Reddit reviews Food in History

Upvoted. The Great Game is a page-turning winner's version whirlwind tour of the geopolitics of the 1800s. It's also my number 1.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Game-Struggle-Central-Kodansha/dp/1568360223/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312336926&sr=1-1

Reay Tannahill's "Food in History" is completely different but also very very good. She's cobbled together a lively survey of diets through the ages. When you've finished this book, you'll have accidentally learned what happened, who did it and in what order - while you were distracted by recipes, bad and weird.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-History-Reay-Tannahill/dp/0517884046

For historic, hilarious and educational fiction, go for "Flashman and the Redskins" to begin with. (If you like it, I'd go for "Flashman at The Charge" next and then his version of the "Great Game".)

http://www.amazon.com/Flashman-Redskins-George-MacDonald-Fraser/dp/0452264871/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312337084&sr=1-1

Food in History

In the Devil's Garden

Both of these are really interesting. I especially liked In the Devil's Garden, which is about the history of forbidden foods.

What's the book about spices you're reading? That sounds interesting as well...

I took an ethnobotany course in college which covered the natural history of perhaps 200 of the world's most important crops, but there wasn't a text that covered them all. Instead, the professor handed out a half ream of material he'd copied from a couple dozen books/journals in his library.

I don't know of a concise reference that fulfills your request, but the following books might be of some help. Wikipedia is often a decent source if you input each plant/animal separately.

Food by Waverly Root.

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee. This is food science, but it contains a lot of natural history.

Food in History by Reay Tannahill.

Food in History is a really cool book that highlights how food has influenced civilizations and vice versa. It's a pretty interesting read.

Homie, you need to read "food in history". it's amazing. I've read it cover to cover twice.
https://www.amazon.com/Food-History-Reay-Tannahill/dp/0517884046/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524691262&sr=8-1&keywords=food+in+history

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0517884046/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1510937827&sr=8-12&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=a+history+of+food
This is a much petter read on the subject

Unrelated but, I'm currently savoring Reay Tannahill's Food in History. I think I would really enjoy a world history of music from the beginning of known time type of book, if anyone has any personal recommendations. I think an accessible book that covered human animal mimickry, through bone flutes, through harpsicords, pianos, banjos, moog synthesizers, etc might be interesting if it was well researched and well written.

Not necessarily for recipes but you can get some interesting ideas...Food in History and Pepys at Table are 2 of my favorites.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-History-Reay-Tannahill/dp/0517884046

https://www.amazon.com/Pepys-Table-Seventeenth-Century-Recipes/dp/0713524421

I read this a million years ago in college. I loved it.

https://www.amazon.com/Food-History-Reay-Tannahill/dp/0517884046