Archive for the ‘Food History’ Category

- “The beasts have memory, judgment and all the faculties and passions of our mind, in a certain degree; but no beast is a cook.”

This quip by the eighteenth-century Scottish biographer James Boswell defines the essence of humanity in a way his contemporaries would have found humorous but also thought provoking. It is neither an immortal soul, reason, nor powers of abstraction that separate us from animals but the simple ability to use fire to transform our daily fare into something more palatable and nutritious.

THE ORIGINS OF COOKING

ancient cookery

We are nothing more than cooking animals. Archaeological evidence bears this out; it is our distant Neanderthal relatives, whose sites offer the earliest incontrovertible evidence of cooking. From those distant times down to the present, the food we eat and how it is prepared has become the decisive factor in the survival of both individuals and whole civilizations, so what better way to approach the subject of history than through the bubbling cauldron?

Growing and preparing food has also been the occupation of the vast majority of men and women who ever lived. To understand ourselves, we should naturally begin with the food that constitutes the fabric of our existence. Yet every culture arrives at different solutions, uses different crops and cooking methods, and invents what amount to unique cuisines. These are to some extent predetermined by geography, technology, and a certain amount of luck. Nonetheless every cuisine is a practical and artistic expression of the culture that created it. It embodies the values and aspirations of each society, its world outlook as well as its history.

Cooking is full of questions that science can help answer — questions you might not have even thought about asking but that can make you a better cook.

cosas de picar, cazuelas & pinchos

After Mohammed’s followers gave up gambling, pork, and alcohol following his death in 632, the spread of Islam reduced the number of places in the Arab world where alcohol was available.  In Muslim Spain, laws forbade the serving of alcoholic drinks except as an ingredient in cooking or an accompaniment to food.  Barkeepers began serving drinks in mugs capped with a lid, or tapa.

From the practice of placing small morsels of food on the lid came the Spanish tradition of tapas, small dishes of bar food that made drinking legitimate. As described by the Spanish food critic Alicia Rio, these tasty bites encouraged diners to admire the cook’s art and to engage in genial conversation.

Today, the small savory servings come in three types: cosas de picar (finger food) such as olives, pinchos served on toothpicks, and cazuelas (small servings), dishes topped with sauce.