Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. It's a look at world history regards to salt, which sounds lame, right? Well no, because salt is so absolutely necessary for food preservation (pre refrigerators) the entire world turned on salt. It was to the pre-refrigeration world what oil is to us. One suggestion: read the book with google maps open. It's so much better when you're looking at maps to exactly where these places are in relation to each other to understand the wars and trade kerfuffles that go on.
Another good nonfiction book is Baking Powder Wars. It gets into the absolute madness that revolved around the creation, marketing, legislating, and law suits of baking powder. Another bland thing that completely shook the way we make food and in particular changed the way Americans and Canadians eat. Why do American's have a crazy sweet tooth? Turns out that's mostly due the fact that we went apeshit over baking powder and now wives could make a cake every day. So they did. LOL Though I will say, Baking Powder Wars is a drier read than Salt, it's still good.
no subject
Also, I may have some book recs you may enjoy.
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. It's a look at world history regards to salt, which sounds lame, right? Well no, because salt is so absolutely necessary for food preservation (pre refrigerators) the entire world turned on salt. It was to the pre-refrigeration world what oil is to us. One suggestion: read the book with google maps open. It's so much better when you're looking at maps to exactly where these places are in relation to each other to understand the wars and trade kerfuffles that go on.
Another good nonfiction book is Baking Powder Wars. It gets into the absolute madness that revolved around the creation, marketing, legislating, and law suits of baking powder. Another bland thing that completely shook the way we make food and in particular changed the way Americans and Canadians eat. Why do American's have a crazy sweet tooth? Turns out that's mostly due the fact that we went apeshit over baking powder and now wives could make a cake every day. So they did. LOL Though I will say, Baking Powder Wars is a drier read than Salt, it's still good.