Pot in Pans: A History of Eating Weed is a comprehensive history of cannabis as a unique culinary ingredient, from ancient India and Persia to today’s explosive new market. Cannabis, the hottest new global food trend, has been providing humans with nutrition, medicine, and solace – against all odds – since the earliest cavepeople discovered its powers. In colorful detail, the book explores the debate over the cannabis plant’s taxonomy and nomenclature, then follows as it co-evolves with humans throughout history, beloved by the masses, reviled by the elite, and shrouded in conflict and secrecy.
The story is held together by the thread of the Islamic confection majoun, created to manipulate a band of twelfth-century fedayeen, a legend that later inspired Western intellectuals and literati to discover and enjoy hashish and majoun. It’s the story of how a U.S. drug czar got cannabis prohibited around the world and how some cultures worked around that. It’s the story of how a recipe for majoun made its way into the hands of Alice B. Toklas, an ex-pat in Paris, and then into the pages of a cookbook published in New York and London, leading to a major mix-up in a major motion picture that morphed majoun into the pot brownie and turned the pot brownie into a Western icon forevermore. From the rowdy band of artists, rebels, and intellectuals who partook of majoun’s charms and to an activist who made the pot brownie a symbol of compassion, it’s the story of how cannabis cookery and hash eating survived through decades of global prohibition and the birth of a skies-the-limit cannabis-infused food industry. Along the way, Robyn Griggs Lawrence explores the medicinal qualities of cannabis and its resurgence as a both a recreational drug and a respite from various illnesses and ailments. With recipes and stories throughout, this work is sure to entertain and inform readers about the history of cannabis as an edible ingredient in a variety of foods.