Product Description

Fifteen years in the making, this book emerges as a new approach to presenting culinary information. It showcases a myriad of sumptuous, mouth-watering recipes comprising the many commonalities in ingredients and methods of food preparation of people of color from various parts of the globe. This powerful book traces and documents the continent's agricultural and mineral prosperity and the strong role played by ancient explorers, merchants, and travelers from Africa's east and west coasts in making lasting culinary and cultural marks on the United States, the Caribbean, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, India, and Southeast Asia.

Groundbreaking in its treatment of heritage survival in African and African American cooking, this illuminating book broadens the scope of cuisine as it examines its historical relationship to a host of subjects--including music, advertising, sexual exploitation, and publishing. Provocative in its perspective, The Peppers, Cracklings, and Knots of Wool Cookbook dispels the long-standing misnomer that African cuisine is primitive, unsophisticated or simply non-existent, and serves as a reference in understanding how Africa's contributions continue to mark our cuisine and culture today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1366282 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 422 pages

About the Author
Diane M. Spivey is an independent scholar and Research Associate with the Department of History at the University of Miami.

Customer Reviews

Eradicates the perceived myth of inferior African cooking
As a fan of ethnography and food folkways, I found this book interesting. The first thing that jumped out at me was the author's note of thanks to Embassies of Laos, Peru, and India... Intriguing? African cuisine migrated to India? To Laos? The second thing that jumped out at me was the first recipe, which called for "egusi seeds." No worries - there is nearly 100 pages of glossary, sources of ingredients, and bibliography. The third thing that you notice is the author's penchant for railing against those Eurocentric writers who discredited African foodstuffs and cuisine, and denied the Africanism of Egypt and the Olmecs. Even if you never prepare a single recipe, this book serves as a source of African culinary and social history. Nearly every recipe is followed by a bit of history and the story of African migratory influences. Chapter 1 focuses on "Eastern Ethiopians" and Dravidians (the Southern Indians including speakers of Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada) -- participants in the lucrative spice trade for centuries. Highlights for me included "Mississippi Masala Rice"; "Sesame Yam Patties"; "Doro Wat", a chicken in pepper sauce; and "Lamb and Beef Dar Es Salaam" with 7 spices and 3 meats. Chapter 2 is on the Sons and Daughters of Kambu, or those Ethiopian-Indians who migrated and influenced Southeast Asian, Khmer,and Cambodian societies. While highlighting the similarities in certain rituals in Southeast Asia and Africa, the recipes include: Spicy Fish in Peanut Sauce, Afro-Khmer Shrimp and Spicy Rice, Black-Eyed Spring Rolls, and Khmer Sweet Black Eyed Peas (like Hoppin' John, it reminded me of the film "Catfish in Black Bean Sauce"). Chapter 3 is on "Peppers, Cracklings, and Knots of Wool" or African cuisine found in Mexico and Central America. The "knots" refers to African hair. While the author discusses African influences, as well as an Almec-Africa connection, her recipes include: Masar Spicy Roasted Turkey; Yam and Plantain Fruit Pudding; Balimaya Pek Corn Dumpling Stew; and Hunabqu Omon Corn and Masa Soup. Chapter 4 presents the story of Africa in Peru and the highlands, titled "Zancu, Sweet Potatoes and Beer." Recipes include: Garden Patties with Onion and Cassava Cream Gravy; Zancu; and Yugeno (a cocktail known as the Peruvian blowdart). Chapter 5, titled, "Body and Soul" The Miscengenation of Cuisine and Culture in Brazil and Cuba," focuses on Brazil and Cuba, while Chapter 6 focuses on America, Haiti, Maroon settlements, and other Caribbean islands. The author, fond of cakes since childhood, include several cake recipes including a Chocolate Coconut cake and a Coconut Cake. "Brazen Tomatoes" will catch your attention. I enjoyed the final two chapters the most. Chapter 7 is a study of the migration of the African American cooks from the American South to the North of the country, and Chapter 8 is titled "Flapjacks and Blue Notes." Recipes include those for dinner rolls; smothered steak; Dr. Carver's peach leather; Booker T's fried chicken; lamb chops in thyme and mushrooms; and a very large variety of flapjacks.

A serious book a bit out on a limb
In American colonial and antebellum literature there are many references to the black slaves' "natural genius" for cooking. At the same time, cookbook writers and other gastronomic experts state that Africans had no culinary traditions or cuisine of their own; they learned it all from contact with Europeans. There is a contradiction here. It is this book's goal to document African cuisine and especially to demonstrate the unacknowledged and unappreciated African influence on culinary traditions outside of Africa.

Of course, "The Peppers, Cracklings, and Knots of Wool Cookbook" has chapters on African influences in the cuisine of the Southern U.S., the Caribbean, and Brazil. It should be obvious that the food traditions that came to the Americas with enslaved Africans had a significant effect. (Should be obvious, though is still unacknowledged and unappreciated.)

What is surprising and a bit controversial is Spivey's hypothesis of African influences in ancient times in the Americas and Asia. Spivey takes it as a given that Africans sailed to and traded with the Americas in ancient and medieval times. The real extent of this contact (if any) and its effects on cuisine may be lost to history. At this time, most scholars are unconvinced -- however, this could change with time. The question remains: When there are similarities in the cuisine Mesoamerican people and West African people, is it may be due to specific historical contact between the two? or it could also be a case of two separate cultures making the best possible food in similar environments with similar gastronomic possibilities? Spivey clearly prefers the former and ignores the later. There is the need for more research here; this book is just getting the ball rolling. (The possibility of Old World peoples visiting the Americas before Columbus is well presented in "The Diffusionists Have Landed" in "The Atlantic Monthly" magazine; January 2000.)

Spivey's book is also part cookbook, and the recipes are excellent. It should be mentioned that these recipes are more based-on-tradition than actually traditional. In some cases it seems that Spivey invents recipes based on the theory of historical contact between African and non-African cultures. For example, "Chocolate Lamb and Beef Sauce" which combines the African peanut-stew and the Mexican molé sauce traditions. Does Spivey believe that ancient Africans made this after their voyages to America? Is there any historical text that mentions such a dish? Or did this recipe come into being with her book? Either way, it sounds delicious.

Try the Coconut Cake
It's a fine book. As a rank amateur & no Africanist, (with little reading in the African diaspora), I'd say it was swell in its coverage. As a cook, though, sometimes I think she uses too much coconut cream in the recipes. Surely it's not available everywhere. But (I say as someone who has no particular liking for cake) you have never, never, never in your life had such a coconut cake.