The Nutmeg Trail: Recipes and Stories Along the Ancient Spice Routes

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Spice skills‘ gives guidance on choosing and storing, toasting, tempering, infusing, and smoking spices. ‘ Ground spices‘ shares advice on grinding and blending, fresh spice pastes, rubs and marinades, and finishing spices. We learn how to combine spices and layer flavours to bring different flavour profiles to a dish – sweetness, fragrance, heat, pungency, sourness, earthiness. Ford groups spices by their “ key personalities“, but reminds us that many have other nuances to their overall flavours and aromas. After the personality groups come flavour wheels for 12 core spices including nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, lemongrass and coriander. In ‘ Spice palettes: a journey of flavour“, Ford lists by country or region the core flavour profiles and signature spices that feature in each cuisine, and next is that beautiful map showcasing spice blends across North Africa, the Middle East, and South, East and South East Asia.

Eleanor Ford’s The Nutmeg Trail is an illuminating and inspirational guide to the rich, tumultuous history of the ancient spice routes and how spices not only changed the course of history, but how they influence the food we eat today.” Word of Mouth From humankind's earliest travels, people have followed and sought out the spice routes. These maritime trading trails acted as the central nervous system of the world, enabling the flow of goods and ideas. Beautifully presented, Eleanor Ford's The Nutmeg Trail blends delicious recipes with fascinating spice-trading history and travel writing flair to concoct a book that’s informative, inspirational and bursting with wonderful ways to spice-up your menu…. a spicy slam-dunk of a book.” Love Reading Expert ReviewThe third cookbook by award winning food writer Eleanor Ford, The Nutmeg Trail shares the recipes and stories of how “ centuries of spice trading and cultural diffusion changed the world’s cuisine“. It’s a truly gorgeous book full of gloriously vivid illustrations, richly narrated history, and stories and food writing that bring the past to life. What a deep dive this is into the world of spice. . . . And then the recipes! Recipes which allow the reader to travel from Asia to the Middle East along the spice route, taking in so much flavor and so much context on the way." -Yotam Ottolenghi Hotjar sets this cookie to identify a new user’s first session. It stores a true/false value, indicating whether it was the first time Hotjar saw this user.

Eleanor Ford is a cook and a historian, a culinary detective and, as she says, a gastronomic archaeologist. What a deep dive this is into the world of spice. It’s a deep-dive, a culinary history, a spice library, anatomy and miscellany. And then the recipes! Recipes which allow the reader to travel from Asia to the Middle East along the spice route, taking in so much flavour and so much context on the way. It’s the green coconut hot sauce from Somalia first up for me, followed by the green peppercorn asparagus from Thailand.”– Yotam Ottolenghi The Nutmeg Trail offers a historical account of the spice trade with invaluable advice on the use of culinary spices - how to prepare and combine them, when to introduce them, and what delights to expect. Mouth-watering." John Keay We’ve made three recipes from the book thus far and adored all three, having already made one a second time. The Nutmeg Trail offers a historical account of the spice trade with invaluable advice on the use of culinary spices - how to prepare and combine them, when to introduce them, and what delights to expect.Mouth-watering.” John KeayInThe Nutmeg Trail, Eleanor Ford takes us on a mouth-watering culinary voyage to the fabled ‘spiceries’, those semi-mystical islands of the East Indies. A heady blend of history, adventure and deliciously authentic recipes, this book will make you hungry!” Giles Milton

Eleanor Ford is a cook and a historian, a culinary detective and, as she says, a gastronomic archaeologist. What a deep dive this is into the world of spice. It's a deep-dive, a culinary history, a spice library, anatomy and miscellany. And then the recipes! Recipes which allow the reader to travel from Asia to the Middle East along the spice route, taking in so much flavour and so much context on the way. It's the green coconut hot sauce from Somalia first up for me, followed by the green peppercorn asparagus from Thailand." Yotam OttolenghiIt’s not all about heat, spices can add depth, flavour and layers to cooking, as this wonderful cookbook reveals.” Evening Standard From the spice route map to the lists of magical names like tamarind and cassia, from the culinary history to the recipes, this is a book to inhale, to savour and to return to again and again.” The Travel Book Company Chapters are prefaced with a glorious tiger artwork featuring around it the spices covered in that chapter. I adore these and would happily hang them on my walls! The eclectic collection of recipes from across the world will make the reader want to head straight into the kitchen to conjure up heady meals to share with their family and friends.” Anissa Helou