From Amazon.com
Seasoning Savvy is the reference book every cook needs--a comprehensive and clearly written compendium of everything worth knowing about ingredients for flavoring food. Packed into a mere 265 pages (18 of which are black-and-white photos), Alice Arndt, a food historian, teacher, and writer, presents 87 individual items, 36 seasoning blends, plus other flavorings, like vinegars, salt, and sugar.
Each entry--from Ajowan, an Indian spice with pungent, thyme-like flavor that is also known as bishop's weed, omam, or netch azmud (botanical name Trachyspermum ammi), to Woodruff, the herb that gives German May wine its grassy and vanilla notes, and from Advieh, an Iranian spice mix, to Quatre Épices, the variable combination used to spice French pâtés--is ample without being esoteric. These entries describe how an herb or spice looks and tastes (Winter Savory is like a peppery, pungent thyme while Summer Savory is milder) and how the item is used in its native tradition. Arndt then suggests other possibilities. Hence savory, or sariette, flavors French goat cheese but would be good in a three-bean salad, and it reduces the odor of cabbage during cooking. She also recommends substitutions, suggesting that oregano can replace cilantro, and vanilla extract might replace Kewra Water, a floral Indian flavoring, when necessary.
Because the taste of food is affected by more than the aromatic compounds added by spices and herbs, Arndt explains how heat, cold, and other variables influence our perceptions of flavor. In sum, she makes Seasoning Savvy a user-friendly reference book that cooks of all levels, from beginners to professionals, will value. --Dana Jacobi
Darra Goldstein, PhD, Author, The Vegetarian Hearth, A Taste of Russia, The Georgian Feast, Williamstown, Massachusetts
"Alice Arndt's passion for the flavors that spice up our lives is felt on every page of this indispensable reference work. . . . Arndt draws the reader into an exciting world of flavors. This book belongs on every library shelf, but should also be brought into the kitchen. . . . Provides a comprehensive list of seasonings and offers reassuring advice on their culinary uses so that even novice cooks can use flavorings like asafetida with aplomb. . . . IDENTIFIES THE WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT SPICE MIXTURES AND GIVES RECIPES TO FOR RECREATING THEM . . . A WONDERFUL BOOK."
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
