Spice (overviews & introductions)

Print:

• The Spice Route: A History by John Keay
• Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey by Gary Paul Nabhan
• Tastes of Paradise: A Social History of Spices, Stimulants, and Intoxicants by Wolfgang Schivelbusch, translated by David Jacobson
• The Spice Cookbook by Avanelle Day and Lillie Stuckey

Online:

• “The Lure and Lore of Spices” — The Spice House
• “History of the Spice Trade” — Silk Road Spice Merchant
• “Spices: How the Search for Flavors Influenced Our World” — Yale Global Online

 Introducing Spice: Ancient Spices, Spice Roads and Sake Dean Mahomed

Print:

• The Travels of Dean Mahomet: An Eighteenth-Century Journey through India by Dean Mahomet
• Gold and Spices by Jean Favier and Caroline Higgitt
• Spice: Flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean by Ana Sortun
• Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar: Integration of an East African Commercial Empire Into the World Economy, 1770-1873 by Abdul Sheriff

Online:

• “How the Spice Trade Changed the World” — Live Science
• “The flavor of Kerala – Story of an Ancient Spice” — chintha.com
• “Uncovering Hidden Secrets of an Ancient Spice” — Huffington Post

The Nutmeg Massacres: the Bloody History of the World’s Numbest Spice

Print:

• Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of History by Giles Milton
• Spice: The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner
• The Scents of Eden: A History of the Spice Trade by Charles Corn

Online:

• “No Innocent Spice: The Secret Story Of Nutmeg, Life And Death” by Allison Aubrey – NPR
• “Did the Dutch really trade Manhattan for nutmeg?” by Jane McGrath – HowStuffWorks.com
• “Nutmeg and Mace History” – About.com

Grains of Paradise Lost: How a Delicious Spice Disappeared from the Pantry

Print:

• The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice by Michael Krondl
• Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes and Modern Adaptations by D. Eleanor Scully and Terence Peter Scully
• Taste: The Story of Britain Through Its Cooking by Kate Colquhoun
• Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa by Abena Dove Osseo-Asare

Online:

• “Discovering the Grains of Paradise: Alligator Pepper”
• “Aframomum melegueta (Grains of Paradise) is Not Alligator pepper” — Tropical Biodiversity Part I
• “Aframomum melegueta (Grains of paradise) is not Alligator pepper” — Tropical Biodiversity Part II
• “Don’t Worry Darling, I Have a Giant Fennel” — Salon
• “What’s for Dinner? Dining out in Medieval London” — The Ultimate History Project
• “Did the Romans Drive a Birth-Control Plant to Extinction?” — io9

Spice in the Time of Plague

Print:

• The Elixirs of Nostradamus: Nostradamus’ Original Recipes for Elixirs, Scented Water, Beauty Potions, and Sweetmeats by Knut Boeser
• Amulets and Protection: Pomanders Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies
• Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination by Paul Freedman
• The Pomander Pharmacy in History, Vol. 31, R. Schmitz

Online:

• “Behind the Mask: The Plague Doctor” — Chirurgeon’s Apprentice
• “The Black Death, 1347-1351” — Deviant Art
• “Diseases and Epidemics” — Science Museum
• “Pomander” — Antique Jewelry University
• “Pomanders” — Science Museum
• “Doctors of the Black Death” — Doctor’s Review
• “Amazing ambergris: Why One Man’s Whale Poop is Another’s Medical Gold” — Jackie Rosenhek, Doctor’s Review
• “Scents of the Middle Ages: Uses of the aromas of herbs, spices and resins” — Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Gallow Glass

Gangs of the High Seas: Down with the VOC

Print:

• The Voyage Of John Huyghen Van Linschoten To The East Indies: The First Book, Containing His Description Of The East. Volume 1 by Jan Huygen van Linschoten
• In the Shadow of the Company: The Dutch East India Company and Its Servants in the Period of Its Decline (1740-1796) by Chris Nierstrasz
• Jan Compagnie: The World Of The Dutch East India Company by Dan Sleigh
• In Pursuit of Pepper and Tea: The Story of the Dutch East India Company by Els M. Jacobs

Online:

• “Dutch East India Company (DEIC)/VOC” — South African History Online
• “Sin and Sodomy in the Dutch East Indies” — Peter Murrell, History Today
• “The Dutch East Indies Company – The First 100 Years” — Gresham College Lecture

Hot Hot Hot: Why Our Brain is Seduced by Spice

Print:

• Role of Capsaicin in Oxidative Stress and Cancer (Diet and Cancer) by Sanjay K. Srivastava
• Capsaicin in the Study of Pain by John N. Wood and Peter Jenner (Editors)
• The Pepper Scale: A Cool Primer to the Scoville Scale and the Hottest Peppers in the World by Matt Bray
• Cooking with Napalm: Your Guide to Creating Delicious Food Using the World’s Hottest Peppers by Ernie S. Irwin and Christopher J. Watson

Online:

• “Unravelling the Mystery of Capsaicin: A Tool to Understand and Treat Pain” — Pharmacological Reviews
• “World’s Top 10 Hottest Peppers”
• “The Brain & the Actions of Cocaine, Opiates, and Marijuana” — National Institute on Drug Abuse
• “The Science of Heat”
• “Why Some like it Hot: Chilies Aren’t Just Habit-Forming in Their Own Warm Way, They Can Be Painkillers Too” — Chicago Tribune
• “A Matter of Taste” —Brain Facts

For each salon, we  invite our speakers to share the resources and interesting reading they came across in researching their talk, so that we can all dig more deeply. This reading list was compiled by Odd Salon with Tamar Baskind, Frederic Lightning Leist, Paige Lawrence, Daen de Leon, John Adams, and Kaila Angello. Thank you!