Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany

The publishing best seller of Xmas 2002 was Schott's Original Miscellany - a book of random and wittily presented trivia which had everyone amused over the roast and two veg. Here now is the follow-up, and it's much more seriously focussed on matters to do with food and drink.

Like its predecessor, it's printed to look like an old encyclopedia. In fact this style is now being imitated by lots of competitors and parodies. But in fact it's a new compilation of the most amazing - and amusing - trivialities related to gastronomy and viniculture. Entries run from the quite useful names for bottle sizes (Magnum, Jeroboam, and so on) through recipes for Salmagundi, Bird's Nest Soup, to the calorific values of various items of food.



On the way through, you will learn how Mayonnaise got its name (from Mahon, the capital of Minorca) how to read tea leaves, and if you need it, there's actually a recipe for Humble Pie (it's made from venison offal). There are quite a few extracts from famous authors on the subject of food- such as this classic from Dr Johnson:

A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.

There are explanations of unusual English pub names, instructions on how to clean a white ostrich-feather boa, how to save someone from choking to death, and a list of edible flowers. It explains how to eat dogs, horses, swans, and if you had endured the 1870 Siege of Paris, how to cook antelope, camel, and elephant from the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes. When you have finished your meal, it also explains how to ask for the bill in Swahili.

There are lots of entries which give the recipes for a variety of cocktails, and it will also inform you of the king who served foie gras to his dog; the feast where guests ate in fear of their lives; the socialite who spiked his punch with Benzedrine; and the dining club whose members ate their meals in reverse. And if you can stomach his account of how to prepare and eat an ortolan, you've got a stronger constitution than me.

It's the sort of book which literary people might keep in the lavatory - but personally I found it difficult to put down once I started reading. It's also an amazing bargain at less than half price with Amazon.