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I am requesting titles about food, but that are NOT cook books. The classic example is probably John McPhee's Oranges. There are no recipes and no juice suggestions. It is about growing oranges, about the orange industry. Big Orange, if you want to adapt a modern phrase. I recently read one about the olive oil industry. Big Olive.

Anyway, the books are not especially uncommon, but they are hard to find because they do not easily fit into a classification system. They could be agricultural books or business profiles or even science books -- but they are not cook books. They offer stories behind the food.

Any ideas? My notepad is ready.

Eager Magic

I am hoping that some of these are what you have in mind, I noticed you hadn’t gotten any recommendations and figured I would give it a try.



On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee


Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals- Michael Pollan ( his Botany of Desire is good too, but not a food book)


The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods through the Year- Georgann Eubanks


Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking- Samin Nosrat


Eating Animals- Jonathan Safran Foer


The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science- J. Kenji Lopez

Don't Try This at Home: Cooking Catastrophies from the World's Greatest Chefs was an entertaining an easy read. It is a series of short stories, which makes it easy to put down and pick up. When I went to culinary school, one of my fellow students recommended it. Hope you enjoy.

Mead: The Libations, Legends, and Lore of History's Oldest Drink by Fred Minnick sounds good plus The New IPA by Scott Janish. Some others to try include The Backyard Vintner by Jim Law, Incredible Pomegranate: Plant and Fruit by Richard Ashton and Growing Your Own Tea Garden by Jodi Helmer.

The China Study by T. Colin Campbell