| This is not your everyday cookbook. It is a cultural history of a foodwith recipesput together by an inquisitive scholar, gardener, cook, traveler, and artist who fell in love with peppers more than twenty years ago. During that time I attempted to learn what they are, where they came from, where they moved, and how they affected the cooking in the places they went. I thought others might be interested in what I discovered. It is written in two partsthe history, geography and background in the first and the cookery in the second, with a bibliography for those who want more. It bombards the reader with an awesome amount of data pieced together from various fragments of information into an overwhelming historical, and geographical study of the pepper pod. It won't hurt my feelings if you just skip to the recipes, but you'll miss a hot story. |
| Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums or Peppers I, my first book about the genus Capsicum, probably told the average reader more than one ever wanted to know about peppers. However, that book barely touched on the food aspect of peppers and had but twenty-four recipes. Since then I have not only revised and updated that book but I have also traveled the pepper trail, from Bolivia to the Far East, Tibet to Timbuktu and back, tracking the pungent pod. It is my intent in this book to take up where the first book left off and again tell you more than you might want to know, but this time about how and why the American capsicums moved from their prehistoric Bolivian place of origin and traveled around the world affecting the foodways of both hemispheres, and also, how you, patient reader, can hone your |
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