Find Books & eBooks
- BU Gastronomy Cookbook Library Catalog on LibraryThingCatalog of 3600+ cookbooks and other food studies titles held by the Cookbook Library, a non-circulating collection housed within the Gastronomy program in the Fuller Building,
- BU Libraries Search This link opens in a new window
BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of research material provided by the library. Resources covered by the search includes books and eBooks, journals, scores and sheet music, video and audio recordings, and other physical and electronic items held by the library. Coverage encompasses materials relating to the prehistoric and antique world through to the present.
Sample Searches
Use the following search terms to discover more books for your topic.
Featured Books
Edible by ISBN: 9780544114357Publication Date: 2014-02-11In this rollicking excursion into the world of edible insects, Martin takes us to the front lines of the next big trend in the global food movement and shows us how insects just might be the key to solving world hunger.
Food Between the Country and the City by ISBN: 0857857045Publication Date: 2014-03-27At a time when the relationship between 'the country' and 'the city' is in flux worldwide, the value and meanings of food associated with both places continue to be debated.
Jewish American Food Culture by ISBN: 9780313343193Publication Date: 2008-02-28Many Jewish foods are beloved in American culture. Everyone eats bagels, and the delicatessen is ubiquitous from Midtown Manhattan to Los Angeles. Jewish American Food Culture offers readers an in-depth look at the well-known and unfamiliar Jewish dishes and the practices and culture of a diverse group.
Mess of Greens, a: Southern Gender and Southern Food by ISBN: 1283267926Publication Date: 2011-10-24Combining the study of food culture with gender studies and using per-spectives from historical, literary, environmental, and American studies, Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt examines what southern women's choices about food tell us about race, class, gender, and social power.
How to Find Individual Recipes
If the food or dish is affiliated with a holiday or has religious significance, look for books and articles about the food and the holiday or religion. For example:
Religion, Food, and Eating in North America by ISBN: 9780231160315Publication Date: 2014-03-11The way in which religious people eat reflects not only their understanding of food and religious practice but also their conception of society and their place within it. This anthology considers theological foodways, identity foodways, negotiated foodways, and activist foodways in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean.
Food, Feasts, and Faith by ISBN: 9781610694117Publication Date: 2017-04-17An indispensable resource for exploring food and faith, this two-volume set offers information on food-related religious beliefs, customs, and practices from around the world. More than five billion people worldwide claim a religious identity that shapes the way they think about themselves, how they act, and what they eat. Food, Feasts, and Faith: An Encyclopedia of Food Culture in World Religions explores how the food we eat every day often serves purposes other than to keep us healthy and stay alive: we eat to express our faith and to adhere to ethnic or cultural traditions that are part of who we are.
Search for books or articles about the history of a key ingredient in the dish or about the dish itself. Reaktion publishes an Edible series on single food items. There are also many other books on single foods or dishes:
Cod by ISBN: 9780802713261Publication Date: 1997-06-01The codfish. Wars have been fought over it, revolutions have been spurred by it, national diets have been based on it, economies and livelihoods have depended on it, and the settlement of North America was driven by it. To the millions it has sustained, it has been a treasure more precious than gold. Indeed, the codfish has played a fascinating and crucial role in world history.
Of Sugar and Snow by ISBN: 9780520942967Publication Date: 2009-05-05In this first book to tell ice cream's full story, Jeri Quinzio traces the beloved confection from its earliest appearances in sixteenth-century Europe to the small towns of America and debunks some colorful myths along the way. She explains how ice cream is made, describes its social role, and connects historical events to its business and consumption. A diverting yet serious work of history, Of Sugar and Snow provides a fascinating array of recipes, from a seventeenth-century Italian lemon sorbet to a twentieth-century American strawberry mallobet, and traces how this once elite status symbol became today's universally available and wildly popular treat.
Find Books on Food
Use these search terms and phrases to explore library resources:
- Edible series on [food] a global history
- Peanut butter AND History
- Milk AND (History OR Social Aspects)
- Popcorn AND History
- Beans AND History
- Potatoes AND History
- Coffee AND (History OR Social Aspects)
- Canned tuna
- Tomatoes AND history
- Tea AND (History OR Social aspects)
- Chocolate AND History
- Candy AND United States AND History
- Barbecuing OR Barbecue
- Spices AND History
- Doughnuts OR bagels OR tortillas
- (Cheese or cheesemaking) AND history
Online Encyclopedias
- Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology Online This link opens in a new window
This encyclopedia offers concise, expert definitions and explanations of the key concepts in sociology, written by leading scholars in the field, including several faculty from Boston University. Content dating to 2015 is included. Entries range from short definitions of key terms to extended explorations of major topics in both classical sociology and contemporary developments in the field.
- Encyclopedia of Food and CultureA three-volume survey of food and its place in human culture and society, presented through 600 alphabetically sorted entries. Features multidisciplinary coverage of such topics as comfort food, ethnicity and food, medieval banquets, and nutrient composition, among many others.
- Ethnic American Food Today: A Cultural EncyclopediaEthnic American Food Today introduces readers to the myriad ethnic food cultures in the U.S. today. Entries are organized alphabetically by nation and present the background and history of each food culture along with explorations of the place of that food in mainstream American society today. Many of the entries draw upon ethnographic research and personal experience, giving insights into the meanings of various ethnic food traditions as well as into what, how, and why people of different ethnicities are actually eating today.
- Food Cultures of the World EncyclopediaFilled with succinct, yet highly informative entries, the four-volume Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia covers all of the planet's nation-states, as well as various tribes and marginalized peoples.
- The Oxford Companion to FoodOver 3,000 entries on every possible food, its history, cultural significance, and culinary usage.
- They Eat That? A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from Around the WorldThe title They Eat That?: A Cultural Encyclopedia of Weird and Exotic Food from around the World says it all. This fun encyclopedia, organized A-Z, describes and offers cultural context for foodstuffs people eat today that might be described as "weird"--at least to the American palate.
