This history of the use of anchovies in European and American cuisine is, in many ways, an education in related subjects as varied as industrial food production in the Roman Empire, the rise of chefs and cookbooks in France, and the shaping of British tastes by colonial expansion.

Christopher Beckman, who studies material culture and subsistence patterns, explores vacillating attitudes toward the powerfully flavorful fish. Much of his evidence is drawn from cookbooks.  Even those who mysteriously scorn anchovies will discover much about influential early texts in many countries, including some which have not been translated into English.

More broadly, differing attitudes toward anchovies become a reminder the social construction of ideas about taste: are they scorned because they are abundant and therefore inexpensive, or prized because of their power to work behind the scenes to amplify flavor?

Engagingly written, offering enough context to make sense broader scope of history against which the account unfolds, this is both accessible and serious. You'll encounter citations from Shakespeare, a fulmination by the author of Pinocchio, and Irma Rombauer's recipe for wrapping pickles with anchovies.

Hardcover. Maps and black-and-white photographs.