Nuts: A Global History

Edible

by Ken Albala

From almonds and pecans to pistachios, cashews, and macadamias, nuts are as basic as food gets―just pop them out of the shell and into your mouth. The original health food, the vitamin-packed nut is now used industrially, in confectionary, and in all sorts of cooking. The first book to tell the full story of how nuts came to be in almost everything,  Nuts  takes readers on a gastronomic, botanical, and cultural tour of the world.
 
Tracking these fruits and seeds through cultivation, harvesting, processing, and consumption―or non-consumption, in the case of those with nut allergies―award-winning food writer Ken Albala provides a fascinating account on how they have been cooked, prepared, and exploited. He reveals the social and cultural meaning of nuts during various periods in history, while also immersing us in their modern uses. Packing scrumptious recipes, surprising facts, and fascinating nuggets inside its hardcover shell, this entertaining and informative book will delight lovers of almonds, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and more.

Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Ken Albala, Professor of History at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA and Director of Food Studies in San Francisco, is the author or editor of 25 books on food. These include academic monographs, cookbooks, reference works and translations. He is also series editor of Rowman and Littlefield Studies in Food and Gastronomy. His current project is about Walking with Wine.

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as finely structured as I expect in an Edible book. This is less a truly comprehensive history of nuts and more a collection of anecdotes about some, but not all, nuts. Definitely some interesting bits here and there, but there just isn't a narrative structure to hold it together.

[Meva · Rating 1 out of 5]

not structured well, very subjective and tries to be funny at times, isn't as informative as I expected

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quite a short book for the large area of 'nuts'. Yet this is not only all about nuts, but also 'a global history'. And because there still weren't enough pages some recipes are thrown in.

[Ernie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it was short.