The Devil's Dinner: A Gastronomic and Cultural History of Chili Peppers

by Stuart Walton

Stuart Walton's The Devil's Dinner looks at the history of hot peppers, their culinary uses through the ages, and the significance of spicy food in an increasingly homogenous world.

The Devil's Dinner is the first authoritative history of chili peppers. There are countless books on cooking with chilies, but no book goes into depth about the biological, gastronomical, and cultural impact this forbidden fruit has had upon people all over the world. The story has been too hot to handle.

A billion dollar industry, hot peppers are especially popular in the United States, where a superhot movement is on the rise. Hot peppers started out in Mexico and South America, came to Europe with returning Spanish travelers, lit up Iberian cuisine with piri-piri and pimientos, continued along eastern trade routes, boosted mustard and pepper in cuisines of the Indian subcontinent, then took overland routes to central Europe in the paprika of Hungarian and Austrian dumplings, devilled this and devilled that… they've been everywhere!

The Devil's Dinner tells the history of hot peppers and captures the rise of the superhot movement.

Genres: Food, History, Nonfiction, Science, Microhistory

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 9, 2018

Reviews

[Christopher Blosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading some chapters more than others — the later speculation on the psychological reasons we enjoy chili’s or the author’s concluding attempt at philosophical “deep-thinking” on the postmodern relevance of chili’s in relation to Western culture, for example seemed to me more “filler” material towards the end. Given that I think the book could have been easily been condensed by 30-50 pages trimming the fluff without having been diminished in content.

That being said, there IS nonetheless enough substantial knowledge contained here, on the origins and of chili’s, the history and distribution of them (by Columbus and later Portuguese spice-and-slave trade routes) throughout the world, the introduction of chili’s in each country and their own unique ways of cultivating and cooking with them; the history of various hot sauces (especially the more recognizable labels in the grocery store) and the development of taste in American culture; the origins of “chili” in Mexican and American regions and their distinctions; the various spices made from chili’s; the history of the weaponized or medical use of chili’s; the various reasons both culinary and cultural why much of Europe conversely never took to the chili even when introduced ... to the extent I learned SO MUCH that I didn’t know before, and to have it compiled in this one survey, merits the “four stars” in terms of my own reading experience. As a chili lover I’ve come away with a much richer and informed appreciation of chili peppers, and a curiously to venture out and try more of them in all the myriad ways the world has made use of them.

[Ben Hammerslag · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's less here than I had hoped. Some of this is the author's fault, and some is mismatched expectations on my part.

I was disappointed that this book didn't measure up to another single-food-history I quite liked, "Salt". But ultimately that's on me - Chili peppers may be eaten worldwide, but they're not essential for living, making their history much less notable.

But even still: There's just not a lot in this book. Some parts are quite interesting: The history of Chili Peppers pre-European contact. Investigations of how Chilis caught on in Asia, and failed to catch on in Europe. So on and so forth. But the author felt the need to pad out an early chapter with paragraph-length descriptions of chili cultivars, most of which are wholly forgettable, with the chilis never appearing again in the book. The final third of the book, about *why* people eat chilis and their social character, seems largely speculative. The entire chapter on why men eat chilis competitively and women don't seems to be based entirely on guesswork and anecdote.

The chapters on the actual history and spread of the chili is worth a read, the rest of the book can be safely skipped.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite the disappointment. The author tried (unsuccessfully) to describe peppers ... without the benefit of illustrations. He missed the memo that a picture is worth a thousand words.

I was quite distracted by his archaic and atypical reference to “chili” peppers, despite his Note on Spelling. Did he wonder why it is called the Chile Pepper Institute. Or why the long-running magazine of pepper aficionados was titled “Chile Pepper”? Simply consult the many books written by Dave DeWitt or Paul Bosland to get a sense of proper usage.

He compounds his lack of familiarity by conflating the chili in chili dogs (a meat sauce) with the use of peppers. You can add chile peppers to a chili dog, but the meat sauce is the basic ingredient that defines it.

And then he spends ten pages discussing “chili” (accurately described as the meat sauce), which can be complemented with chile peppers, but is otherwise a separate topic altogether.

I was left with the impression that this was written by an opportunistic author jumping on a trend and relying on internet sources, as particularly noted in the Notes section.

Nice dust jacket design, though, which accounts for one of my two stars.

[Varshini · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never have I ever DNR'd during the first introduction, and this has taken on that privilege.

I can only presume that the author wanted to titillate the audience, but between the amount of "probably" peppered in (yes, pun intended) made me wonder if there was no editor advising for more research to be done. Then the references of women "probably" not doing chilli contests since they didn't see the point of it (which is a very weird generic statement to make) was absurd.

The final straw for me was when the author spoke about Indian achaar flavored condoms completely straight, no hint of sarcasm. A quick Google search tells me that it was a random company who created it in 2017 and its reception was similar to that of a gag gift.

[Barbara Kemp · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an interesting and humorous tale of the chile pepper! The author explained the history, finding the fruit in the America’s and because they were looking for spices, pepper as an example, the Europeans called the spicy food peppers. He book talks about international cuisine, where chiles were enthusiastically adopted (Asia, Africa) and where they were scorned as the Devil’s work (Europe, especially Northern Europe.). I loved the chapter on Texas chili, and also the chapter on Man Food, about competitive chile-eating contests. A very enjoyable read. I wanted to share everything I learned, this the 5 star rating.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Different chapters of this book feel like they were written by different authors: the chapter on chiles in America -- on chili con carne and the Chili Queens -- is full of wit and personality, while some of the earlier historical chapters are much. much drier (and thus harder to follow and remember.) Still, the book as a whole is interesting and entertaining enough to make it 4 stars, and it made me consistently hungry for spicier food, so that feels like a win.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was moderately similar to reading all of the relevant wikipedia articles in one sitting, with a few additional details but not a whole lot more. Not at all comparable to Coe's 'The true history of Chocolate' and I am not just saying that because I am responsible for more than half the text of a large number of said chili related wikipedia articles.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first read of a book on hot peppers. It is more engaging than the two others I borrowed from my local library. I agree though with a lot of the criticisms of this book in other reviews. Still it is a pretty quick and fun read, especially for people who don't know much to begin with about hot peppers.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun albeit short book on the cultural history of Chilies, from the Colombian exchange to Chili Heads. It touches on its rabid spread and its health benefits as well as how capsacian's function. Wish this was a little bit more in depth but for a quick,light read it was pleasantly informative.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

very in depth, but sometimes tries too hard with the big words. we get it.

fun read though, very insightful about spicy chili.

[世界 · Rating 5 out of 5]

很有意思的一本书，从辣椒起源（虽然没有定论）、辣度衡量、辣椒品种、辣椒发展简史、辣椒的作用等全面解读了世界辣椒文化。
1.辣不是味觉（咸甜苦酸鲜），而是一种痛觉。
2.辣椒的辣来源于辣椒素，会欺骗一部分生物的感官，让他们觉得自己正受到伤害。
3.辣椒进化出“辣”的特质，本意或许是为了抵御动物、昆虫和真菌，却阴差阳错地被当做一种独一无二的味觉刺激，被广泛食用。（被吃到需要人工养殖的外来物种小龙虾或许感同身受。）
4.辣椒抵御真菌的特质，能让它成为了早期的防腐材料，或许这正是人类接触、种植辣椒的契机（尽管这时还没有被食用）
5.辣度通常以史高维尔指数（SHU）衡量，这种指数充满主观判断，但却深入人心。后来出现更加科学的液相色谱法测量辣度后，人们也还是习惯于使用史高维尔指数。
6.辣椒酱、辣椒粉等辣椒制调味品，对于辣椒在世界的普及有重要意义。
7.尽管科学上无法证实，在很多辣椒文化中，辣椒常与性欲有关。（形似，或者是期待它的药用价值。）
8.辣椒还与“魔鬼”有关——或是魔鬼的象征（把辣当作一种叛逆的“味觉”），或是抵御恶灵的驱邪物品。
9.辣椒的风靡，或许与人喜欢从挑战（甚至愚蠢、致命的挑战）中获得刺激有关。
10.辣味作为一种独特的“味觉刺激”，给正趋同质化（西方化）的世界美食带来活力，在更高的层次（超越味觉）上创造口味。