Venerable Vegetable Gets its Due ~~ Potatoes Gone Wild~~
Written: Dec 11 '06 (Updated Dec 11 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's about potatoes. Fascinating and informative.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: This is a wonderful book. Read it to learn about the potato saga and many uncommon varieties.
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| nagels's Full Review: The Great Potato Book |
The Merry Wives of Windsor, V, 5:
FALSTAFF:” My doe with the black scut! Let the sky rain POTATOES. Let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves, hail kissing-comfits and snow erin goes; let there come a tempest of provocation, I will shelter me here.”
The Great Potato Bookis an apt title, for what could a potato book be if not great. This fortuitous food has sustained man for centuries and has existed for thousands of years. We learn in this book’s extremely informative introduction that the potato probably grew wild along the Chilean coast thirteen thousand years ago and was cultivated in the Andes more than seven thousand years ago. Potatoes flourished where corn would not grow. Florence Fabricant goes on in her tasty treatise to trace the history of this venerable vegetable and document the development of its present popularity and spread from Peru to Europe and circuitously to North America.
Contents
The Potato and its Past From the High Andes to the World
Potatoes Today
Potato Prejudices, Then and Now (Thank goodness the potato has persevered and thrived despite the prejudices and injustices heaped upon it.)
Buying and Storing Potatoes
Preparing Potatoes
The last part of the book contains sections on white potatoes, gold potatoes, red potatoes, blue and purple potatoes, and sweet potatoes. In each segment we learn about various potato varieties, common and uncommon. Ms. Fabricant relates spud facts about each, details the size and appearance of each, and follow with a specific variety dedicated recipe. Some of the 30 plus potato breeds featured in this book are : Katahdin and Kennebec (grown in Maine), Maris Piper (Belgium), Russet, Bintje(Dutch), Carola, Charlotte(French), German Butterball, Papa Amarilla(South American), Peanut, Ratte, and Russian Banana.
A few of the mouth watering spud recipes shared by the author are: Peanut Potatoes and Steak with Asian Marinade, Corn and Potato Chowder, Silken Potato Puree, Mussel and Potato Salad, Potato and Onion Focaccia, and Potato and Almond Cake.
Many if not most of the varieties of the potatoes featured in this book are not available in the local grocery store. The author includes addresses of companies who sell these uncommon potato varieties online. I’ve found the purple potatoes and the fingerlings at our neighborhood Safeway, but they’re only occasional spudophile treats, not staples.
A Few Potato Nuggets from the book
Every French citizen consumes an average of 275 pounds of potatoes per year.
Incan units of time were correlated to how long it took potatoes to cook.
Potatoes and tomatoes are members of the deadly nightshade family and once thought to be poisonous.
Potatoes are rich in Vitamin C.
The number one potato producing country in the world is China.
99 percent of the potatoes grown in Idaho are russet.
Badly stored potatoes can develop toxic alkaloids indicated by a greenish tinge.
In the 17th century French priests thought potatoes caused leprosy, and some European Protestants considered potatoes an aphrodisiac.
Don’t store potatoes in a bin with onions.
And…
This really is a fascinating book, even for one not obsessed with potatoes like some are. I especially enjoyed learning of obscure species and, of course, looking at the many vivid potato photographs. The cover picture is especially striking and noteworthy.
This book may not be suitable for children because it contains photographs of UNDRESSED potatoes.
The Great Potato Book is an oddly sized 10.3 by 4.5 by .5 inches, long and relatively narrow like a russet. Because of this configuration and tight binding it’s not easy to keep the book open on any given page. At the slightest slip or relaxation of the fingers the book will close. Use of a bookmark while reading this book is highly recommended.
Seeking out and reading this book is recommended also.
148 Pages
25,319 words
most frequently used word - potato
For anyone still here, I end with some famous potato related quotes from the great writer Fakespeare
“Give me my Potato; and, ere he shall fry,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of dishware so fine
That all the world will be in love with bites,
And pay no worship to the buttered bread.”
"O Potato, Potato! Wherefore art thou Potato?
Deny thy carbos and refuse thy name!
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Carbuless."
What's in a name? That which we call a spud
By any other name would taste as neat
So Potato would, were he not Potato called,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Potato, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
See, how she leans her lips upon her fork!
O that I were a tater upon that fork,
That I might touch those lips.
Dear Julie-ate, thou must know I have peelings for you.
Thanks to Amy for adding this spudacious book to Epinions.
Recommended:
Yes
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