Garlic, an Edible Biography

Featuring over 100 delicious, garlic-laden recipes, this culinary biography offers a tour through the colorful history of one of the world’s most timeless ingredients
 
Garlic is the Lord Byron of produce, a lusty rogue that charms and seduces you but runs off before dawn, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Called everything from rustic cure-all to Russian penicillin, Bronx vanilla and Italian perfume, garlic has been loved, worshipped, and despised throughout history. No writer has quite captured the epic, roving story of garlic—until now.

While this book does not claim that garlic saved civilization (though it might cure whatever ails you), it does take us on a grand tour of its fascinating role in history, medicine, literature, and art; its controversial role in bigotry, mythology, and superstition; and its indispensable contribution to the great cuisines of the world. And just to make sure your appetite isn’t slighted, Garlic offers over 100 recipes featuring the beloved ingredient.“Everything you need to know about the most celebrated, and vilified, of stinky roots.”—The New York Times

“Garlic lovers unite and delight in Robin Cherry’s splendid and comprehensive edible biography of garlic. No other member of the Allium family has been as maligned and rebuffed throughout history as this stinky bulb. Yet, its powerful medicinal benefits have been touted for centuries. This masterful work integrates the history, legends, lore, and even vampire tales, along with an inspired selection of recipes from condiments to desserts. A must have book for a cook’s library."—Diane Morgan, author of Roots: The Definitive Compendium

“I have always loved the diversity of flavors that garlic adds to a dish, depending on how you cook it.  This lovely historical and international tour of the many faces of garlic, with enticing recipes, is a wonderful addition to anyone interested in learning to use garlic in more ways in their kitchen.”—Tama Matsuoka Wong, forager for Daniel, NYC and author of Foraged Flavor
Travel writer and historian ROBIN CHERRY is the author of Catalog: The Illustrated History of Mail-Order Shopping. She was the publisher of Organic Style books and the circulation director of Organic Gardening and Organic Style magazines at Rodale. She has written for The Atlantic, Travel + Leisure, Dwell, Salon, and many other publications and websites.