Crab, Melon & Pig’s Head

This is an old out of print gem called, The Book of Ingredients. It was written by Philip Dowell and Adrian Bailey, with photography by Mr Dowell. Amazon lists the book as out of print, though still available in a limited number of copies. My own copy is a 1988 edition I bought in Japan around that time.

The book is 296 pages, about half of that full-page color plates, while the second half is a treatment of the origin, nature, properties and culinary applications of ingredients. Did you know that the smoked cheeks of a pig are referred to as ‘bath chaps,’ and that wheat and barley are native to Mesopotamia? Few things that we eat are left out of this book.

The photo showing a pig’s head, a calf’s head and a sheep’s head is gruesome, but oddly fascinating; the crabs are just plain beautiful, the melons luscious. As the introduction to the book states, ‘The elegant, austere and charming plates of this book picture a harvest festival of the world.’