The Carrot Purple and Other Curious Stories of the Food We Eat

Joel S. Denker

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2015
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216214939
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Culinary Arts

How many otherwise well-educated readers know that the familiar orange carrot was once a novelty? It is a little more than 400 years old. Domesticated in Afghanistan in 900 AD, the purple carrot, in fact, was the dominant variety until Dutch gardeners bred the young upstart in the seventeenth century. After surveying paintings from this era in the Louvre and other museums, Dutch agronomist Otto Banga discovered this stunning transformation.

The story of the carrot is just one of the hidden tales this book recounts. Through portraits of a wide range of foods we eat and love, from artichokes to strawberries, The Carrot Purple traces the path of foods from obscurity to familiarity. Joel Denker explores how these edible plants were, in diverse settings, invested with new meaning. They acquired not only culinary significance but also ceremonial, medicinal, and economic importance. Foods were variously savored, revered, and reviled.

This entertaining history will enhance the reader's appreciation of a wide array of foods we take for granted. From the carrot to the cabbage, from cinnamon to coffee, from the peanut to the pistachio, the plants, beans, nuts, and spices we eat have little-known stories that are unearthed and served here with relish.

Table of contents

• CONTENTS
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• THE ALLURE OF ANISE
• "MOON OF THE FAITH": appreciating the apricot
• THE ARTICHODE "UNDRESSED"
• THE "LASCIVIOUS LEAF": the lure of arugula
• ASPARAGUS: scents and non-scents
• THE "BUTTER PEAR": the mysterious avocado
• THE "CURIOSITY OF THE INDIES": the baffling banana
• HOLY BASIL
• "IT'S NOT BROCCOLI. IT'S ANDY BOY"
• HEAD OF ITS CLASS: the cabbage
• THE WILD CAPER
• FROM ARABIA TO SCANDINAVIA: a cardamom chronicle
• THE CARROT PURPLE
• THE NUTTY FRUIT: the captivating cashew
• THE CELERY CURE
• THE BATTLE OVER THE BEAN: the puzzling chickpea
• "FOOD OF THE GODS": chocolate
• "SWEET WOOD": cinnamon
• THE "NAIL INCENSE": uncovering the clove
• THE "WINE OF THE BEAN": coffee
• SAVED FROM THE "TWO-HEADED SERPENT": the coriander cure
• THE "BITTER BERRY": reclaiming the cranberry
• THE "BILIOUS" COWCUMBER: cool as a cucumber
• HIDDEN PUNCH: cumin’s untold story
• A FINE FEATHERED FRIEND: the wonders of dill
• THE "MAD APPLE": the terrifying eggplant
• THE TRUTH ABOUT FINOCCHIO: fragrant fennel
• THE "STINKING ROSE": the glories of garlic
• "POOR MAN'S MEAT": the lentil
• VIGOR AND VENERY: the story of mint
• THE "HAREN TREE": nutmeg
• "A TASTE AS OLD AS COLD WATER": the story of the olive
• KNOWING YOUR ONIONS
• SWEET FOR SOUR ORANGES
• THE "FRUIT OF ANGELS": the papaya
• FOUND A PEANUT
• GIFT OF THE GODS: the pear
• HOT COMMODITY: a pepper story
• YES, WE HAVE NO ANANAS: the pineapple
• THE PRINCELY PISTACHIO
• PERSEPHONE'S TEMPTATION: the seductive pomegranate
• THE "WHITE TRUFFLE": the perplexing potato
• HUNTING FOR GOLD: the saga of saffron
• THE "PRINCE OF LEAFY GREENS": spinach
• SEX AND THE SINGLE STRAWBERRY
• "CANDY FROM THE FIELD": the sweet potato
• "HOMEGROWN TOMATOES"
• THE SCENT OF VANILLA
• CRACKING THE WALNUT
• "WHAT THE ANGELS EAT": the watermelon
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR