The effects of fire, water, air, and earth upon what we eat are the subject of Michael Pollan's toothsome inquiry into the history of modern food.

Former New York Times food critic Sam Sifton comes to the overburdened holiday chef's rescue. Download it now and reap the rewards next week.

Her full name is Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, but millions of well-fed fans know her simply as Lidia, the genius at the center of such shows as Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen. Her latest cookbook offers her patented combination of simplicity, full-bodied flavor, and ease of preparation. "Ziti with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage" will quickly become one of your nightly staples whenever comfort food is in demand.

The farmer's market aside, do you know where the grapes on your table came from? And how many people toiled to put them there? Tracie McMillan takes a Nickel and Dimed approach as she works the fields, the supermarket aisles, and the fast-food kitchens that feed America to examine our national dietary priorities. Hard-hitting, piquant reporting at its best.

The ancient art of deer-hunting gets a locavore makeover in this lucid DIY manual for bagging and butchering one's own venison. Self-taught stalker Jackson Landers covers not only the practical how-to aspects of the hunt but also deeper philosophies behind living off the land.

All E.V.O.O. is not created equal. Tom Mueller takes readers deep into the murky, high-stakes world behind a kitchen counter staple, where soaring demand has led to a thriving black market that deals in fake, sometimes toxic, olive oil. Eye-opening and thoroughly researched, this book beautifully blends a variety of ingredients (business, politics, history), progressing with surety through slippery territory.

Rebecca Rupp takes readers on a high-spirited romp through the vegetable garden with 23 amusing and surprising tales of veggie lore and veggies of yore. Did you know, for instance, that celery has been used at various times in history as a fashion statement, a laxative, and an aphrodisiac (by Casanova, no less)? Or about the thwarted poisoned pea plot against George Washington? Definitely not your garden-variety food history.

In a culture increasingly populated by foodies and preoccupied with fresh ingredients, there are those who have been left behind -- cowering in confusion before rarely used knife sets and finding relief amongst frozen processed foods. With this sensitive, inspiring book, Kathleen Flinn comes to the rescue of the culinarily challenged, helping her subjects and her readers acquire the basic skills and confidence they need to slice and dice, braise and baste their way to delicious, healthy home-cooked meals.

Those of us who turn green at the idea of eating spleen, nibbling neck, or tearing into a testicle, yet think nothing of devouring a perfectly prepared prime rib or burger, would do well to read Jennifer McLagan's culinary tribute to an animal's less-loved parts. With recipes like Headcheese for the Unconvinced, Minted Tripe and Pea Salad, and Sweetbreads with Morels and Fresh Fava Beans (paging Dr. Lecter), you may soon find yourself gobbling brains like a zombie.

Mindful eating through linguistics. That's Ina Lipkowitz's goal, as she traces the history of five common English words--apples, leeks, milk, meat, and bread--to illustrate both the eternal and temporal nature of ordinary foods.  If "eating the way your ancestors did" sounds appealing to you, then you'll embrace this fascinating survey of ancient habits from an era when a simpler diet reigned.



Think about it:  is there anything stranger than the fact that humans drink the milk of other mammals? This is the kind of question Deborah Valenze's wide-ranging and comprehensive history of the dairy industry evokes. Regarding our consumption of milk as a cultural artifact rather than any evolved biological necessity, Valenze brings to the table a detailed account of milk's conquests as rich and tasty as a chocolate shake.

Ten years in the making, sumptuously presented, and suffused with the love that Americans lavish on the food they bring to their tables, Molly O'Neill's compendium of "600 Recipes from the Nation's Best Home Cooks, Farmers, Fishermen, Pit-Masters and Chefs" is cause for thanksgiving all by itself.

If you've spent any time perusing David Tanis's first book, A Platter of Figs, you'll know why the kitchen hearts in my house are aflutter at the arrival of his second. Tanis has been chef at Chez Panisse for more than a quarter-century, and his culinary sophistication reveals itself in an inviting embrace of simplicity and pleasure. The book's well-composed pages have an easy beauty—a serenity of thought and feeling—almost as nourishing as the recipes.

A welcome reissue of a classic: in this marvelous book, Madeleine Kamman celebrates the women (from her great-grandmother Marie-Charlotte to Magaly Fabre, matriarch of a wine domain) from whom she received, and with whom she has shared, the blessing of her culinary vocation. Packed with recipes and affectionate recollections.

BNR contributor Melanie Rehak delves into the kitchen of a Brooklyn restaurant for a year-long discovery of the choices and compromises involved in putting food on the table, and in our mouths. Her finicky toddler adds some delightful detours on her learning curve. Read more...

The author of The $64 Tomato humorously and thoughtfully kneads his obsessive quest for the perfect crust, a mission that leads him, and the reader, to a baking school in Paris, a monastery in Normandy, and the New York State Fair.