The Pepper Trail: History & Recipes from Around the World

By Jean Andrews

Andrews, who has been called "the first lady of Chile peppers," "the godmother of the chile world," as well as her own registered trademark "The Pepper Lady," follows the spice trade and early movements of capsicums along the spice roads, through much of Turkey and the Middle East, Africa and Monsoon Asia (India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia) plus the Szechuan and Hunan provinces in China and the Silk Route. This latest offering includes previously undiscovered facts, including the etymology of the word "cayenne." The first spice to be used by man, peppers are currently hot in Mexico, Guatemala, much of the Caribbean, most of Africa, parts of south America, India, Bhutan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, southwestern China, the Balkans, the United States-Louisiana, Texas, and the Southwest-plus Korea. A chapter on what makes a pepper a pepper includes detailed descriptions and illustrations of twenty-seven separate varieties of the Capsicum, as well as miscellaneous cultivars and detailed directions on working with fresh and dried peppers, including how to choose and use them, and how to care for them. The recipes include those of such nationally known chefs as Mark Miller, Reed Clemons, Miguel Ravago, Stephen Pyles, Jon Jividen, Paula Lambert (Mozzarella Company), Robert del Grande, Pat Teepatiganond, Cecilia Chiang, Elmar E. Prambs, Jerry di Vecchio, Paul Prudhomme, Dean Fearing, Amal Naj, Justin Wilson, and John Ash, among many others.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574410709
• ISBN13: 9781574410709
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: University of North Texas Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 3.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 9.4" x 12.4"

Customer Reviews

A great book for the well educated chile-enthusiast!

Having traveled quite a bit in my life I've noticed how cultures all around the world prize their locally grown chile peppers. From India to Africa and from China to Cuba, they all have chile peppers that they believe are the best in the world. I am not sure that most people (even those in the afore mentioned countries with the expection of Cuba) realize that chiles are a new world agricultural find. Columbus brought them back to Spain then the Spanish and the Portuguese spread them across the globe. I have read several books about the history of capsicum (the botanical word for the family) but none that went into as much detail as this one did. At times I felt that the author spent too much time with the minute details of where particular species of capsicum came from and where and when they arrived in other parts of the world. However, for the chile enthusiast who wants to know it all this is a very well researched book. As always, I am dissappointed when a book like this one does not use photographs. The Pepper Trail does have some drawings and graphics but I would like it better if there were some photos of the peppers and of the dishes that were included in the recipe section. All in all I enjoyed this book and give it 4 stars.