Eleanor Ford - The Nutmeg Trail: A Culinary Journey Along the Ancient Spice Routes

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

A fascinating, transporting read, packed full of intriguing recipes I cant wait to try.
Felicity Cloake

Award-winning writer Eleanor Fords recipes and stories explore how centuries of spice trading and cultural diffusion changed the worlds cuisine. A unique and enlightening guide to cooking with spice, The Nutmeg Trail looks at their flavour profiles and how they can be used, combined and layered - how some bring sweetness, others fragrance, heat, pungency, sourness or earthiness.

There are 80 spice-infused recipes in this collection following the trails of ancient maritime trade through Indonesia, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Iran and the Emirates. Eleanor combines historical research with a travel writers eye and a cooks nose for a memorable recipe. Interwoven are 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.

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. Its 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. Yotam Ottolenghi

A fascinating and evocative journey along the spice routes, the central nervous system of the world. The authors 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

I am completely enraptured with The Nutmeg Trail. It is the perfect balance of being fascinating and mouth-watering at the same time. Georgina Hayden, author of Taverna

A tantalising treatise on the intoxicating world of spice. Eleanor has coupled essays on the history and cultural significance of spices with very enticing recipes. I cannot wait to read, meander and cook my way along the ancient spice routes that Eleanor has so cleverly traced in this beautiful book. Helen Goh, recipe columnist

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, author of Nathaniels Nutmeg

A fascinating, transporting read, packed full of intriguing recipes I cant wait to try. Felicity Cloake, The Guardian food columnist

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, historian and author of The Spice Route

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, food writer and critic

Eleanor Ford is a British cook and food writer. Having lived in Indonesia and Hong Kong, she set off to travel and learn about the worlds food cultures and traditions. Her first book, Samarkand, was named a book of the year 2016 by The Guardian and Food52. It also won the Guild of Food Writers Award for Food and Travel 2017. Her second book, Fire Islands, received two Gourmand World Cookbook awards; was named Food and Drink Book of the Year at the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards; won Der Deutsche Kochbuchpreis Bronze; and was awarded the Regional Cookbook first prize at The Guild of Food Writers Awards 2020. Eleanor now lives in London with her young family and an unreasonable collection of spices. @eleanorfordfood

FRAGRANT THINGS, FLOWERS, UNGUENTS,
DIAMONDS, APHRODISIACS, THOSE
WHO ENJOY SUMPTUOUS FOOD, BATHS,
LOVERS, SILK AND NUTMEG ... ALL THESE
BELONG TO THE REALM OF VENUS.

Varhamihira (translated and abridged
from sixth-century Sanskrit)

WE CAME TO WARMER WAVES, AND DEEP
ACROSS THE BOUNDLESS EAST WE DROVE,
WHERE THOSE LONG SWELLS OF BREAKER SWEEP
THE NUTMEG ROCKS AND ISLES OF CLOVE.

Tennyson, The Voyage

MYRISTICIVOROUS (ADJ):
FEEDING UPON NUTMEGS

CONTENTS

Sailors would catch the scent of spice on the wind before they could see land. A string of emerald isles, as remote as any you can imagine, was once the only place on earth that nutmeg grew. The Banda Sea stretches through the Indonesian province of Maluku, 1500 miles east of Jakarta. Here, lying just south of the equator, are ten tiny volcanic islands ringed by turquoise water. Indeed, one called Gunung Api or Fire Mountain is a volcano in its entirety, which has been known to splutter and stream molten lava, causing the surrounding sea to boil. The ocean winds, salty tropical rains and fertile volcanic soil combine to create the perfect habitat for the evergreen nutmeg trees that gave the Banda Islands their moniker, the Spice Islands.