Do you know where the rites that you put into practice every time you go to eat come from?
who invented the preserves ? When did the first restaurant ? how did you get to europe the use of the fork ? Is the Mediterranean diet a american creation ? All those questions that you have ever asked yourself about that daily act that is to eat -and many others that have not even occurred to you- find an answer in eating is a story (Planet, 2018).
"Thanks to the distribution of the world that Spain and Portugal agreed in Tordesillas, thai food is spicy , the English drink tea and spread their scones with orange marmalade, the Hungarians season with paprika, the Argentines export meat, wheat and wine, the turkey reigns in the Christmas tables, French fries are a Belgian national dish, polenta identifies Italians as tomato sauce and Pa Amb Tomàquet is a hallmark of Catalan identity". Did you know? Says the gastronomic critic Oscar Knight, that he writes this very complete volume almost in the form of master class.
We have read it to ourselves, and we have gathered for you, by way of hors d'oeuvres, some of its knowledge pills more interesting. Take advantage!
French fries as a national dish, a dream within the reach of Belgians
1. ABOUT TABLE CUSTOMS
The the fall of the Roman empire in the West marks the incorporation of the diner and of many of the customs that have survived until today. "Eating lying down, that far niente that pleased the Romans, is abandoned just like ceramic crockery, replaced by glass. Cutlery, few, but expressive: the nobles who have the opportunity to eat meat spend knife. And it's from Prayed".
"The poor, condemned to the regime of porridge and/or soups, they settle for wooden spoons and bowls. The nobles also have large rooms with small cabinets that store the dishes. When they want to eat, the lackeys set them up wooden planks on trestles -they set the table- and cover them with tablecloths that are actually used to clean your mouth and hands.
"The meats are flambéed in sight of the diners and cut as they are consumed, seasoned with that display of richness that is the containers with salt and spices. There is everything at those tables except good manners. You eat with your hands the remains and bones are thrown to the dogs that prowl around, the tip of the knife serves as a toothpick, and that is why Richelieu will order later in France round the tip of the knives ".
two. ON THE ANDALUSI INFLUENCE
Between 711 and 1492, the peninsula was under muslim rule, a culture that we assimilated until we made it our own and thanks to which we introduced from new fruits and vegetables -peaches, apricots, artichokes, oranges, melons, watermelons...- until preparations, methods and customs that revolutionized the way of life of that time.
Thus, in the rustic environment of the Iberians, the caliphs introduce a refinement unknown. "The year is 822 and in Cordova have decided to compete in luxury and splendor with the great Baghdad caliphs," writes Caballero, who proceeds to reel off a typical palace banquet.
"On linen and leather tablecloths embossed, in crystal glasses instead of metallic ones, in ceramic bowls, Zyriab reeled off the ritual. The parade of flavors was opened soups and stews. And it is likely that he was around a Gazpacho -without Andean tomato naturally, each thing in its own time- but like gazpacho it can come from caspos, 'pieces' -of dry bread-, it would take vinegar and oil and some vegetables. He could follow a marinade , from Sanskrit scabesh. And highly spiced meats and poultry. Sweets were almost main course, with hazelnuts; jams. The cold had no secrets for the Arabs who arrived with their shorbets **(sorbets)** ".
A banquet possible thanks to the Arabs
3. ABOUT THE BIRTH OF RESTAURANTS
There have always been places to eat, but the restaurant as such was born with the French Revolution , and then consists of a fixed structure formed by a living room, a kitchen and a cellar. According to Caballero, these establishments will be "a transmission belt between the late nobility and the rising bourgeoisie who learns, directly from those who managed them, the manners that distinguished the rustic from the well-born".
Four. ABOUT THE CREATION OF PAN
Wheat was first "domesticated" in the Zagros Mountains, between Iraq and Iran, 12,000 years . And it already had yeast. "The sumerians they would have explained to the egyptians the making of the bread then lost for a while the use of yeast what is the difference between that bread Greek pita or Indian roti . One theory says they are Normans who reintroduced the use of yeast in medieval Europe; another, which spreads in Central Europe. The truth is charlemagne or he will enforce hygiene rules in bakeries because he already considers bread as a basic food ".
5. ON THE 'GLUTEN-FREE' FASHION
And we are not talking about celiacs, but about those who avoid gluten by fashion . "Medicine and its spells have occupied in the West the space that the religion left free. But 'gluten-free' implies not only health problems , but also to deny our daily bread, desecrate wheat, synonym of food for centuries. Serious insurrection because not in vain blé ('wheat') is 'money' in French slang, equivalent of 'pasta' -made with wheat- in Spanish".
Bread is much more than 'bread'
6. ON THE END OF FAMINE
The potato, America's own food, "will be life insurance for the poor of Europe where, along with corn, will almost completely end famines , usually caused by a poor wheat harvest ". The reason that it was the most disadvantaged social class that clung to this tuber makes sense given that, while the rich "reserved the plant and the flower and the fruit ", the most miserable were fed based on roots.
7. ABOUT THE PREPARATIONS
The Huns bring to our continent the Fermented cabbage, although there are those who argue that "the region was already served in the V century of lacto-fermentation to preserve vegetables such as turnips". The Arabs were the ones who developed the steam cooking, but nevertheless, until the middle of the XIX century The West did not discover this technique that dated from nine centuries ago . And what could there be? saved the lives of many sailors until then, "because to produce cooking steam the water does not need to be sweet". For his part, the yogurt comes from Anatolia, where, in the eleventh century, the nomadic herders they invented the gelled milk to be able to transport the liquid with greater comfort.
8. ABOUT A VERY OUR DISH: THE TORTILLA
From the year 1100 dates "the deception omelette and/or stupid eggs, the Andalusian antecedent of the potato omelette. The old breadcrumbs mixed with two beaten eggs allowed to diversify a poor man's food : dough with garlic and parsley fried in the form of croquettes , of fritters, of what will later be called tortilla ".
Anatolian shepherds invented yogurt without knowing it