Precious Cargo: How Foods From the Americas Changed The World

by Dave DeWitt

Precious Cargo tells the fascinating story of how western hemisphere foods conquered the globe and saved it from not only mass starvation, but culinary as well. Focusing heavily American foods—specifically the lowly crops that became commodities, plus one gobbling protein source, the turkey—Dewitt describes how these foreign and often suspect temptations were transported around the world, transforming cuisines and the very fabric of life on the planet.

Organized thematically by foodstuff, Precious Cargo delves into the botany, zoology and anthropology connected to new world foods, often uncovering those surprising individuals who were responsible for their spread and influence, including same traders, brutish conquerors, a Scottish millionaire obsessed with a single fruit and a British lord and colonial governor with a passion for peppers, to name a few.

Precious Cargo is a must read for foodies and historians alike.

Genres: History, Food, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 26, 2014

About the author

The New York Times calls this author "The Pope of Peppers" and TV viewers recognize Dave DeWitt as the ever-affable chile pepper expert and organizer of Albuquerque's huge annual National Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show. Dave is also the author of more than 40 food related books, including the best-selling "The Complete Chile Pepper Book," "The Southwest Table," and the forthcoming "Growing Medical Marijuana."
National TV appearances include "American Journal," Cable News Network, "The Today Show," "Home with Gary Collins," "Scientific American Frontiers," "Smart Solutions," and "CBS Sunday Morning." He has also been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, American Way, Smithsonian, and approximately 200 newspapers across the country.
Now, the world's authority on the Southwest's hottest food turns his attention to New Mexicos most compelling and legendary historical figures--the rag-tag group of Apache warriors led by an elderly gentleman set on avenging the death of Victorio--and those who pursued them, the officers and buffalo soldiers of the U.S. Army's Ninth Cavalry as told in Dave's novel "Avenging Victorio."
The people, the story and the settings are real; DeWitt poured through endless documentation in the form of military records, old photos, newspaper clippings, letters and other correspondence to piece together the facts. Then, drawing on his background as a university professor of composition and literature-- plus his almost uncanny grasp and sensibility of Apache customs, traditions, rituals (and humor) -- DeWitt has woven a fast-paced and engaging saga. Click here for more information."

Reviews

[Dork · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, while the subject is interesting and he clearly did a lot of research, I have some serious issues with the book.

First, he goes in talking like I should know who he is (some guy with a reality tv show??) Yeah no, though I guess it was useful going in to know that he said he's obsessed with chili peppers as he devotes a fuckton of the book to them.

He very clearly did the bulk of his research online. He even talks about how one of his methods was to peruse cookbooks on amazon to see how many featured certain ingredients, or search through google books for things. And while those are valid enough methods, I suspect the reasons certain sections barely touched on pre 1800's stuff is that he couldn't find enough easy sources online and didn't haul his ass to libraries to check for more. He did read other people's books and check with some experts, or found academic papers, but the end result still feels shallow. He's covering a ton of territory and some sections are extremely lopsided and feature almost entirely post-1800s info.

While historical records in English do tend to be biased, he used mostly colonist white European sources and didn't seem to seek out many local sources on cuisine history. He gets close to awareness of the biases in some of his research, like when he acknowledges cookbooks tend to skip over porridge/mush types of foods because it isn't "sexy," but then immediately trips over himself by describing some African cuisine as "surprisingly sophisticated" with zero awareness of the historical weight of that phrase.

The biggest thing that got me is for somebody with his apparent resources, why did nobody tell him not to use fucking wikipedia as a source. This is basic shit a highschooler should know. and yet many of the sources listed in back are wiki pages. No, no, no.

So while the book does have some interesting facts and manages to cover a huge swath of time and territory, it has some serious flaws in its research methodology and organization. The pictures are kinda neat but you're better off reading somebody else's book.

[Misha · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was horribly written! I've really only finished it because every once in a while, it had interesting information and so I could reliably give it a horrid rating. He has a faulty understanding of the Columbian Exchange that he rails against, but only as a sort iof overarching reasoning behind his rah rah descriptions of native American foodstuffs. However, he has this weird boring hybrid of cookbook-esque writing where he lists a lot of ingredients (but almost no recipes) and gives a lot of dull stats on them in a fashion that becomes a drone of lists in many places. Needs editing!

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating early section about the discovery and early experiences of Europeans with American foods -- potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn, peppers, peanuts and turkeys -- and many beautiful pictures. But the later sections read more like a travel guide describing the local cuisines in Africa, India, China and Southeast Asia -- somewhat interesting, but also somewhat random.

[jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

An ambitious, breezily written and edited coffee-table kind of book. It is interesting in the earlier chapters about the various foods that originated in the new world. But it devolves into unending pages listing food ingredients without an apparent point. I found myself page counting, determined to finish it off, once and for all.

[Patrick Pilz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loaded with a lot of facts, the book is a tough read. With all the sometimes unnecessary detail, it loses the overall story line. Some may recommend it for its research and the presented facts, but it has little entertainment value. I like the content, I just don't like how it is presented.

[Doug Frizzle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not to bad, but not as good as Hyatt Verrill's version of the same subject written 75 years ago!

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Europe colonized the Americas, food from the New World transformed the old: tomatoes in Italy, potatoes in much of Europe (among other advantages, soldiers might commandeer stored grain but they wouldn't dig up fields looking for potatoes), peppers, maize and peanuts in Africa and peppers in the Far East.
DeWitt is good on Europe and decent on Africa; his Asian section becomes less about history and influence and more a recital of different pepper recipes and cooking styles in different nations (there's some of that in the African section too).

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not normally a food history kind of person, but a neighbor recommended this one so I gave it a try. It was definitely interesting to see how New World foods have spread to other regions of the world. There were several foods that I had thought originated in a place because of how much a part of that culture's cuisine they are that were actually introduced. One big example is the tomato and Italy.

If you enjoy history and learning about food and its uses, this is a good book for you.