Savor the Memories or Tequila

Savor the Memories

Author: Marguerite Henderson

With over 20 years in the culinary industry, Marguerite shares her recipes from her mother's Italian kitchen in Brooklyn and noted recipes from Cucina. Also, you'll find recipes from her catering days, TV show appearances, and cooking classes. Emphasis on easy but elegant menus, with a Mediterranean flair.

New interesting textbook: Galletas Cookies or Indiana Cooks

Tequila: A Natural and Cultural History

Author: Ana G Valenzuela Zapata

The array of bottles is impressive, their contents finely tuned to varied tastes. But they all share the same roots in Mesoamerica's natural bounty and human culture. The drink is tequila—more properly, mescal de tequila, the first mescal to be codified and recognized by its geographic origin and the only one known internationally by that name. In ЎTequila! A Natural and Cultural History, Ana G. Valenzuela-Zapata, the leading agronomist in Mexico's tequila industry, and Gary Paul Nabhan, one of America's most respected ethnobotanists, plumb the myth of tequila as they introduce the natural history, economics, and cultural significance of the plants cultivated for its production. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan take you into the agave fields of Mexico to convey their passion for the century plant and its popular by-product. In the labor-intensive business of producing quality mescal, the cultivation of tequila azul is maintained through traditional techniques passed down over generations. They tell how jimadores seek out the mature agaves, strip the leaves, and remove the heavy heads from the field; then they reveal how the roasting and fermentation process brings out the flavors that cosmopolitan palates crave. Today in Oaxaca it's not unusual to find small-scale mescal-makers vending their wares in the market plaza, while in Jalisco the scale of distillation facilities found near the town of Tequila would be unrecognizable to old José Cuervo. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan trace tequila's progress from its modest beginnings to one of the world's favored spirits, tell how innovations from cross-cultural exchanges made fortunes for Cuervo andother distillers, and explain how the meteoric rise in tequila prices is due to an epidemic—one they predicted would occur—linked to the industry's cultivation of just one type of agave. The tequila industry today markets more than four hundred distinct products through a variety of strategies that heighten the liquor's mystique, and this book will educate readers about the grades of tequila, from blanco to añejo, and marks of distinction for connoisseurs who pay up to two thousand dollars for a bottle. ЎTequila! A Natural and Cultural History will feed anyone's passion for the gift of the blue agave as it heightens their appreciation for its rich heritage.

Publishers Weekly

Mexican botanist Valenzuela-Zapata and MacArthur Fellow Nabhan eruditely examine Agave angustifolia tequilana, the blue agave, from its place in Meso-American tradition and Mexican pop history to the perils facing the succulent plant from monoculture and big agro. Quoting from Aztec scripts, scholarly research and even Malcolm Lowry's novel Under the Volcano, the authors discuss the "man-agave symbiosis" in Jalisco, Mexico (tequila's home state), and detail the process of tequila production, from harvest to roasting, fermentation and final distillation. Four appendixes (including a "Mescalero's Lexicon" and a "species description of cultivated agave species historically used in the tequila industry") support the brief main text, while photos depict agave harvest and tequila production. While discussing the plant's most famous product, the authors balance biological savvy with a connoisseur's appreciation of tequila, noting the drink's ubiquitousness (70 distilleries produce over 400 brands). Valenzuela-Zapata's taxonomic interest in agave only occasionally hampers a lyrical writing style and an evident fondness for agave plants. Citations on nearly every page, however, might put off general readers. Most intriguingly, the authors recount the mid-1990s epidemic of agave disease, which resulted in a worldwide tequila shortage and sky-rocketing prices. They lament the loss of traditional cultivation methods, as well as clonal propagation of the plants. Today almost all Jalisco blue agave are genetically nearly identical and very vulnerable to pests. No mere bar room reference, this heady blend of agricultural history, Mescalero anthropology, Aztec mythology and nature writing is an appealing package for researchers and drinkers alike. (Mar. 6) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	List of Illustrations	vii
	Preface: A Handful of Dreams Opened up to the Sun	ix
	Acknowledgments	xix
	Introduction: Tequila Hangovers and the Mescal Monoculture Blues	xxi
1	Distilling the Essences, Blending Two Worlds	3
2	Mescal de Tequila: The Mexican-American Microcosmos	13
3	The Wild Origins and Domestication of Mescal de Tequila	21
4	Tillers and Tale-Tellers: The Agrarian Tradition of Jimadores	31
5	Out of the Fields, into the Fire: Tradition and Globalization	45
6	When the Epidemic Hit the King of Clones	55
7	Landscape and Pueblo: Putting Tequila in Place	63
8	Dreaming the Future of Tequila	73
Appendix 1.	A Mescalero's Lexicon	83
Appendix 2.	Common Names for Mescal-Producing Agaves in Spanish Dialects and Indigenous Languages Spoken in "Mega-Mexico"	91
Appendix 3.	Agave Species Domesticated Prehistorically for Food, Fiber, Hedge, or Beverage Uses by Indigenous Communities	93
Appendix 4.	Species Description of Cultivated Agave Species Historically Used in the Tequila Industry	95
	Literature Cited	109