This richly illustrated book could be summed up as the visual biography of a city and its culinary culture. In more than 400 photos, De Zure Stad sets out an – often Jewish – history of pickling in Amsterdam, from pickling plants to canned goods factories and sellers. Many surprising details – such as the fact that the pickling buckets were originally toilet buckets – are attractively presented. The way in which a huge diversity of archival materials of different kinds (old colour prints, black-and-white photographs, maps) go together to make up a consistent whole thanks to good image selection and a number of solid design choices, is impressive. While keeping this plethora of information accessible and attractive. Each chapter, for example, has its own colour, lending a fresh feel to the rather nostalgic subject matter. The choice for uncoated paper also gives the whole a contemporary touch. The combination of yellow and gherkin green on the cover is almost enough to make one purse one’s lips; perhaps not particularly delicious, but most definitely interesting. The jury were a little less enthusiastic about the centre line that runs across all of the pages in the interior – a device we often see, but here it does little to enhance either concept or functionality. Having said that, De Zure Stad is a rich, attractive book that should appeal to a broad spectrum of readers.