Nuts: A Global History

Edible

by Ken Albala

Nuts are perhaps the original health food, the main source of nutrition for many animals, and as apparently basic as food gets. Taking us on a gastronomic, botanical and cultural tour of nuts around the world, Nuts is the first book of its kind about this foodstuff, crammed with surprising and little-known facts. As allergy sufferers will know, nuts get almost everywhere, being used industrially, in confectionary and in all sorts of cooking – Nuts gives us the full story, through cultivation, harvesting, processing, and consumption.
Ken Albala, author of many books on food, immerses us in the modern-day uses of the nut, providing a comprehensive account of how it has been cooked, prepared, and exploited around the globe, while simultaneously discussing the social and cultural meaning of nuts during various periods in history. No stone is left unturned in this spirited account of the oldest and most natural food on earth.
Written for a general audience, this tidy volume is stuffed with tidbits and fascinating nuggets about the humble nut, and comes complete with recipes to try out for nut-lovers. Whether interested in nuts, or just food generally, the remarkable story of how a simple, primal food came to such popular and varied use is sure to entertain and inform in equal measure.

Genres: Food, History, Nonfiction

133 pages, Kindle Edition

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.