[Sca-cooks] Forthcoming Books

Johnna Holloway johnnae at mac.com
Thu Jul 9 12:09:58 PDT 2009


New Books that people might like

Johnnae (playing librarian)


http://www.oxbowbooks.com/browse.cfm/CatID/797/O/P/n/25

Invito alla mensa del mercante del Trecento/ An Invitation to the
      Table of a Merchant of the Trecento: Usi, arnesi e ricette della
      cucina medievale / Customs, Utensils and Recipes in the Medieval
      Kitchen

edited by Rosanna Caterina Proto Pisani, translated by Josephine
        Rogers Mariotti

This is the cookbook of the Museo di Palazzo Davanzati .... The cooking 
culture of Medieval
Italy is realized in color reproductions of works by Lorenzetti,
Buoninsegna, Cennini, and many others. Kitchen utensils are described
and illustrated, and some original, hand-written recipes are faithfully
reproduced, deciphered, and translated into English: Porrata Bianca
(White Leek Porridge), Pollastri Affinocchiati (Baby Hens with Fennel),
Torta di Gamberi (Crayfish Tart) and Fichi Ripieni (Stuffed Figs). /48p,
col illus. (Edizioni Polistampa 2009) /Not yet published - advance
orders taken. Price US $9.00

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  The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (1614)by Giacomo Castelvetro, 
edited and translated by Gillian Riley

This is a new edition of a classic of early 17th-century food writing.
The book was written by the Italian refugee, educator, and humanist
Giacomo Castelvetro, who had been saved from the clutches of the
Inquisition in Venice by the English ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton, in
1611. Not yet published - advance orders taken. Price US $24.00

-----------
  Over a Red Hot Stove: Essays in Early Cooking Technologyedited by Ivan Day

These essays were presented at the seventeenth Leeds Symposium on Food
History, of which this is the fourteenth volume in the series 'Food and
Society.' Their common theme is the way in which we cooked our food from
the medieval to the modern eras, most especially, how we roasted meats.
The authors are distinguished food historians, mostly from the north of
England. David Eveleigh discusses the rise of the kitchen range, from
the 19th-century coal-fired monsters to the electric and gas cookers of
the early 20th century.
Ivan Day, in two essays, talks about techniques of roasting. In the
first he tells of the ox roast - the open-air celebration with the
cooking done on a blazing campfire. In the second he traces the history
of the clockwork spit, the final, most domestic version of the
open-hearth device that had been driven by dogs or scullions in earlier
centuries.
Peter Brears gives us the fruits of many years' involvement in the
reconstruction of the kitchens at Hampton Court and other Royal Palaces
in his account of roasting, specifically the 'baron of beef', in these
important locales. The final two chapters discuss aspects of baking
rather than roasting. Laura Mason tells of the English reliance on yeast
as a raising agent - in the earliest times deriving it from brewing ale,
and Susan McClellan Plaisted gives an account of running a masonry
wood-fired oven in living-history museums in America, discussing the
transmission of cooking techniques from the Old to the New World, and
the problems encountered in baking a satisfactory loaf.
The book is very generously illustrated, both by photographs of
artefacts and reproductions of early prints and engravings that
elucidate their purpose and function. /208p, 78 b/w drawings and photos
(Prospect Books 2009)


/-----
  Renaissance Secrets: Recipes & Formulas by Jo Wheeler

 From recipes for aphrodisiacs to formulas for everything from lip balm
to stain removers to paint pigments, this book unveils the secret world
of Renaissance lotions and potions. Clothbound with marbled endpapers
and superbly illustrated with relevant objects from the collections of
the Victoria and Albert Museum, /Renaissance Secrets/ reveals a myriad
of concoctions once used to create medicines, cosmetics, printing
materials, even amulets meant to ward off the plague.

New and extensive research offers intriguing insights into the use of
obscure, exotic and toxic ingredients and explains now-unfamiliar or
arcane techniques. /Renaissance Secrets/ reveals the compelling stories
behind the original recipes. /112p, 90 color illus. (Victorian & Albert
Museum 2009)/

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Sir Hugh Plat: The Search for Useful Knowledge in Early-Modern London
by Malcolm Thick
The scientific and proto-scientific community of Elizabethan and
Jacobean London has lately attracted much scholarly attention. This book
advances the subject by means of an investigation of the life and work
of Sir Hugh Plat (1552-1611), an author, alchemist, speculator and
inventor whose career touched on the fields of alchemy, general
scientific curiosity, cookery and sugar work, cosmetics, gardening and
agriculture, food manufacture, ...
Hardback. Not yet published - advance orders taken. Price US$60.00




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