The Artful Eater: A Gourmet Investigates the Ingredients of Great Food

by Behr, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780974784106
• ISBN10: 0974784109
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Art of Eating

Summary

What makes good food good? When Edward Behr sets out to answer that question, his quest leads from the seemingly prosaic properties of salt and pepper to the differences among vanilla of different origins: Bourbon, Mexican, Tahitian. Plenty is written about food all the time, but only a little of that contributes to a fuller appreciation for and understanding of basic ingredients. Behr does that along with providing mouthwatering descriptions of flavors, textures, and aromas. In The Artful Eater, with intellectual curiosity and physical pleasure, Behr unveils the complexities of bean, roasting, and brewing that make a perfect cup of coffee. He investigates why some cream has much more dairy flavor than others, why gray salt tastes more intense than white, why some Southern country ham is on the same level as great Italian prosciutto. Behr investigates eggs, walnuts, wild and tame sorrel, Atlantic salmon, roast beef, and apples, among other foods. He enriches our enjoyment of eating by tracing the natural origins and cultural history of these foods. By consulting mustard seed brokers in Saskatchewan, mussels growers in Maine, ham curers in Kentucky, a spice merchant in Baltimore, and a walnut researcher in Bordeaux, Behr discovers truths about quality that are all but unknown. The Artful Eatercontains a good measure of practical information--there are recipes and advice on the correct use and preparation of food. But at its heart the book is an appreciation of individual ingredients, the excellent raw materials on which all great food depends.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Second Edition	xi
Preface to the First Edition	xvii
1 The Goodness of Salt	1	(6)
2 A Ripe, Flavorful Tomato	7	(12)
3 Labiatae: Some Herbs of the Mint Family	19	(6)
4 A Mussel Primer	25	(8)
5 Sorrel, Wild and Tame	33	(6)
6 The Atlantic Salmon	39	(22)
7 Black Pepper	61	(14)
8 An Aged Country Ham	75	(18)
9 Bay Leaves	93	(6)
10 The Sweet Orange Carrot	99	(14)
11 On English and French Mustards	113	(16)
12 Roast Beef	129	(12)
13 Eggs	141	(16)
14 A Multiplicity of Apples	157	(22)
15 Elegy for the Taste of Cream	179	(20)
16 Vanilla: Bourbon, Mexican, and Tahitian	199	(14)
17 English Walnuts	213	(8)
18 A Cup of Coffee	221	(28)
Recipes	249	(12)
Sources of Supply	261	(18)
Bibliography	279	(8)
Index	287

Excerpts

The Goodness of Salt



It's sad that the unclouded enjoyment of salt is a thing of the past. Salt is winning when a few grains of it are tasted in a tiny pinch, although that hardly begins to address the health campaign against this nutrient. Salt does raise blood pressure in the seventh or tenth of the population whose blood pressure is salt-sensitive. However, there is no evidence that people with normal blood pressure who avoid salt are reducing the chance of a future problem. The whole truth about salt is only beginning to be widely understood. Bureaucrats who issue alarmist guidelines see not individuals but an ill-informed mass of least common denominators, to be treated all alike. Ironically, until recently salt has been a metaphor for value, preservation, and permanence. Only during the 1980s did partial new knowledge turn the old symbol on its head. Now hardly anyone praises salt.