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Overview
Acetaria (1699) was a book with many subjects: the rights and wrongs of vegetarianism; the virtues of eating more salads; cultivating the plants that made them memorable; and recipes for their use. It shows John Evelyn as more than arbiter of visual taste -- his central historical role -- but as one of England's first gastronomes. Acetaria exposes English cookery at a critical moment as it departed from medieval forms and embraced the new styles of France and Europe. Its arguments still have resonance and can be counted as revolutionary at the time they were first expressed.Synopsis
Known primarily as a diarist of the same period as Pepys, Evelyn was greatly interested in agriculture and gardens. Late in life he wrote this description of salads and salading, probably in conjunction with improving the kitchen garden at his brother's Wotton estate. Acetaria refers to the vinegar used with salads or herbs to stimulate the appetite. He describes the various vegetables and how to use them, and appends a number of recipes. The 1996 edition was cloth-bound. Distributed in the US by the David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR