SALT, SUGAR AND SPICE

Briefly, the whys and wherefores of salt in ancient and medieval times (including various evaporation processes and early mining methods) and how it is mined and made today (with a postscript on evaporation from Great Salt Lake); how sugarcane was grown on plantations in the past, how it is cultivated and refined today and how the sugar beet became an alternative source (via Napoleon's urgent need). The section on spices is first a history of the spice trade to the present, noting the attempt of Arab traders to retain their monopoly, the attempt of spice producers to prevent transport of the seeds; secondly, it's a catalogue of thirty-three common spices (including herbs and condiments) telling what each is like, sometimes where it is grown, usually how it is used. No other book provides quite the same coverage: Elizabeth K. Cooper's And Everything Nice: The Story of Sugar, Spice and Flavoring omits salt, includes chocolate in its many forms and generally focuses on the lore of a comparatively few seasonings; other books treat salt or sugar separately and in greater detail; spices per se are also examined more fully elsewhere. But this will be all many kids want to know, presented with Mr. Buehr's customary clarity and concision; it's particularly good on technical processes, on cause and effect.