Comments on: Why 1492 is a non-event in culinary history

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:21:08 +0000

Hello Jennifer. Thanks for the comments. I am, though, going to hold out for the lack of transfer of many techniques. Polenta, for example, is ground dry, not nixtamalized and ground wet as in Mexico. What was the culinary knowledge you think was transferred back to Europe?

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:58:00 +0000

I think that as the ingredients traveled such as cacao, Maize, potato, etc many new foods were adapted, Polenta might be an example. At the time the transfer of medicinal plants and technologies was considered far more valuable. The Spanish learned the techniques, plants etc, and transferred the knowledge rather than the people. Generally priests preferred to be the repositories of knowledge.

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:33:42 +0000

Thanks for the support. I hope to return to this theme soon. And the paprikash sounds great.

By: ed (from Yuma)

ed (from Yuma) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:58:25 +0000

I read this article several months ago and have been thinking about it since. Your point about ingredients traveling freely but techniques not so much seems true. In my own cooking, I will experiment with new foods, but learning new ways of cooking them is much harder.

But I did make a paprikash using tons of paprika to thicken it, and wow it was really good.

By: Ji-Young Park

Ji-Young Park — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:21:12 +0000

” But not with chiles, not as thickeners, and not with tomatillos which give a lovely acid taste and great thickening power. Very little use of rehydrated dried chile in this capacity. Where are the tomatillos in Europe? Where are the chiles used as the thickeners and flavorers of sauces (instead of simply as a piquant taste).”

Not Europe, but chiles and tomatoes are used as thickeners in Algerian cuisine. They also use rehydrated chiles in harissa. But it doesn’t seem like a transfer of cooking techniques, rather chiles and tomatoes replaced more expensive ingredients such as saffron, nuts, dried fruits, etc.. that were used to add color, thicken sauces, add sweetness, etc.. In a sense I would describe the use of chiles and tomatoes in this context as a replacement of spices.

By: Brooke

Brooke — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 14:24:06 +0000

I’m looking forward to the discussion of potatoes. Your perspective, so far, is provacative. So can we extend the class analysis of food to Europe via potatoes? I wonder….

By: Adam Balic

Adam Balic — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:57:01 +0000

Not sure about the context of the image, but in the 17th century there is at least one detailed account from a gentleman scientist on cacao and how they have personally experimented with grinding it with a metate etc. This looks like an image from one of these texts.

Paprika is used as a thickening agent in Easten European cookery, although not to the extent of many other agents. Which might be the point, European cookery of the period has many other ways of thickening a sauce.

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:32:07 +0000

Yes, and nopales are so delicious too. Not sure whether or not I’ll be talking about potatoes. Depends on how the discussion goes.

By: Sandy D.

Sandy D. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:30:47 +0000

You know what was adopted really quickly and did make a huge difference to both areas in terms of economics & trade? Tobacco. Chilies & chocolate are good, but just couldn’t compare to a nicotine hit.

By: Kay Curtis

Kay Curtis — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:04:47 +0000

A couple of years ago, traveling in Sicily, the guide pointed out the fruit of prickly pear cactus as a tasty treat. When I offered that, in Mexico we eat the pads also after trimming the spines, the statement was met with amazement and skeptical incredulity.

Are you getting to potatoes?