Herbs Spices & Flavourings by Tom Stobart – review
Herbs Spices & Flavourings is another winner from Grub Street – the publisher celebrated for its books for the serious food lover and those who appreciate quality culinary literature.
First published in 1970, Tom Stobart’s award-winning Herbs Spices & Flavourings is considered by many to be the authoritative work on tastes and flavours and where they come from. Here we have a veritable lexicon of over 400 different herbs, spices, and flavourings from around the world.
Perhaps Herbs Spices & Flavourings is even more pertinent now than when it was first published all those decades ago. These days we have access to more of these ingredients in our high street supermarkets. We travel much more and have actually smelt and tasted dishes with these as the key ingredient.
Considerable research
This is a small book but it has the persona of a gastronomic Tardis. Tom Stobart offers the scientific, botanical, native and popular names for all these plants and ingredients. His considerable research makes this a work that will be a great support to all cooks who find themselves confused by the difference between, say, fresh coriander and the seeds of that herb. Ginger, when used grated from the root, is indispensable in many Asian dishes; but in North Africa we see ginger more often used as a dried powder. The author discusses the history and transportation of this popular flavouring.
Herbs Spices & Flavourings isn’t a full-colour volume with images of exotic dishes steaming on colourful platters with a backdrop of a swaying palm. There are no interior shots of rustic kitchens with a strutting chicken in the foreground. Those pictures might be beautifully executed but wouldn’t really add much to the topic of ‘flavour’. This book does perfectly well without such frills. It will be adored as a kitchen essential and a cook’s companion.
Herbs Spices & Flavourings
Published by: Grub Street Publishing
Author: Tom Stobart
Language: English
Price: £14.99
ISBN-10: 191069049X
ISBN-13: 978-1910690499
Read more articles about herbs and gardening for food here
Cookbook review by Chrissie Walker © 2018
