Food Canning Technology or Charlemagnes Tablecloth

Food Canning Technology

Author: Jean Larouss

Food Canning Technology Edited By Jean Larousse Bruce E. Brown
* This book offers a comprehensive review of the various scientific, technological, and economic aspects of food product preservations.
* It examines the diverse problems which are associated with the stability of products such as meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit, and thoroughly covers the methods and processing steps necessary to maintain the quality of these foods.
* Food Canning Technology is aimed at food technologists, food scientists, and students in food chemistry and technology. It offers a better understanding of the nature of biochemical changes, and aids in the improvement of product quality and shelf-life.

Booknews

An English version of "La conserve appertis<'e>e, techniques et <'e>conomiques" published by Technique et Documentation - Lavoisier in Paris in 1991, condensed to reduce duplication among the contributors and remove the discussion of French economic factors. Essentially supplies the explanatory text for the Codex Alimentarius Recommended International Code of Hygienic Practice for Low-Acid and Acidified Low-Acid Canned Foods as revised in 1989. Discusses raw materials and their reception and preparation, thermal processing, and post-process handling and quality. For chemists and others in the food industry. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Interesting textbook: Poor Eaters or Aromaterapia Libro Practico

Charlemagne's Tablecloth: A Piquant History of Feasting

Author: Nichola Fletcher

Feasts, banquets, and grand dinners have always played a vital role in our lives. They oil the wheels of diplomacy, smooth the paths of the ambitious, and spread joy at family celebrations. They lift the spirits, involve all our senses and, at times, transport us to other fantastical worlds. Some feasts have give rise to hilarious misunderstandings, at others competitive elements take over. Some are purely for pleasure, some connect uncomfortably with death, but all are interesting. Nichola Fletcher has written a captivating history of feasts throughout the ages that includes the dramatic failures along with the dazzling successes. From a humble meal of potatoes provided by an angel, to the extravagance of the high medieval and Renaissance tables groaning with red deer and wild boar, to the exquisite refinement of the Japanese tea ceremony, Charlemagne’s Tablecloth covers them all. In her gustatory exploration of history’s great feasting tables, Fletcher also answers more than a few riddles such as “Why did Charlemagne use an asbestos tablecloth at his feasts?” and “Where did the current craze for the elegant Japanese Kaiseki meal begin? Fletcher answers these questions and many more while inviting readers to a feasting table that extends all the way from Charlemagne’s castle to her own millennium feast in Scotland. This is an eclectic collection of feasts from the flamboyant to the eccentric, the delicious to the disgusting, and sometimes just the touchingly ordinary. For anyone who has ever sat down at a banquet table and wondered, “Why?” Nichola Fletcher provides the delicious answer in a book that is a feast all its own.

Publishers Weekly

We all eat, but how many of us know how to feast? If Fletcher, a food writer and occasional feast designer, has her way, we'll all be reconsidering our party habits. True, we're not likely to offer cannibalistic banquets (she discusses those of Fiji, New Guinea, the Aztecs and others), or platters of cats with rats (a dish from the 1870 siege of Paris), or Kwakiutl-style blubber-eating competitions. Even the complex Ruskin feast that Fletcher herself catered (seviche of wood pigeon, wild greens, Coniston char, and roast venison with wild bramble sauce, all served on pollen-inspired ceramic platters, with readings from Wordsworth and Ruskin) for a scholarly set of foodies in the middle of a British forest at sunset seems best left to its designated guests. But as Fletcher describes Roman, medieval, Renaissance, Persian, Japanese and Chinese feasting traditions, some universal elements emerge. Feasts often celebrate key life events and feature symbolic foods like eggs (for birth and fertility) or candied almonds (bitter and sweet, like life). Nature is either evoked or revoked, but rarely ignored. Fletcher serves her culinary history buffet-style; thematic chapters on meat or fish are followed by palate-cleansing pauses to examine oddities like 18th-century French food writer Grimod's funeral banquets or Mr. Billings's horseback dinner in 1903, followed by chapters on Victorian banquets and modern Day of the Dead rituals. This is a veritable cook's tour of a mesmerizing social custom. Photos. Agent, Susan Howe. (Aug. 16) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Fletcher, a food writer/demonstrator and artisan food producer, deftly handles her subject in this lively, witty, learned, and aptly titled book. Whether delving into the history of Japanese tea ceremonies, medieval feasting in Europe, Chinese banquets, or even Aztec cannibalism, she displays a skill in choosing her topics and incorporating her meticulous research. Many readers will likely wonder what was so special about Charlemagne's tablecloth-reportedly made of asbestos, it was tossed in the fire at the end of the meal, then retrieved unscorched to the amazement of guests. After conducting her own research, Fletcher discovered to her disappointment that the asbestos tablecloth is one of many fantastic myths swirling around the legend of Charlemagne; it is a wonderful story nonetheless. A veritable feast of storytelling, this won a Silver Trophy at the 2004 Gourmet Media World Festival in Cannes and is recommended for all academic and public libraries.-Courtney Greene, DePaul Univ. Lib., Chicago Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A smorgasbord of informative and entertaining essays on feasts through the ages, from the sweet and spicy indulgences of ancient Persia to the Scottish celebration of Hogmanay at the turn of the second millennium. Scottish food writer Fletcher describes not just the dishes offered in feasts, but the rituals of preparing and presenting them and the ambience surrounding them. She also explores the myriad reasons for feasting and the occasionally dubious motives of the hosts. Many feasts-after the coronation of a monarch or the celebration of a wedding, for example-are held to mark rites of passage. Others give thanks for a good harvest or mark the end of a fast. Still others are staged in an effort to grasp or hold onto power. (The author's account of an aggressive feast held by a 19th-century chief of British Columbia's Kwakiutl people includes a stomach-churning description of competitive blubber swallowing.) The measures taken to impress guests can be astonishing: Fletcher cites a 16th-century Hungarian feast in which a quail was placed inside a capon inside a lamb inside a calf inside an ox. By way of contrast, she details a spiritual feast called cha-kaiseki, a frugal vegetarian meal served as part of a Japanese tea ceremony. One of the most interesting feasts described here is one prepared by the author herself for an international congress of deer experts; every dish contained some deer product, the finishing touches being an ice cream made of reindeer milk and a fiery liqueur containing extract of velvet antler. Fletcher's scope is broad. Her selections include an 1870 Christmas dinner during the siege of Paris at which the Restaurant Voisin served up creatures from the zoo, theAztecs' ritual cannibal feasts and the meager but memorable meal of bread and potatoes enjoyed by Primo Levi and his fellow prisoners at Auschwitz after the Germans abandoned it in 1945. This pleasurable treat can be consumed as presented or sampled in any order. (Three 8-page b&w photo inserts, not seen)

The Singular Beast or Coffee

The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians, and the Pig (European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism)

Author: Claudine Fabre Vassas

Throughout history, the breeding, slaughter, and consumption of the pig has been the inspiration for both religious and secular rituals and taboos. In The Singular Beast, a daring and original account of the role of the pig and its relationship to Jews in European Christian culture, Claudine Fabre-Vassas argues that these practices defined the very boundaries between Christians and Jews. Chronicling the cultural and religious significance of a creature that occupies an ambiguous place in the families of those who raise it - as a member of the family and a potential meal - The Singular Beast reveals the continuing power of symbols to sustain or create ethnic identities. Fabre-Vassas details the folkloric beliefs and rituals that have been associated with the slaughter and consumption of pigs from the Middle Ages until today by both provincial and urban Europeans - such as the myth that Jews do not eat pork because their children had been transformed into pigs and the story that they crave the flesh of Christian children because they are deprived of pork. Ranging from early Christianity to the present, from Spain to Scandinavia, The Singular Beast is both a broad study of the extraordinary, complex role of the animal central to the diets and rituals of most European populations and a close historical analysis of anti-Semitism and the creation of real-life myths.

New Republic

[A] wide-ranging and stimulating book.

Times Literary Supplement

A stunning compendium of porcine and theological folklore. . . . With remarkable acuity, The Singular Beast shows how the pig, the Jew and the Christian have been locked in a fatal and macabre pas de trois for the past two millenniums.

David Gordon White

[A] masterful demonstration of the role of the pig as that animal which, because of its own natural and cultural anomalousness, came so powerfully to symbolize the dialectic of identity and difference obtaining between Christians and Jews.

New York Times

Fabre-Vassas argues that the cultural tension between those who did and those who did not eat pork helps set the stage for a murderous anti-Semitism. . . . Taking her cue from Claude Levi-Strauss, [she] studied the culinary habits of southern France, and the way in which the pig began to be associated with the Jew in the anti-Semitic imaginings of peasant culture, and by implication the rest of Europe.

Janet Liebman Jacobs

Fabre-Vassas's work in particular illuminates the fear of otherness that, as a dimension of human consciousness, underlies the relationship between those who are persecuted and those who persecute . . . The extensive and detailed research in The Singular Beast provides ample evidence of how Jewishness became imbued with all manner of hateful traits. . . . Through ethnography and text, Fabre-Vassas offers a rich and nuanced protrait of anti-Semitic beliefs and practices that remained deeply embedded in twentieth-century European society.

Booknews

From the author's introduction: "We know that the world's cultures readily designate others by what they eat; in Europe we call one another frogs, roast beefs, or macaroni eaters...a very rare exception should have aroused suspicion: Jews are called `pigs,' imagined to be bloodthirsty, identified precisely as what they forbid themselves." This study details the folkloric beliefs and rituals associated with the slaughter and consumption of pigs from the Middle Ages until today, and explores what they reveal about the cultural boundaries between Christians and Jews. Translated from the French (1994, <'E>ditions Gallimard). Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Table of Contents:

One. An Anological Being
One. The Red Men
Two. Children's Stories
Three. The Circle of Metamorphoses
Two. From One Blood To the Next
Four. The Jew's Sow
Five. Red Easter
Six. Old Jews, Young Christians
Seven. The Little Jew
Three. Christian Flesh
Eight. The Return of the Pig
Nine. Blood and Soul
Ten. The Bone That Sings. The Time of Sacrifice

Books about: Thin for Good or Pr cticas hol sticas para la salud

Coffee: A Dark History

Author: Antony Wild

Reveals the shocking exploitation that has always lurked at the heart of the industry.

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley

Antony Wild isn't kidding. The history of coffee is indeed as "dark," as his subtitle puts it, as the cup of Colombian that sits on my desk as these words are written. Himself a coffee lover and an expert on the subject -- he worked for more than a decade as the buyer for a prestigious British specialty-coffee company -- Wild is nonetheless no sentimentalist when it comes to the human and natural toll the bean has extracted -- "poverty, violence, exploitation, environmental devastation, political oppression, and corruption" -- nor to the threats that caffeine poses to the health of those who consume it. As he writes, with the wry touch that makes his book a pleasure:

Publishers Weekly

While coffee historian Wild brings enthusiasm to this tome on the 500-year history of the caffeinated bean, it doesn't match the simple passion with which coffee lovers enjoy their morning java. (In fairness to the author, how could it?) Wild (The East India Company) traces the bean as it makes its way from Africa to the Middle East (it was once known as the "wine of Araby") to the West, and the rise in cafe culture across Europe and eventually the New World, where, thanks to the Boston Tea Party, coffee surpassed tea as the patriotic drink of choice for a fledging nation. But Wild repeatedly reminds readers that for all the pleasure a cup of coffee brings to its drinker, the history of this beguiling brew is indeed dark. As long as there has been coffee, Wild asserts, there have been colonial powers-and now corporations-to exploit the workers that grow it. While this is a fascinating story that combines history with anthropology, too often the writing is buried under the heartless statistics of economic formulations. However, the work does provide caffeine junkies with intriguing reading material next time they find themselves waiting in line to order their grande vanilla latte. Illus. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Wild (The East India Company) has been widely recognized for introducing specialty coffees to Great Britain. Here, he presents a 500-year history of the much-loved drink, drawing on science, politics, anthropology, and alchemy before concluding that today's large companies, with their demand for lower prices, have put coffee farmers out of business and thousands of workers out of jobs in Africa and Central America. Wild's explanation of how major corporations have taken over the coffee industry, supported by public information direct from the coffee distributors themselves, will inspire readers to comtemplate their contribution to this global situation. The only comparison would be Stewart Lee Allen's The Devil's Cup, which describes similar facts but from the first person. With its political and historical perspectives, this book reads more like a textbook. Recommended for academic libraries; an optional purchase for others.-Jennifer A. Wickes, Suite101.com, Pine Beach, NJ Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Cooked to Perfection or Wolf in Chefs Clothing

Cooked to Perfection

Author: Phyllis P Corella

Andrew and Phyllis Corella were born in New York City in East Harlem and raised at a time when food was kept cold in an icebox. Their parents and grandparents shopped daily for items such as fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. The authors have attempted to present a variety of foods. They offer new twists on old family recipes. There are dishes that you may prepare once a year and dishes that will be part of your weekly menu. All of the dishes are easy to prepare.

The authors have attempted to present a variety of foods. They offer new twists on old family recipes. There are dishes that you may prepare once a year and dishes that will be part of your weekly menu.

All of the dishes are easy to prepare.

See also: Eating for Endurance or Shop Save and Share

Wolf in Chef's Clothing: The Picture Cook and Drink Book for Men

Author: Richard H Loeb

Interest in lounge culture is nearly as high as during the golden age of the '50s and '60s. And even lounge lizards have to eat - and drink. This humorous guide to entertaining, first published in 1950, is a retro period piece that will satisfy the most discriminating tastes, no matter how pickled. Recipes are presented entirely in pictures, step by step, from conception to perfection - and all with deliciously dry wit. Easy-to-make breakfasts-for-two, canapes, barbecue suppers, picnic food, midnight repasts, and, of course, drinks - before-dinner drinks, drinks with dinner, after-dinner drinks, and drinks having nothing to do with meals - are ideal for men with kitchen "no"-how! "When a crowd descends upon you for an evening of bridge or poker, or just for conviviality at your expense, do you know what to serve? Or on a long, hot summer's afternoon, what to quaff? Or on a bleak, black winter's day, what to snift? Read on." - from the book

Internet Book Watch

First published in 1950, Robert H. Loeb, Jr.'s Wolf In Chef's Clothing is a unique "picturebook" approach for educating men on how to prepare basic recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnight snacks, and barbecues. From omelets to Shrimps Cobra, from canapes to Martini's, the step-by-step picture-based instructions are fool proof and will instruct even the most basic male novice to the mysteries of food and drink preparation. Whether a married man seeking to give his spouse a break in the kitchen, or a bachelor seeking to impress friends and family, Wolf In Chef's Clothing is sure to enhance any meal time or special celebration event.