The Oxford Companions
Reviews by Barbara Santich
Jancis Robinson, ed., The Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), Pp. xxvii, 820, includes index, $120.00.
Alan Davidson, ed., The Oxford Companion to Food (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), Pp. xviii, 892, includes index, $120.00.
If your domain is the history of food and drink, your bookshelves will probably display an amazingly wide range of Dewey numbers, from 291 (mythology) and 612 (nutrition) to 641 (cookbooks) and 940 (history of private life). While the two Oxford Companions are in no way intended to replace such a wealth of words, these reference volumes, between them containing more than 6000 entries within the width of about ten centimetres, virtually constitute an entire food and wine library.
The Oxford Companion to Wine is, as the name implies, more narrowly focused than the Food Companion, though this might merely reflect my own interests. Despite its leaning towards France and French wines, it deals admirably with newer and far less traditional wine ventures in China, which has its own indigenous vine species (although most wines have been made from imported varieties of Vitis vinifera) and Kenya, where it is possible to produce three vintages every two years. About 800 grape varieties are described, in more or less detail according to their reputation and global significance, and often with their family histories; cabernet sauvignon explicitly acknowledges its parentage (cabernet franc and sauvignon blanc) while shiraz (syrah) is presumed to be the progeny of dureza and mondeuse blanche. Coverage of viticultural and oenological terms and practices is similarly encyclopaedic.
The appeal of this book, however, and its potential usefulness, is in no way confined to wine industry professionals. Wine amateurs will appreciate entries for particular wines and wine styles such as spumante, eiswein and blush, that peculiarly American aberration, 'sweet, vaguely aromatic and faintly fizzy' and differing from rosé 'in ethos rather than substance', as well as descriptions of the various appellations and guides to vintages throughout the world. Browsers, meanwhile, will find fascination in entries on wine in classical art and in literature, monks and monasteries, drinking vessels, the symposium and Prohibition.
Alan Davidson's Companion is a meaty tome, rich in flavour and dense in texture. Its topic, food (implicitly including drinks) refers to anything and everything, whether raw ingredient or prepared dish or product, which is eaten (or drunk) anywhere in the world, or has been consumed anywhere at any time. This vast scope allows for an astonishing diversity of entries, from carrageen to caterpillars, harissa to herring, syllabub to suet, zebu to zabaglione. While most are by Alan Davidson, more than 50 additional contributors write on their particular areas of specialisation. Charles Perry, for example, describes the origins and history of buran, an eggplant dish which took its name from that of the wife of a ninth-century caliph of Baghdad and evolved into a whole family of dishes throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East; Andrew Dalby discusses Roman garum and its manufacture; and Laura Mason writes on fondant and fudge.
While the entries, in the main, refer to specific ingredients and dishes, the information goes far beyond simple description, often including origin, history and etymology as well as interesting anecdotes ('hush puppies' are said to have been named by hunters who would throw one of these fritters to their dogs to keep them quiet) and details of how to make, capture or procure the item. These are complemented by a diversity of other entries covering culinary terms and techniques, descriptions of national and regional cuisines, explanation of scientific terms and processes (from acids and additives to vitamins and yeasts), and general topics such as cannibalism, markets, soul food and white trash cooking. In addition, individual entries treat a sample of the most significant and influential cooks and cookbook authors, and the culinary literature of England, France, Italy and Spain.
Neither book is inexpensive, but as blue-chip investments costing of less than twelve cents per 1000 words, they're absolute bargains.
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