Most European cultures use a patiently chopped, heated and stirred vegetable mixture, such as a mirepoix or soffritto, always including members of the onion family, and Pollan explores the chemistry of these, as well as their adaptive value.

England will regard it as a measure of justice for Frank Lampard's disallowed goal against Germany in Bloemfontein at the 2010 World Cup - but it was also an illustration of how they rode their luck for long periods in front of a predictably partisan home crowd.

The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite.[…]Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

Nor ſhould it prove thy leſs important Care, / To chuſe a proper Coat for Winter's Wear. / … / True Witney Broad-cloath with it's Shag unſhorn, / Unpierc'd is in the laſting Tempeſt worn: …