Buy Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)

This book is a thorough, though sometimes dry (insert your own pun here), account of how orange juice came to be a product marketed as quite pure but in many senses actually anything but.

It makes for an interesting case study of one corner of our incredibly industrialized food system. The author seems quite fascinated by the regulatory hearings which led especially to the current state of affairs with respect to "not-for-concentrated" orange juice; the reader feels distinctly less fascinated than the author.

One thing of interest is precisely the lack of conclusions drawn. Yes, we conclude, orange juice is quite unlike the orange in the advertisements with the straw sticking straight out of it. And, yes, the way it came to be what it is today came from complex chemical, industrial, and legal processes. But there's also not any particular reason to think that these processes are dangerous or unhealthful -- just dishonest. So what, if anything, is to be done? The author deliberately refuses to answer.Get more detail about Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice (Yale Agrarian Studies Series).

Purchase Raising the Bar: Better Drinks, Better Entertaining

Nick Mautone has done a fabulous job in writing this book. It offers those of us that have a very limited bar vocabulary the abiility to create a vast variety of fabulous offerings. He also enlightens you with detail of the tools and ingredients you need to have on hand in order to make them. I have several books that I have used for this purpose in the past, but this is the best and I highly recommend it for everyone that entertains. The author also offers nonalcoholic recipes, hors d'oeuvres, punches, holiday warmers and summer mixes. It's a must! Here's to you Nick!
Will Jones
Rocklin, CA Raising the Bar: Better Drinks, Better EntertainingGet more detail about Raising the Bar: Better Drinks, Better Entertaining.

Order Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Gives an in-depth looking at beer making in the middle ages - before and after the discovery of hops. Academic in tone, the study looks at the impact the beer trade had on different locations in Europe with a heavy emphasis on the Netherlands. Get more detail about Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Where To Buy The Virginia Housewife: Or Methodical Cook: A Facsimile of an Authentic Early American Cookbook

Tjis is an excellent addition to any cookbook rack.There are very easy to use recipes in this book,even for today.it writes in 1800's grammar,but is still an easy read.It has already helped me make pear preserves,and Im sure it will help me more in the future!Get more detail about The Virginia Housewife: Or Methodical Cook: A Facsimile of an Authentic Early American Cookbook.

Shop For Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection

The title of this book is a little misleading, the book does cover selecting, building, and managing wine. However, this information only acocunts for about 1/4 of the book. The rest of the book talks about wine in general. The cellaring chapters were very detailed and answered all of my questions. The other 3/4 of the book was interesting and covered your basic intro to wine information. If you want to know more about wine, or are looking for a complete guide on different ways to cellar wine, then this book is for you. Get more detail about Cellaring Wine: A Complete Guide to Selecting, Building, and Managing Your Wine Collection.

The Joy of Drinking

"THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION claims that a moderate beer drinker-whatever that means-swallows 11 percent of his dietary protein needs, 12 percent of the carbohydrates, 9 percent of essential phosphorous, 7 percent of his riboflavin, and 5 percent of niacin.

Should he go on to immoderate beer drinking, he becomes a walking vitamin pill."
- THE JOY OF DRINKING p. 15

In this, yet another wonderful, though too short (148 pp.), book, Barbara Holland again informs and entertains the reader. This time with arcane bits of information about drink, drinking, and drinkers from the beginnings of civilization's discovery of the warmly pleasant effects of fermented fruit and grains on the body and soul to modern man's search for the perfect martini, with her customary intelligence and wit.

I've only read two other books by Ms. Holland, WHEN ALL THE WORLD WAS YOUNG and ENDANGERED PLEASURES: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences, but have come to really enjoy her way with words.

I wholeheartedly recommend this little book to anyone who has ever enjoyed a drink of anything containing alcohol, from ale to the vodkatini.
Get more detail about The Joy of Drinking.

Spice & Ice Review

Have only tried autumn and winter recipes so far, but they've been home runs. Big hits at our last two parties. Simple, clear directions. The spiced simple syrups are much esier to make then I had feared. Get more detail about Spice & Ice.