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)
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