`The Spice and Herb Bible' by Australian spice merchant, Ian Hemphill, published by Canadian culinary `bible' publishing specialist, Robert Rose is a serious entry to be one's definitive reference for spices and herbs, but it fails largely because of the strength of its competition and from the fact that it is not as cook friendly as its subtitle, `A Cook's Guide' may make you believe.
My choice for first and second place among good books on kitchen seasonings are `The Contemporary Encyclopedia of herbs & spices' by Seattle spice merchant Tony Hill and perennial culinary expert, Jill Norman's `herbs & spices, the cook's reference'. While these books are very different from one another, they are both superior to Hemphill's book as a reference to the average home cook. Oddly enough, this book may actually be the best of the three as a reference for the aspiring spice merchant.
The first thing that made me wary of Hemphill's book was its very choppy and anecdotal history of the spice trade. It hit only the most interesting highlights, and got several facts wrong in the process. The two most serious errors may have been ascribing the military expansion of Islam to the prophet Mohammed personally and by ascribing to the inaccurate and largely discredited doctrine that the European use of spices was to mask poorly preserved meat. In fact, meat preservation technology (charcuterie) was really very highly developed by post-Roman Europe.
There is no question that Hemphill gives us oodles of good information about herbs and spices, but unlike Norman's very cleverly organized book, this information is practically useless for the cook who happens to want to use an herb or spice in a dish and wishes to find an appropriate selection, when she knows she wants a hint of licorice flavor in a fresh herb, but her local megamart is all out of her known sources of anise flavorings. If it were not for the historical gaffs in the historical overview and the fact that Hemphill puts all of his entries under the rubric of `spices' rather than splitting them up by herb and spice (like Norman), or at least identifying the dictionary section as `Herbs and Spices' (like Hill).
Each entry does look like a guide for the merchant or scholar rather than the cook. It includes:
Common Name
Other Common Name(s)
Botanical Name, i.e. genus and species
Botanical Family (genuses belong to families in the Linnean classification scheme)
Names in other languages (a la Bruce Cost's excellent `Asian Ingredients')
Flavor Group - This is a means of organizing seasonings which Hemphill may have contrived himself. At the very least, it is not broadly used and does not correspond to the familiar four or five tastes on the tongue.
Weight per Teaspoon - A means of converting weights to volumes for shredded, ground, or finely chopped seasonings. The usefulness of this material escapes me.
Suggested quantity per pound - A similarly arcane fact that I doubt any professional chef would ever use.
Complements - Foods best used in. If this were presented in a tabular fashion giving foods followed by best used spices, this would really be useful.
Used in - Lists spice blends in which the material is an ingredient.
Combines with - Spices which work well together. Somewhat useful.
Description - Why not a picture! This is Norman's greatest strength in that she gives color pictures of every single species.
Origin and History - Nice, but I don't trust the author's history lessons!
Processing - Interesting
Buying and Storage - Most useful for a merchant.
Use - The only really useful section.
Recipe - Elaboration on `Use'.
Hemphill's last section is on spice mixes where, again, Norman and Hill do much better jobs of providing both useful recipes and avoiding any misleading notions. Where Hemphill gives but one recipe for the French `bouquet garni', Norman gives six, making it clear that the notion of this spice mix is highly mutable, depending on the use to which it is to be put.
As encyclopedically complete as Hemphill's book seems, I detected a few significant oversights, such as his ignoring the two different (Middle Eastern and California) sources of bay leaf. Most cooking authorities warn us away from the offering from the golden state and endorse the Turkish bay. Hemphill deals only with the Turkish source. Also, while Norman cites fourteen (14) different varieties, including pictures of every single one, Hemphill features but one and dismisses the others. This seems to me a bigger oversight then one may think, as there is a great divide between the Mediterranean basils and the varieties used in southern and Southeast Asia.
While this book is useful if you happen to already own it, if you searching for a good book on spices and herbs, I strongly suggest you pick Jill Norman's book or both Norman's book and Hill's book, as the two are highly complementary.
