The TriCollege Libraries, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Haverford, have a large number of food-related books for your perusal. The best way to search Tripod is by keyword or subject heading. Searching by subject heading should give you many resources within a given field and will also point to related subject headings. Keyword searches yield broader results that may not be related to your topic, but can be useful for finding information on topics that are too specific to have a sujbect heading of their own.

Some things to keep in mind when searching with keywords are:

• Relevant subjects or departments
• Time period
• Region

Selected Subject Headings:

• Cookery
• Food Habits
• Food Law and Legislation United States
• Food Social Aspects
• Food Relief
• Food Supply
• Gastronomy

This fabulous database gives you information on over a billion items in 10,000 libraries around the world. If something has been published, chances are you can find out about it here and, if it isn't in Tripod, order it through either EZBorrow or Interlibrary Loan.

An obvious starting place - full-text articles on a a variety of subjects, including food studies. However, the database doesn't include recent articles (perhaps the past 5 years or so) and so misses much of the new scholarship.

Another good full-text source for articles, including recent scholarship.

Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, book reviews and dissertations that cover world history from 1450 to the present (excluding the U.S. and Canada which are covered in "America: History and Life"). Includes publications from 1953-present.

Provides citations to journal articles, books, working papers, conference proceedings, bibliographies, and other materials. Areas covered include literature, language, linguistics, film, theatre and folklore. Covers 1926-present.

Full-text database with a range of popular and scholarly journals.

Alimentum is a new literary review all about food. It includes fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

Perhaps the most comprehensive of all food reference books, The Cambridge World History of Food is divided into sections such as staple foods (including grains, roots, nuts, animal sources, etc.), nutrition, food related disorders, food history, food and culture, and food policy.  Entries are long but helpfully divided into subsections, and each entry is followed by a short bibliography.

This volume discusses the question of whether an American cuisine exists and what it might consist of.  It lists quintessentially “American” foods alphabetically – including ethnic foods that have been absorbed into American culture over the years – and discusses their origins.  Some recipes are included.

This three-volume encyclopedia has a broad scope and is divided into topics such as staple food, food in religion, and biographies of notable chefs.  Articles vary wildly in length and each is accompanied by a brief bibliography.

The articles in this encyclopedia are divided into several different types of entries, including chronology surveys, specific foods and drinks, contributions of ethnic groups to American cuisine, biographies of notable chefs and food writers, and food-related political and social movements.  Some of the quirkier topics covered include airline food, drinking songs, drive ins, and food slang. 

This reference is a guide to the food of Ancient Greece and Rome as mentioned in many classical texts.  Entries cover food items as well as preparation methods and ancient gastronomes.  A list of sources is also included.

The herbs and spices covered in this reference are categorized according to flavor.  The main entry includes a color photo of the plant, its scientific name and its culinary uses, while a side bar covers tasting notes, parts used, buying and storing, and growing.  There are sections devoted to preparing herbs and spices in general, as well as a list of recipes at the back.

The long entries in this dictionary discuss the history of various foods used in Indian cooking through 1947, as well as their uses.  Topics covered include regional cuisine, cultural influences, and cooking processes.  There is a list of headwords at the front, as well as indices of Indian words and authors consulted at the end.

As the title implies, this reference is more concerned with defining menu items and dishes than with food production or history.  The great resource it provides is a table giving translations for most entries in five languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German), as well as an index in each language.

This reference is arranged alphabetically by food item and each entry gives an overview of that food item’s significance in mythology and folklore around the world.  An appendix in the back listing food myths by culture should help those who are interested in the mythology of a specific group but not in a particular food item.

The Oxford Companion to Food is arranged alphabetically, with a complete list of entries by subject (including edible plants, animals, specific dishes, and specific cuisines) at the front.  Entries may touch on topics such as scientific name, origin, culinary uses, and history, but are not separated into distinct sections.  Alcoholic beverages are not discussed.

The Oxford Companion to Wine is arranged alphabetically, with a complete list of entries by subject (including regions, history, viticulture, and grape varieties) at the front.  It also includes maps of wine regions as well as several photos and illustrations.

Offers full-text access to English-language titles and editions published between 1701 and 1800 including books, pamphlets, almanacs, Bibles and treatises. Subjects covered include history, geography, fine arts, medicine, science, literature, language, religion, philosophy and law. Significant collections of women writers, collections on the French Revolution, and numerous eighteenth-century editions of the works of Shakespeare are also included.