The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets (Oxford Companions)

I've spent about ten hours now with the Companion to Sugar and Sweets, and I've never owned an encyclopedia this readable. I was expecting a catalogue of candies and desserts: a little history, maybe some recipes, fun trivia about our proverbial sweet tooth, all wrapped up in a beautiful package. But this is SO much more than that.Entries on my old childhood favorites - bonbons, cotton candy, Marshmallow Fluff, whoopie pie, s'mores - appear right next to entries that I never expected, but that somehow connect to the idea of sweetness, the history of sugar, and the development of our present sweets culture. For example, entries on breakfast cereal (the first presweetened cereal came on the market in 1939, and in the early 1950s Kellog's "Sugar Smacks" had 55% sugar weight); children's literature (Hansel and Gretel, Winnie the Pooh, The Little House on the Prairie, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among many others); sugar in cosmetics (three broad categories: exfoliation, depilatory, and luster); sexual innuendo ("sweetie," "sugar pie," "honey," and all those endearments dating back all the way to the Old Testament); and the Boston Molasses Disaster ("occurred in 1919 when a molasses storage tank located in a congested city neighborhood ruptured. A flood of viscous molasses estimated to be 20 feet high and 160 feet wide tore through the streets at nearly 35 miles an hour" killing 21 and injuring 150, mostly children attracted by the molasses that had been leaking out of this poorly maintained tank for years). There are entries on difficult topics - slavery, racism, child labor (still a current issue, particularly on cacao plantations), sugar barons, politics (Hawaii's history as it pertains to the U.S. is downright scary), and much else. These are all part of our history that should not be ignored, and kudos to Darra and her team for including them. I learned more about the history of, and intersections between, different cultures and peoples in this Companion than I ever have in a history textbook.In fact, I find it overwhelming trying to review this book - it is so wildly eclectic, and it has so many authors (each of whom signed the entries they wrote), that it makes me want to just list everything for fear of painting an inaccurate portrait of the book, or simply beg the prospective reader to peek at the table of contents. There are 600 entries, and many are surprising, most downright fascinating. All of the entries refer readers to other related entries, so that you might start with something quite specific like "Peeps" and then head over to an entry on "marshmallows" and then on to "medicinal uses of sugar" (since marshmallow root was an effective throat lozenge). And down the rabbit hole we go!In terms of the production quality, it is outstanding - which is a good thing because the book is not cheap. That luscious fruit tart on the jacket alone goes a long way towards justifying the $65 price tag! The two glossy color inserts (with well-chosen images - including an Andy Warhol Lifesavers ad!), and the colorful collage of hard candies on the inside covers, are nice touches. The paper quality is somehow thin enough for the 900 pages not to bulge the binding too much, while also not being too thin - text and the numerous black and white images do not bleed through the page.In short, this is my new favorite encyclopedia, and it will stay on my bedside table to take me wherever it leads - but it is beautiful enough to sit out on my coffee table, too. The perfect gift for all the foodies in my life, and I'm sure I'll be buying more for my family and friends for the holidays!

Imagine an encyclopedia you wish to read cover to cover and you would come up with Sugar and Sweets. I stayed up for hours the evening I got the book. The social history of advertising sweets. The place of Crisco in the fabric of sweets and food culture. I looked for the Pillsbury Bake-Off and even it was included here. The delightful entry about the founding of Haagen Daz ice cream, what fun! All of this book was absorbing and somehow sensuous, especially the illustrations. Surprising uses of sweets, I tell you. I learned so much about the world, about history, through this book. Glad to have it near.

I honestly couldn't wait for The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets to be published, and the day it arrived, I immediately sat down to begin exploring it. It was well worth the wait. Of course, I started with articles on pie, pastry and anything remotely related (all are fabulous). But, each time I open it I find myself detouring through articles as diverse as what sound, pitches, and timbres of instruments we relate to sweet tastes, and the sexual innuendos of sweetness and sugar going all the way back to the Old Testament. Sugar and Sweets makes me feel like a little girl again and the many hours I happily explored volumes of The World Book learning something new on every page. The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets will have an honored place in the reference section of my food books, but it is one that I will also enjoying reading purely for sweet pleasure, too.

I LOVE this book! I'm a foodie with a big sweet tooth and this gorgeous tome had me at the luscious fruit tart on the cover. As soon as I opened it and saw the great collage of hard candies on the insides of the front and back covers, I was sucked in (forgive me, I couldn't resist!) I spent a long time just flipping through the book as soon as it arrived; the color inserts are fun and unusual and kept me entertained for quite a while. An Andy Warhol Lifesavers ad, a portrait of a sugarcane worker, a candy-flavored laxative ad, even a comic strip where Batman and Robin distract the mummy with a Twinkie.And then of course there are the entries themselves. The range of this huge book (more than 900 pages) is mind boggling. It is really easy to get sucked into any one topic, and then deposited somewhere totally unexpected, because of all the links to related entries. I was reading about meringues - one of my favorites - which sent me over to the entry on French sweets, and then on to sugar sculptures, and to weddings, then on to the history of wedding cakes and cake decorating, a biography of Marie-Antoine Careme, and on and on! I bought it thinking it would make a beautiful and fun coffee-table book - now I'm thinking I should keep it by my bedside table. This book would make a great gift for anyone who loves food, sweets, history, travel... pretty much everyone you know!!

I'm not much of a baker, but then this isn't a cookbook - there are no recipes! And it isn't a candy book either. This is much more fun - a cultural companion to sweets, from traditions in the South to South Asia. And not just currently, but throughout history. Want to know about ancient street food in Rome (deep fried fritters with honey were common)? Or court confectioners during the Italian Renaissance? How about "convent sweets" in Spain and Portugal during the colonial period? It is all in here. I think I'm putting on muscle from reading it - it is seriously heavy, but I'm having too much fun to put it down.

Book came damaged: package torn and a one inch gouge in topIf spine. The book, however, is great.

Not just the cover but the spine of the book came damaged. How can Amazon ship something like that?

Gave this as a gift to a friend who loved to back desserts. She loved this. Said it has given her and continue to gives her lots of creative ides. She is able to put new twists on her favorite recipes.

Whilst I'm not going to disagree that this book is a fascinating and quirky survey of sugary treats, readers outside of the US should beware. Despite being and Oxford University Press publication and having the word 'sweets' in the title this is very much an American book. The entries under 'candy' are many, whilst 'candy floss', one of the few Brit uses of this word, is to be found under 'cotton candy'. So no mentions of Chelsea buns, scones, rice pudding, Bakewell pudding or Kit Kats, but you will find Oreos, taffy, whoopie pie, Pop Tarts and pound cake. (The last one confusingly seems to be a Brit invention, but I've never seen it for sale over here.) There is a good and perceptive entry for (Brit) biscuits, but it has a certain outside-observer's bemusement to it. For me the main fascination is learning more about puzzling foreign confections. And it's also good for looking up typical American sweets that get mentioned in films and books and cartoons, but the nature and nuances of meaning for which I have no idea. A star knocked off for deception, then.

Sugar and Sweets is a useful reference tool for bakers. There is more information than I need for the level of desserts I prepare. This is a genuine gold mine for pastry and dessert chefs.

The book itself is lovely, but it arrived with a broken spine. There's no time to replace it this close to Christmas.

My daughter did not like it

Cover was marked and slightly torn.