Review of the book Herbs & Spices by Jill Norman.
I am a book addict and currently have over 350 books in my personal library. My collection includes various topics including many gardening, cooking, jewelry making and decorating titles. I have a vast array of herb books covering subjects such as aromatherapy, incense, alternative medicine along with lots of cookbooks featuring herbs and spices.
When I first became interested in growing my own herbs, and using them in recipes, I had a difficult time getting used to how different the fresh herb plant looked compared to the little jars of dried herbs I was used to purchasing at the grocery store. I perused my local library and bookstores to look for a good reference book to help me identify herbs and spices.
If you can only afford one herbal reference book, I highly recommend Herbs & Spices; The Cooks Reference by Jill Norman. This book, which was published in 2002 by DK Publishing, is 336 pages long. The book is divided into two main sections, one on herbs and the other on spices. Each herb and spice is given 1-4 pages of coverage including lots of full color photographs.
For example basil, which is featured on pages 30-35, shows 13 different varieties of basil. Each herb and spice page has information on how it tastes, which parts of the plant are used in cooking, how to buy and store the fresh herb or dried spice, how to grow your own along with a variety of common culinary uses.
The back of the book contains a few recipes for creating herb mixtures, spice mixtures, sauces, condiments and marinades. There are even a few recipes included for making soup, entrée, dessert and side dishes featuring herbs and spices to help get you started on your herbal culinary journey.
