Acorns are nuts from oak trees. There are really, from a food aspect, two types of acorns: Spanish and North African acorns, and all the rest. The acorns most worth bothering with are considered to be those of the oak tree known variously as holly, holm or ilex oak (Quercus ilex var rotundifolia — aka…
Ancient Greece
Almonds
Almonds are members of the peach family. The tree blossoms in the spring before it grows leaves.There are two kinds of Almonds, sweet and bitter. An Almond, technically, isn’t a nut — it’s the pit of a fruit related to peaches, plums and apricots. The Almond fruit is small, green and has soft, velvety fuzz…
Anchovy
Anchovies are tiny silver fish, about 3 to 8 inches (7.5 to 20 cm) long, from the Mediterranean, especially the Basque area of Spain. Their lower jaw is shorter than their upper jaw.The fish are washed in a brine solution, then packed whole, heads and all, into large barrels and salted. They are allowed to…
Anise
Anise Seed © Randal Oulton Anise, a member of the carrot and parsley family, is an annual plant growing about 45 cm (18 inches) high with small white flowers that later produce seeds. What Anise shares in common with fennel, Star Anise, caraway, and liquorice is “anethole”, a major component in the essential oils of…
Apples
McIntosh Apples © Denzil Green Apple trees grow best in cooler climates. This means that they’ll do well in most of Europe, in most of North America, but it also means that they’ll do well in Australia and New Zealand. This leads to one of the wonders of supermarket life in our modern age. From…
Archestratus: A gourmand in the world of Classical Greece
Archestratus was a Greek gourmand who lived around 350 BC in Sicily. Though probably too upper-class to have been a cook himself, he was an opinionated food critic who made his preferences and dislikes very clear.
Artichokes
Globe Artichokes © Denzil Green Artichokes are thistles that haven’t blossomed yet. Inside a full-grown artichoke is the “choke”, which is the flower inside that has yet to come out. If the choke were permitted to break out in bloom, it would make a blue flower about 18 cm wide (7 inches.) You eat the…
Asparagus
Asparagus © Paula Trites Asparagus is a member of the lily family. The plants take three years of growing before they begin to produce marketable shoots, but the plant is perennial and will last up to 20 years, some say 30 to 50. In spring, on a warm day, you can almost watch the Asparagus…
Athenaeus of Naucratis: Gourmand and Food Writer
Athenaeus was a classical Greek gourmand who recorded culinary information about the incredible interconnected, cosmopolitan Romano-Graeco world of the Mediterranean in classical times.
Barley
A member of the grass family, barley grows from around 45 cm to 1 metre (1 ½ to 3 feet) tall. The barley grains are produced by the flowers which grow at the top in spikes. Historically, humans have been very dependent on Barley as a food crop, but that has changed. Of the barley…
Bay Leaf
Dried Bay Leaves © Denzil Green Bay trees can be kept trimmed into hedges or bushes, or in a warm Mediterranean climate can grow quite tall, up to 60 feet (18 metres.) The tree is an evergreen — its thick, smooth, shiny dark-green leaves stay on the tree all year round. If you live in…
Beans
The word “bean” can refer to several things. Generally it is used to refer to a type of food obtained from the legume family of plants. Sometimes it is used colloquially in the broader sense of legumes such as lentils and peas; other times it refers specifically to actual beans — anything from dried beans…
Beet
Mixed beets with beet leaves © Michelle Mattern Beets are a root vegetable whose tubers are round with a high sugar content. Typically, one thought of beets as red, inside and out, and round. Now there are varieties that are tapered, white, yellow and even striped, such as the new chiogga beet. Sugar beets, which…
Blackberries
A blackberry is a small, soft, seedy fruit that ripens to black. Culinarily, we refer to it and treat it as a berry, though botanically, it isn’t actually a true berry, but rather an agglomeration of individual berries known as a “drupelet.” Cultivation and harvesting of blackberries In England and in some parts of North…
Bread
Bread is a carbohydrate-rich food baked from a dough made from flour (typically wheat flour) mixed with a liquid, typically water or milk. Bread can be used as a food item in itself, eaten out of hand, or used as an ingredient in other dishes such as sandwiches, bread pudding, bread sauce, etc. See also:…
Broad Beans (aka fava beans)
Broad beans (aka fava / faba beans) have been grown since classical times. Fans consider them the meatiest-tasting beans. Some people may be allergic to them.
Bustards
Bustards are very large birds. They have longer bodies than turkeys, weigh up to 30 pounds (13 ½ kilos) and have a wing span up to 7 feet (2 metres.) Despite the impressive wing span, they are not great flyers and can only fly for short periods. To compensate, they evolved into good runners and…
Capers
Capers © Denzil Green Capers are salty, pickled little “vegetables” that range in size from that of peppercorn to the size of the tip of a little finger. They are actually unopened flower buds from a bush called “Capparis Spinosa”, which is grown in Mediterranean countries and in California. The buds must be picked by…
Caraway
Caraway is a member of the carrot family, related to Anise, Cumin, Dill, Parsley and Fennel. The Caraway plant is mostly grown for its seeds, but some people say that the young leaves of the plant are good in a soup, and in earlier times, the plant was actually prized for the root, which was…
Carob
Carob as we now think of it in the West is a dark brown bean flour ground from carob beans. In the Western food world, it has been promoted as a chocolate substitute since at least the 1970s. The carob tree is an evergreen tree which grows up to about 15 metres tall (50 feet)….
Cassia
Cassia is a cinnamon substitute that has been used for thousands of years. Cassia has a sharper taste than cinnamon, and is a dark reddish-brown, while true cinnamon is tan-coloured. It comes from China and Indonesia, while cinnamon mostly comes from Ceylon. Many North Americans have actually developed a taste preference for Cassia, as that…
Celery
Celery is a green vegetable grown for its stalks and leaves. Its most popular use is to impart its flavour to a dish.
Celery Seed
Celery Seed © Denzil Green Celery seed doesn’t actually come from the same celery plant that we eat. The ancestor of celery is a plant called “smallage” or “Wild Celery.” It is still grown in its own right in Asia, where they prefer the stronger flavour. From smallage, two descendants evolved with the help of…
Cereals
Cereals are grains such as wheat, rye and barley. They are a form of caloric nutrition that can be preserved easily for the winters, and supply vital dietary fiber.