enjoyment of life. PETER PIPER If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick? It might seem funny now, but it wasn’t funny at the time. Pierre Poivre of Lyons, France, otherwise known as Peter Pepper or Peter Piper, was a real person. Born in 1719, he started his career as a Christian missionary, and founded a bank in Vietnam. In 1766