Food and Drink: the cultural context is the first text to provide a comprehensive and academically rigorous introduction to a range of key themes in the field of food, drink and culture. Essential reading for post graduates, academics, professionals.

Offering a panoramic view of the history and culture of food and drink in America with fascinating entries on everything from the smell of asparagus to the history of White Castle, and the origin of Bloody Marys to jambalaya, the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink provides a concise, authoritative, and exuberant look at this modern American obsession. Ideal for the food scholar and food enthusiast alike, it is equally appetizing for anyone fascinated by Americana, capturing our culture and history through what we love most--food! Building on the highly praised and deliciously browseable two-volume compendium the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, this new work serves up everything you could ever want to know about American consumables and their impact on popular culture and the culinary world. Within its pages for example, we learn that Lifesavers candy owes its success to the canny marketing idea of placing the original flavor, mint, next to cash registers at bars. Patrons who bought them to mask the smell of alcohol on their breath before heading home soon found they were just as tasty sober and the company began producing other flavors. Edited by Andrew Smith, a writer and lecturer on culinary history, the Companion serves up more than just trivia however, including hundreds of entries on fast food, celebrity chefs, fish, sandwiches, regional and ethnic cuisine, food science, and historical food traditions. It also dispels a few commonly held myths. Veganism, isn't simply the practice of a few "hippies," but is in fact wide-spread among elite athletic circles. Many of the top competitors in the Ironman and Ultramarathon events go even further, avoiding all animal products by following a strictly vegan diet. Anyone hungering to know what our nation has been cooking and eating for the last three centuries should own the Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink.

This three-volume encyclopedia on the history of American food and beverages serves as an ideal companion resource for social studies and American history courses, covering topics ranging from early American Indian foods to mandatory nutrition information at fast food restaurants. The expression "you are what you eat" certainly applies to Americans, not just in terms of our physical health, but also in the myriad ways that our taste preferences, eating habits, and food culture are intrinsically tied to our society and history. This standout reference work comprises two volumes containing more than 600 alphabetically arranged historical entries on American foods and beverages, as well as dozens of historical recipes for traditional American foods; and a third volume of more than 120 primary source documents. Never before has there been a reference work that coalesces this diverse range of information into a single set. The entries in this set provide information that will transform any American history research project into an engaging learning experience. Examples include explanations of how tuna fish became a staple food product for Americans, how the canning industry emerged from the Civil War, the difference between Americans and people of other countries in terms of what percentage of their income is spent on food and beverages, and how taxation on beverages like tea, rum, and whisky set off important political rebellions in U.S. history.

Amid growing interest in food and drink as an academic discipline in recent years, this volume is the first to provide insight into eating and drinking by focusing on what the ancients themselves actually had to say about this important topic. A thorough and varied sourcebook, it is structured thematically and is a unique asset to any course on food and foodways. The chronological scope of the material extends from Greece of the 8th century BCE to the Late Roman Empire of the 4th century CE. Each chapter consists of an introduction along with a concluding bibliography of suggested readings. The excerpts themselves, rendered in clear and readable English that remains faithful to the original Latin or Greek, are set in their proper social and historical context, with the author of each passage fully identified. An unparalleled compilation of essential source material for Classics courses and with a wide range of evidence, drawing upon literary, inscriptional, legal and religious testimony, Food and Drink in Antiquity will also be particularly well suited to the interdisciplinary focus of modern food studies.

Scholars across the humanities and social sciences are increasingly examining the importance of consumption to changing notions of local, regional, national and supranational identity in Europe. As part of this interest, anthropologists, historians, sociologists and others have paid particular attention to the roles which food and drink have played in the construction of local, regional and national identity in Europe. This volume provides the first multidisciplinary look at the contributions which food and alcohol make to contemporary European identities, including the part they play in processes of European integration and Europeanization. It provides theoretically informed ethnographic and historical case studies of transformations and continuity in social and cultural patterns in the production and consumption of European foods and drinks, in order to explore how eating and drinking have helped to construct various local, regional and national identities in Europe. Of particular note in this volume is its attention to how food and drink intersect with recent attempts to foster greater European integration, in part through the recognition and support of common and diverse European cultures and identities.

In Delicious Prose: Reading the Tale of Tobit with Food and Drink, Naomi S.S. Jacobs explores how the numerous references to food, drink, and their consumption within The Book of Tobit help tell its story, promote righteous deeds and encourage resistance against a hostile dominant culture. Jacobs’ commentary includes up-to-date analyses of issues of translation, text-criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism, and issues of class and gender. Jacobs situates Tobit within a wide range of ancient writings sacred to Jews and Christians as well as writings and customs from the Ancient Near East, Ugarit, Greece, Rome, including a treasure trove of information about ancient foodways and medicine.