The Nutmeg Trail
A culinary journey along the ancient spice routes
by Eleanor Ford
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 28 Apr 2022 | Archive Date 2 May 2022
Talking about this book? Use #TheNutmegTrail #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
Interwoven with divine recipes and stories, Eleanor Ford’s latest cookbook The Nutmeg Trail is a fascinating culinary exploration of spice, showcasing how centuries of spice trading and cultural diffusion changed the world’s cuisine.
Eleanor Ford is known for her award-winning cookbooks Samarkand and Fire Islands. Now, in her latest cookbook, Eleanor presents a unique and enlightening guide to cooking with spice as she follows the trails of ancient maritime trade through Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Sri Lanka, India, Iran, and the Emirates.
The Nutmeg Trail is an enhanced look at the flavour profiles that we use in cooking to add that something to a dish. Eleanor examines how spices can be used, combined and layered—how some bring sweetness, others fragrance, heat, pungency, sourness or earthiness to create something one-of-a-kind. Chapters and recipes are divided by spice—by the fire and thunder of ginger and peppercorns, floral petals & bark, chillies, lime & lemongrass, earthy cumin & coriander, plus complex spice blends.
Following the ancient spice trail, Eleanor showcases the different elements of spice through her recipes. There are gingery dishes such as salted chicken and egg and bacon rougaille, peppery Hot and tingly hand-pulled noodles and Balinese green bean urap, and fragrant and floral dishes such as Royal saffron paneer and Honeyed meatballs with pistachio. There are also fiery foods like Sri Lankan coconut and green chilli flatbreads and Indian gunpowder okra that will heat your tastebuds, plus notes of lemongrass and lime in Eleanor’s recipes for Indonesian seafood gulai. Lastly, there are earthy dishes such as curried udon noodles from Japan and the more complex blends that bring you masterpieces like Eleanor’s Tandoori roast chicken.
Combining historical research with a travel writer's eye and a cook's nose for a memorable recipe, The Nutmeg Trail is a cookbook interwoven with stories that explore how spices from across the Indian Ocean, the original cradle of spice, have, over time, been adopted into cuisines around the world.
Advance Praise
"Eleanor Ford is a cook and a historian, a culinary detective and, as she says, a gastronomic archaeologist. What a deep dive this is into the world of spice. It's a deep-dive, a culinary history, a spice library, anatomy and miscellany. And then the recipes! Recipes which allow the reader to travel from Asia to the Middle East along the spice route, taking in so much flavour and so much context on the way. It's the green coconut hot sauce from Somalia first up for me, followed by the green peppercorn asparagus from Thailand." Yotam Ottolenghi
"A fascinating and evocative journey along the spice routes, the 'central nervous system of the world'. The author's blend of history, geography, taxonomy and enticing recipes offers a fresh look at these small, potent ingredients that bring magic to our kitchens." Fuchsia Dunlop, author of The Food of Sichuan
"The eclectic collection of recipes from across the world will make the reader want to head straight into the kitchen to conjure up heady meals to share with their family and friends." Anissa Helou, author of Feast: Food of the Islamic World
"In The Nutmeg Trail, Eleanor Ford takes us on a mouth-watering culinary voyage to the fabled 'spiceries', those semi-mystical islands of the East Indies. A heady blend of history, adventure and deliciously authentic recipes, this book will make you hungry!" Giles Milton
"A fascinating, transporting read, packed full of intriguing recipes I can't wait to try." Felicity Cloake, Guardian food columnist and author of Perfect, The A-Z of Eating and One More Croissant for the Road
"The Nutmeg Trail offers a historical account of the spice trade with invaluable advice on the use of culinary spices - how to prepare and combine them, when to introduce them, and what delights to expect. Mouth-watering." John Keay
'A fragrant, intoxicating and mesmerising voyage into the history and global spread of spice. With recipes every bit as delectable as the prose.' Tom Parker Bowles, British food writer and food critic
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781922351531 |
| PRICE | £26.00 (GBP) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Susan P, Reviewer
This is such a beautiful book; far more than another collection of recipes!
Not only are we given a wide range of information about spices but the presentation with colourful pages and photographs makes this a wonderful book to enjoy even when not ready to cook. Having only seen this copy as a PDF so far I cannot say that I have read it thoroughly or tried many of the recipes BUT this is already on my wish list to buy when the physical book copy comes on sale .... and that is High praise indeed. I'm looking forward to trying out the food and buying more spices!
Rosemary S, Librarian
A fascinating look at the world of spices, once considered more precious than gold. Ford takes readers around the globe to introduce readers to the spices we have on our kitchen shelves to some we have never even heard of. Folklore and history meet, along with some very tempting recipes in this fascinating and beautiful book
Fran A, Reviewer
This is a beautiful book. It is a mixture of history, geography and recipes. It covers lots of different spices, not just nutmeg, is beautifully illustrated, and each spice and region has been covered.
I really enjoyed it, and it is the sort of book that makes a great present.
Elizabeth Ann S, Reviewer
A stunningly colourful book which not only provides the reader with the background and history to various spices and herbs but also some very tempting recipes to try. Gorgeous colour photos accompany most of the recipes which give inspiration to different combinations of spices plus pairing with different foods. I can't wait to try a few out and see this book in book form which is the format I prefer for cookery books and once my kitchen is usable again from a refit. Especially tempting are the Scallops with Ginger and Black Pepper and the Green Peppercorn Asparagus once that season arrives.
Terri P, Reviewer
Definitely more of a cookbook than a history book, The Nutmeg Trail explores the world's most sought after spices throughout history. Between each mini history lesson is a selection of recipes that include the featured spice, starting with ginger and making way towards lemongrass and rose petals.
I genuinely enjoyed this. The interweaving of history between each recipe kept me browsing and there was more than one recipe I bookmarked for later. Ford has done her homework, and the historical background of each spice is easy to follow without being watered down.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in cooking and cuisine.
Sandra M, Reviewer
What an amazing book. Spice detective work and historical facts that simply blew my mind. I cannot wait for this to be released so hatbi can purchase copies for myself and my friends. Highly recommend this book.
The recipes are so well researched but anyone can produce recipes, to me this is a book full of little known facts that introduce many new spices that I cannot wait to see if I can purchase to try them.
Catalina S, Librarian
Upon requesting this, I've assumes it was going to be a non-fiction about spices, covering the history of spices, trade routes, some botany etc. Discovering it's in fact a cookery book left me very disappointed. But, as I've started leafing through it , I've completely changed my mind.
What we have here is a very lush cook book, with some fabulous recipes that I would like to try someday. But saying this is a cookbook doesn't do it justice because it is so much more that that. It covers a bit of history and botany(just as I wanted), an overview of the spices we love so much. It also looks at the intricacies of cultures and food and how they are irrevocably connected, in a way a true form of peaceful globalisation. The presentation is gorgeous too, and I was already fantasising about the glossiness of the physical book, that I would definitely buy for myself.
Angela G, Reviewer
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an electronic arc to read and review.
I have not fully read this book nor tried any of the delicious sounding recipes because I found it difficult to read the pdf copy. However, it looks so wonderfully colourful, the sections I read were extremely informative and the recipes look so good I am definitely going to buy myself a hard copy when it is published. I could almost smell the aromas just from looking at the pictures.
Jacqui H, Reviewer
A detailed and thoroughly interesting book. Each spice gets a short history about it and these are all fascinating. There are plenty of recipes under each spice and many of these look tasty and easy to make - some familiar, some distinctly not. Ingredients are, mostly, easy to find even if only through the web as far as I'm concerned but many will already be in kitchen cupboards/shelves; a few will be being grown at home, or could be. The real frustration was because the book was pre-publication so the mixed up paragraphs, changes of font mid-word and so on should be sorted by publication. This is not reflected in my score. Thanks to NetGalley and Murdoch Books for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
