American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Fields [Hardcover]

Rowan Jacobsen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 17, 2010

Why does honey from the tupelo-lined banks of the Apalachicola River have a kick of cinnamon unlike any other? Why is salmon from Alaska's Yukon River the richest in the world? Why does one underground cave in Greensboro, Vermont, produce many of the country's most intense cheeses? The answer is terroir (tare-WAHR), the "taste of place." Originally used by the French to describe the way local conditions such as soil and climate affect the flavor of a wine, terroir has been little understood (and often mispronounced) by Americans, until now. For those who have embraced the local food movement, American Terroir will share the best of America's bounty and explain why place matters. It will be the first guide to the "flavor landscapes" of some of our most iconic foods, including apples, honey, maple syrup, coffee, oysters, salmon, wild mushrooms, wine, cheese, and chocolate. With equally iconic recipes by the author and important local chefs, and a complete resource section for finding place-specific foods, American Terroir is the perfect companion for any self-respecting locavore.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Terroir, a French term usually associated with wine, is what James Beard Award–winning author Jacobsen (Fruitless Fall) defines as "foods that are what they are because of where they come from." In a dozen informative and often funny essays spanning breakfast to dinner, Jacobsen deploys an open mind as he travels across North America and Mexico to demystify such curiosities as why the Yakima Valley in eastern Washington State produces a superior apple, how the red earth and algae-filled waters of Prince Edward Island in Canada conspire to create the delicious terroir-driven local dish of mussels and fries, and what makes chocolate "our most complex food." In each case, the answer is ecological and involves the specific interplay of biological, chemical, and geological factors that make an environment and, in turn, its food unique. To underscore that thought, each essay ends with recipes and a resource list. Throughout, Jacobsen cites fellow food writers, including Richard Manning, Michael Pollan, and Hugh Johnson. But beyond issues of slow food and sustainability, Jacobsen's affable, nerdy DIY spirit (he brewed his own mead for his wedding) challenges readers to rethink their relationship to food.
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From Booklist

The belief that individual plots of land can produce significant differences in crops has become an obsession for contemporary gastronomes. Terroir, a French word initially referring to vineyards, now applies to virtually every agricultural product: animal, vegetable, and mineral. Restaurant menus promote their kitchens’ offerings with names of local farms, and consumers demand orthodoxy in sourcing of everything from steak to succotash to salt. Jacobsen documents some of North America’s best growing places and producers. He describes apiculture and honeys in Florida and Arizona. He discovers the best avocados in Mexico’s Michoacán. He finds superior cheeses and maple syrup in Vermont. Northeast Canada yields both mussels and mushrooms. And Jacobsen sources the world’s most esteemed coffee beans from the mountains of Panama. In his travels to these far-flung farms, Jacobsen shows that it is as much farmers’ dedication to their profession that counts as the soil itself. --Mark Knoblauch

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1 edition (August 17, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596916486
• ISBN-13: 978-1596916487
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #705,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write about food, the environment, and the connections between the two. Ultimately, my subject is how we interact with myriad other lifeforms to sustain our existence, and what that process can tell us about ourselves and our world. Understanding that makes everything we do a little more meaningful, fun--and delicious! Learn more at www.rowanjacobsen.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Delicious! November 11, 2010

By Nancy Mulvany

Format:Hardcover

This is a fascinating book about culinary specialties produced in specific and often small geographic regions. Terroir is often associated with vineyards that produce wine that has a distinct terroir ("taste of the earth"). Rowan Jacobsen takes the concept to its natural conclusion and shares with readers terriors ranging from New England apples and cider to Yukon River salmon.

While most chapters are devoted to specialties of American regions, Jacobsen goes across the northern border to Prince Edward Island (potatoes) and Quebec (forest foraging). Jumping across the southern border we learn about special coffee (Panama), avocados, and chocolate (Mexico). Here in the U.S. Jacobsen presents maple syrup (Vermont), varietal honeys (various places), Totten Inlet oysters (Washington), wines (California), and washed-rind cheese (Vermont).

Each culinary gem has its own chapter. The writing is especially engaging and informative. The first chapter is about producing maple syrup in Vermont. The author is able to describe in wonderful and amazing detail how the sap develops in the maple tree. Producing syrup from sap is a long and arduous process. Chapters end with recipes and resources that are quite useful. Midway through the book is a collection of color photos from the places discussed.

Anyone interested in the nuances of excellent food sources will enjoy this book. Be warned, it will make you hungry. The writing is fully engaging and the book ends too soon.

Unfortunately there is one serious omission. The book has no index. Where is Peet's Coffee? Yes, it's in the coffee chapter, but where? How about the fiddleheads, where are they discussed? Quite frankly, in a book like this the lack of index is inexcusable.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book! November 26, 2010

By klockrike

Format:Hardcover

This is one great book: American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen. One not too thick, not too dense, not too preachy, not too boring, not too silly, not too detailed, not too American book. American terroir (not terror, not terrier, but terroir - as in the land and microclimate that give wines special flavors, "the taste of place") is a book that takes us on a tour around North America to ten great food products, and their greatness are because of where they are grown and the history and climate of the place.

Rowan Jacobsen writes in a funny but detailed way, giving you an abundance of history, science, and culture in short but dense sentences that never become a chore to read. In fact, when I fell asleep reading this at night I was unhappy because I wanted to continue reading it, not go to sleep. This is in stark opposition to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (TOD), which I am struggling to finish after a year of trying to get into it. I ought to like TOD, because I ought to like Michael Pollan and his work for better food and agriculture in America, but I just don't like it that much. This book, this little gem of red rowanberries, this I LOVE!

The chapters deal with the following ingredients and food products: maple syrup from Vermont, coffee from Panama, apple cider from New England and apples from Washington State, honeys from everywhere, potatoes from Prince Edward Island, wild mushrooms and native plants in southeastern Canada, oysters from Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, avocados from Mexico, Yukon River King Salmon, unusual wines from California, cheese from Vermont, and chocolate from Chiapas in Mexico....

While reading this book my brain kept constant notes on which people I would recommend each chapter to (coffee to my brother, salmon to my husband, etc.) but in the end, I will have to recommend the whole book to everybody. There is no best chapter, they are all great. It is easy reading, but chock-full of great facts and stories. Each chapter ends with a few recipes and a list of suppliers and websites for more information.

Rowan Jacobsen manages to teach the reader a lot of plant genetics, breeding history, soil science, and microbiology without the reader even noticing - we are too busy just enjoying the story. By highlighting not just the local food and sustainability, but the connection of these foods to the natural places, history of its people, and personal stories, Jacobsen made me want to know more and more about our little corner on this Earth and its connections to the past.

This book was a great surprise and a great find, and I recommend it to anybody - chocolate fanatics, oyster nerds, historians, and food people, grandmothers, teenagers, and husbands, Swedes, and Americans, and any mycologists and farmers out there. It is just a GREAT book, probably one of the best non-fiction books I have read in 5 years. (Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham was also great, but this is more mainstream). It seems like many people like this book - I just found some of the reviews here. A new classic, indeed.

The only thing I missed was a detailed index, please, publishers, don't skip on this. We need indices! Books on paper don't have Google attached to them.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book may change your life August 31, 2011

By Heitor V. Almeida

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This wonderful book expands the concept of terroir into diverse and unexpected areas. It changed the way that I drink coffee (no more espresso!), eat honey, chocolate, and many others. It comes packed with information and advice on what to buy and why. For me it is the single most important food book since Matt Kramer's "Making Sense of Wine". If I could, I would give it SIX stars. What are you waiting for?

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Why the same item from different places tastes differently June 17, 2011

By Frances S. Heales

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the most useful and interesting book I have read in years. It explains in simple concrete terms why foods taste differently according to where they are grown. It also describes the differences in locally grown and shipped in produce. In addition it provides insight into why different styles of preparing food arose in different countries. I highly recommend it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Developing a Relationship with Food June 4, 2011

By The Local Cook VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

When I first read about American Terroir: Savoring the Flavors of Our Woods, Waters, and Forests by Rowan Jacobsen, I thought it was going to be a catalog of what areas are known for what foods. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this book goes much deeper than that, calling us to develop a relationship to the foods around us.

Granted, I was disappointed to flip to the index to look for Michigan only to discover that there is no index. Then I started reading. I learned much more about how food is grown, processed, and affected by its environment that I even realized. The other day I started a conversation with my co-workers about potatoes, for goodness' sakes.

At first I was a bit confused by the chapter titles. "The Fresh Young Thing," "Little Truths," "That Totten Smell"-what kind of foodie book was this? Then I realized that the author is calling us to think about foods and where they come from, to respect them, to become friends with them. Each has their own personality.... Then the chapter titles began to make sense:

In the Church of the North Woods: High-Mountain Maple Syrup, Vermont
The Fresh Young Thing: Geisha Coffee, Panama
Eat Me: New England Cider and Yakima Valley Apples
Mother Nature's Little Black Book: Varietal Honeys of New England, North Carolina, Florida, the Southwest, and California
Spud Island: Moules Frites on Prince Edward Island
Little Truths: Forest Gastronomy, Quebec
That Totten Smell: Totten Inlet Oysters, Puget Sound
Fat of the Land: Slow-Ripened Avocados, Michoacan, Mexico
The Taste of Vigor: Yukon River Salmon
The Farm Girl and the Pole Dancer: Wines without Makeup, California
The Whisper in Darkness: Washed-Rind Cheese, Northeast Kingdom, Vermont
The Blood of the Gods: Misoamerican Chocolate, Chiapas, Mexico

Each chapter begins with a bit of science that explains how the item is affected by its terroir, or environment. Then he travels to where excellent specimens are produced. Each chapter includes a couple of recipes that feature the ingredient, plus a list of resources (although I found myself inspired to seek out local examples).

My favorite quote about the book came from Jerome Copulsky, The New Republic: "One cannot help but get a little hungry while perusing Jacobsen's enchanting book. Part manifesto, part travelogue, part science lesson, and part cookbook, this saliva-inducing work is perhaps best described as erotica--a sensual, titillating, sometimes lewd journey into the best foodstuffs of America. . . . a vitalist--one might even say pantheist--sensibility courses through these pages."

After reading this book, I was inspired to start learning even more about the unique terroir of West Michigan, to develop a relationship with my environment to see why local foods taste the way they do. This was reinforced in my foraging class last week, and also in my gardening experiments. It opened my eyes to local flavor.

Note: I received a review copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own. Read more ›