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California Studies in Food and Culture #1
Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices
Spices and aromatics—the powerful, pleasurable, sensual ingredients used in foods, drinks, scented oils, perfumes, cosmetics, and drugs—have long been some of the most sought-after substances in the course of human history. In various forms, spices have served as appetizers, digestives, antiseptics, therapeutics, tonics, and aphrodisiacs. Dangerous Tastes explores the captivating history of spices and the fascination that they have aroused in us, and the roads and seaways by which trade in spices has gradually grown. Andrew Dalby, who has gathered information from sources in many languages, explores each spice, interweaving its general history with the story of its discovery and various uses.
Dalby concentrates on traditional spices that are still part of world cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, saffron, and chili. He also discusses aromatics that are now little used in food but still belong to the spice trade and to traditional frankincense, myrrh, aloes-wood, balsam of Mecca. In addition, Dalby considers spices that were once important but that now are almost long pepper, cubebs, grains of Paradise.
Dangerous Tastes relates how the Aztecs, who enjoyed drinking hot chocolate flavored with chili and vanilla, sometimes added annatto (a red dye) to the drink. This not only contributed to the flavor but colored the drinker's mouth red, a reminder that drinking cacao was, in Aztec thought, parallel with drinking blood. In the section on ambergris, Dalby tells how different cultures explained the origin of this Arabs and Persians variously thought of it as solidified sea spray, a resin that sprung from the depths of the sea, or a fungus that grows on the sea bed as truffles grow on the roots of trees. Some Chinese believed it was the spittle of sleeping dragons. Dalby has assembled a wealth of absorbing information into a fertile human history that spreads outward with the expansion of human knowledge of spices worldwide.
Dalby concentrates on traditional spices that are still part of world cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pepper, saffron, and chili. He also discusses aromatics that are now little used in food but still belong to the spice trade and to traditional frankincense, myrrh, aloes-wood, balsam of Mecca. In addition, Dalby considers spices that were once important but that now are almost long pepper, cubebs, grains of Paradise.
Dangerous Tastes relates how the Aztecs, who enjoyed drinking hot chocolate flavored with chili and vanilla, sometimes added annatto (a red dye) to the drink. This not only contributed to the flavor but colored the drinker's mouth red, a reminder that drinking cacao was, in Aztec thought, parallel with drinking blood. In the section on ambergris, Dalby tells how different cultures explained the origin of this Arabs and Persians variously thought of it as solidified sea spray, a resin that sprung from the depths of the sea, or a fungus that grows on the sea bed as truffles grow on the roots of trees. Some Chinese believed it was the spittle of sleeping dragons. Dalby has assembled a wealth of absorbing information into a fertile human history that spreads outward with the expansion of human knowledge of spices worldwide.
184 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Andrew Dalby
46 books20 followersAndrew Dalby (born Liverpool, 1947) is an English linguist, translator and historian who most often writes about food history.
Dalby studied at the Bristol Grammar School, where he learned some Latin, French and Greek; then at the University of Cambridge. There he studied Latin and Greek at first, afterwards Romance languages and linguistics. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1970. Dalby then worked for fifteen years at Cambridge University Library, eventually specializing in Southern Asia. He gained familiarity with some other languages because of his work there, where he had to work with foreign serials and afterwards with South and Southeast Asian materials. In 1982 and 1983 he collaborated with Sao Saimong in cataloguing the Scott Collection of manuscripts and documents from Burma (especially the Shan States) and Indochina; He was later to publish a short biography of the colonial civil servant and explorer J. G. Scott, who formed the collection.[1] To help him with this task, he took classes in Cambridge again in Sanskrit, Hindi and Pali and in London in Burmese and Thai.
Dalby studied at the Bristol Grammar School, where he learned some Latin, French and Greek; then at the University of Cambridge. There he studied Latin and Greek at first, afterwards Romance languages and linguistics. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1970. Dalby then worked for fifteen years at Cambridge University Library, eventually specializing in Southern Asia. He gained familiarity with some other languages because of his work there, where he had to work with foreign serials and afterwards with South and Southeast Asian materials. In 1982 and 1983 he collaborated with Sao Saimong in cataloguing the Scott Collection of manuscripts and documents from Burma (especially the Shan States) and Indochina; He was later to publish a short biography of the colonial civil servant and explorer J. G. Scott, who formed the collection.[1] To help him with this task, he took classes in Cambridge again in Sanskrit, Hindi and Pali and in London in Burmese and Thai.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
December 20, 2018
Heart-breaking to rate a book from which I learned quite a bit at two starts but...this was frustratingly hard to plough through. Still probably worth a quick scan for connoisseurs of food history.
Anecdotes of the spice roads, the colonists exploring the high seas and the islands of the Indian ocean in search of the great spices were fascinating. We learn about Mithridates who couldn't die of poison by his own hand because he had acquired immunity by habitually imbibing a spiced concoction of antidote. The last chapter describing the difficulties of interpreting ancient writers on spices because of incomplete knowledge was very interesting indeed. However, in my opinion, this book fails by trying to do too much. It drunkenly lurches between providing a concise list of spices with a brief history, and a detailed timeline view of each spice. Dr. Dalby's scholarship is indisputable but a good editor would have been worth her weight in gold (or saffron). A single example - "The problem with this identification is simply stated.". Really? This revelation was worth a sentence? Either state the darn problem or move on, surely?
Looking at the history of a single spice might have been much more digestible. The Tumult of Turmeric or Cinnamon Wars, anyone?
Anecdotes of the spice roads, the colonists exploring the high seas and the islands of the Indian ocean in search of the great spices were fascinating. We learn about Mithridates who couldn't die of poison by his own hand because he had acquired immunity by habitually imbibing a spiced concoction of antidote. The last chapter describing the difficulties of interpreting ancient writers on spices because of incomplete knowledge was very interesting indeed. However, in my opinion, this book fails by trying to do too much. It drunkenly lurches between providing a concise list of spices with a brief history, and a detailed timeline view of each spice. Dr. Dalby's scholarship is indisputable but a good editor would have been worth her weight in gold (or saffron). A single example - "The problem with this identification is simply stated.". Really? This revelation was worth a sentence? Either state the darn problem or move on, surely?
Looking at the history of a single spice might have been much more digestible. The Tumult of Turmeric or Cinnamon Wars, anyone?
March 2, 2009
This book is on food history. Despite the description given on the back cover, the focus is more on studying the spice than on the history of people's efforts to get the spice. I strongly suspect that people who enjoy spices and who already have a working knowledge of them in the present will find this book more interesting than those who only know a little about them. I was able to best follow and understand the information on the spices I was most familiar with (like ginger and cinnamon) than the ones I'd never used before or which are no longer available.
Each spice has a page or two written about it. Included are quotes from ancient sources which mention the spice, descriptions of the plant the spice is from and how the spice is made, information on where the spice originally came from and its spread (where it came to be grown), how the spice was used, which cultures used it, the trade routes and who traded it (if known), the value of the spice (if known), and ancient recipes using the spice. There were also brief sections describing the conflicts between nations as they tried to cheaply acquire certain spices.
I would have appreciated maps showing where the spice was grown and the ancient trade routes used to get it, but none were included. However, the author did give enough of a description that I could probably work it out on my own if I spent some time at it.
While the information was interesting and detailed, it was conveyed in a very dry way, like a textbook. In fact, I think this book would have been more accurately titled The Encyclopedia of Spices. However, it's clear that the author extensively researched the topic. This book contains accurate information about spices, so this is probably the book to read if you're doing research on them.
Each spice has a page or two written about it. Included are quotes from ancient sources which mention the spice, descriptions of the plant the spice is from and how the spice is made, information on where the spice originally came from and its spread (where it came to be grown), how the spice was used, which cultures used it, the trade routes and who traded it (if known), the value of the spice (if known), and ancient recipes using the spice. There were also brief sections describing the conflicts between nations as they tried to cheaply acquire certain spices.
I would have appreciated maps showing where the spice was grown and the ancient trade routes used to get it, but none were included. However, the author did give enough of a description that I could probably work it out on my own if I spent some time at it.
While the information was interesting and detailed, it was conveyed in a very dry way, like a textbook. In fact, I think this book would have been more accurately titled The Encyclopedia of Spices. However, it's clear that the author extensively researched the topic. This book contains accurate information about spices, so this is probably the book to read if you're doing research on them.
June 27, 2022
I can tell the author loves this subject, and I can understand that he wanted to tell us ALL about it. Unfortunately, that came out through extensive unnecessary details, often about historical misconceptions with lengthy primary source passages. Some primary source material (like recipes!) was great, but a quick summary of misconceptions would be better that long quotes about it. Overall, some fascinating stuff in here, but reading it would have been much more enjoyable if it had a more aggressive editor and a bit more emphasis on the impact of the spice trade on the people involved with it.
June 3, 2011
Some of the actual history of the spices and spice trade are fascinating but often just as the story is getting interesting it just STOPS. now a new paragraph and a new spice. it's very choppy, more like reading a series of encyclopedia entries than a cohesive work.
October 8, 2011
Overall I found this to be a gem of a book it is basically the story of the different spices known in antiquity and the medieval ages. The amount of information in the book is vast as it takes you on a historic and social journey of the discovery and import of spices to Europe. Unlike other books that I have read it draws a lot on non European sources; Chinese and Arabic writers are utilised at least as well as Portuguese and Greek or Roman sources. A number of very odd myths about the origin of various spices are relayed (and largely disproved). Later in the book a couple of recipes are included, usually as a narrative tool to describe the importance or prevalence of specific spices, however I tried one or two with good results.
As a resource: the index, notes and glossary all on their own are worth having. There is a LOT of potential for authentication as the author sites so many different sources.
This book is rendered very readable by the obvious scholarship of the author and is lightened up by his sense of humour and the obvious delight he has in his subject matter. Unfortunately this book seems to be out of print, or I would buy it in a second.
September 29, 2020
The book is full of good information, but not organized well. It seems to be broken down geographically...sort of...but it's unclear. My biggest gripe is that this is a book about global trade over hundreds or thousands of years. Guess how many maps it has. (Zero.) Guess how many timelines. (Zero.) Basically, this works as a reference book. But as a book you read cover to cover trying to learn and retain the information, it doesn't work, because it's presented as lots of tidbits that aren't linked together well at all. Overall, I was disappointed.
September 7, 2025
#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Food History
Andrew Dalby’s Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices is a heady, aromatic journey into the history of the world’s most coveted flavours. When I read it, I was struck by how something as small as a peppercorn or a pinch of saffron could move armies, redraw trade routes, and fuel centuries of exploration.
Dalby begins by peeling back the mystery around spices: why they fascinated ancient civilisations, why mediaeval Europeans were obsessed with them, and how they became symbols of wealth, health, and sometimes danger. He traces their journeys from the Malabar Coast and the Moluccas to the markets of Venice and the tables of kings, showing how spices carried not just flavour but also myth and power.
The book’s title is apt—spices were never just culinary. They were bound up with medicine, magic, and risk. In the ancient and mediaeval imagination, cinnamon might cure disease, nutmeg could ward off the plague, and cloves were valued as much for their supposed aphrodisiac qualities as for their taste. Yet, pursuing these exotic goods was often perilous, involving treacherous voyages, fierce rivalries, and colonial exploitation.
Dalby writes with both erudition and flair, sprinkling his chapters with anecdotes that make history vivid: the Arab traders who wove elaborate legends to guard the secret origins of spices; the Portuguese and Dutch empires locked in bloody competition over nutmeg and cloves; the way pepper shifted from luxury to everyday necessity. It’s a reminder that globalisation didn’t begin with the internet—it began with spices.
What I especially appreciated is Dalby’s ability to balance myth and fact. He doesn’t romanticise the spice trade; instead, he shows how the pursuit of these rare commodities shaped empires and inflicted violence, even as they transformed global cuisines. The “dangerous” part is not just about their potency, but about the human cost of desire.
By the final chapter, I felt a deep respect for the ordinary act of seasoning food. The pepper mill on the table, the cinnamon in a dessert, and the saffron threads in biryani—all are echoes of ancient obsessions, conquests, and connections. Dalby makes us realise that spices are not mere condiments but carriers of history.
Placed alongside John Reader’s Potato and Rachel Laudan’s Cuisine and Empire, Dalby’s Dangerous Tastes completes another dimension of food history: if the potato fed populations, and cuisines embodied empires, spices seduced the world—and made it burn.
Andrew Dalby’s Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices is a heady, aromatic journey into the history of the world’s most coveted flavours. When I read it, I was struck by how something as small as a peppercorn or a pinch of saffron could move armies, redraw trade routes, and fuel centuries of exploration.
Dalby begins by peeling back the mystery around spices: why they fascinated ancient civilisations, why mediaeval Europeans were obsessed with them, and how they became symbols of wealth, health, and sometimes danger. He traces their journeys from the Malabar Coast and the Moluccas to the markets of Venice and the tables of kings, showing how spices carried not just flavour but also myth and power.
The book’s title is apt—spices were never just culinary. They were bound up with medicine, magic, and risk. In the ancient and mediaeval imagination, cinnamon might cure disease, nutmeg could ward off the plague, and cloves were valued as much for their supposed aphrodisiac qualities as for their taste. Yet, pursuing these exotic goods was often perilous, involving treacherous voyages, fierce rivalries, and colonial exploitation.
Dalby writes with both erudition and flair, sprinkling his chapters with anecdotes that make history vivid: the Arab traders who wove elaborate legends to guard the secret origins of spices; the Portuguese and Dutch empires locked in bloody competition over nutmeg and cloves; the way pepper shifted from luxury to everyday necessity. It’s a reminder that globalisation didn’t begin with the internet—it began with spices.
What I especially appreciated is Dalby’s ability to balance myth and fact. He doesn’t romanticise the spice trade; instead, he shows how the pursuit of these rare commodities shaped empires and inflicted violence, even as they transformed global cuisines. The “dangerous” part is not just about their potency, but about the human cost of desire.
By the final chapter, I felt a deep respect for the ordinary act of seasoning food. The pepper mill on the table, the cinnamon in a dessert, and the saffron threads in biryani—all are echoes of ancient obsessions, conquests, and connections. Dalby makes us realise that spices are not mere condiments but carriers of history.
Placed alongside John Reader’s Potato and Rachel Laudan’s Cuisine and Empire, Dalby’s Dangerous Tastes completes another dimension of food history: if the potato fed populations, and cuisines embodied empires, spices seduced the world—and made it burn.
July 27, 2018
Entertaining, somewhat romantic journey through the ups and downs of the global spice trade. I feel that Dalby's work is exceptional given what small fragments of history he has to work with and the limited surviving anecdotes of the spices that have left their mark on our world. He weaves a colorful and historic trail of geography, always accompanied with accurate botanical references for us plant lovers. You will learn about new and rare spices and you will want to taste them!
November 9, 2019
This book was an enthralling read.Being a Sri Lankan(Sri Lanka is written all over this book,which I loved so much !) and as a frequent spice maker(and also a food blogger too), I tend to study about spices ,their origin and how on earth these fragrant plants walk into our pantries. And this is how you find it !
Its a quest !
Thanks !
Its a quest !
Thanks !
June 2, 2023
161: 2023
A scant 3 ... Just interesting enough not to bail. This one is pretty dry unless you have a specific interest in one of the main topics of the book (colonization, geography and world exploration , trade -specifically in spices- and foodie stuff in general). I DO have said interest so it was worth it, but there were definitely areas that I skimmed. :)
A scant 3 ... Just interesting enough not to bail. This one is pretty dry unless you have a specific interest in one of the main topics of the book (colonization, geography and world exploration , trade -specifically in spices- and foodie stuff in general). I DO have said interest so it was worth it, but there were definitely areas that I skimmed. :)
March 14, 2026
This was a fun historical tour of where common (and uncommon in modern times) spices were first grown and traded, with plenty of original sources and a few old recipes. It's amazing that so many spices that we associate with certain countries turn out to be from somewhere else completely, and how some very special plants resist being common (famous resins mastic and frankincense in particular).
June 13, 2019
An interesting overview of the history of Spices through Antiquity, and the medieval/Rennisance eras. The boom is a bit dry, hence the long time I reading. Additionally the last 30 or so pages are Appendecies and source texts.
July 15, 2019
This is how non-fiction should be written! A unique melange of history, culture and culinary arts. It was hard to find, but totally worth the effort. I'll never look at ginger (or anything else in my spice cabinet) the same way again.
June 23, 2021
Not what i wanted. I was kind if hoping for a book that would both introduce me to the spices and how to use them. this is more of an encyclopedia and history. good book but not very useful
December 20, 2022
Didn't keep my attention, hard to follow.
April 15, 2014
Definitely the best of his books if you're looking for the stories behind specific spices as that's how it's organized. Not many new facts (for me at least) but lots of lovely images and good short sections for easy reading.
February 24, 2009
Fragmented and boring. Keep moving; there's nothing for you to see here.
March 11, 2015
Good illustrations, brief information. Can I have spice history book where Ternate/Tidore/Banda history didn't stop with the rise of Jan Pieterzoon Fucking Coen?
May 31, 2016
Less a story, more of a catalog.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews