A tasty compendium of spices and a fascinating history and wide array of
uses of the world's favorite flavors?The Book of Spice: From Anise to
Zedoary reveals the amazing history of spices both familiar and
esoteric. John O'Connell's erudite chapters combine history with
insights into art, religion, medicine, science, and they're richly
seasoned with anecdotes and recipes. Discover why Cleopatra bathed in
saffron and mare's milk, why wormwood-laced absinthe caused
eighteenth-century drinkers to hallucinate, and how cloves harvested in
remote Indonesian islands found their way into a kitchen in ancient
Syria. Almost every kitchen contains a bottle of cloves or a stick of
cinnamon; almost every dish, a pinch of something, whether chili or
cumin. The Book of Spice is culinary history at its most appetizing.