tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/food-history-32652/articles
Food history – The Conversation
2023-11-09T13:32:30Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216326
2023-11-09T13:32:30Z
2023-11-09T13:32:30Z
Cranberries can bounce, float and pollinate themselves: The saucy science of a Thanksgiving classic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558166/original/file-20231107-21-cmo43c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C9%2C2029%2C1140&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cranberries grow on vines in sandy bogs and marshes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Mm6QhN">Lance Cheung, USDA/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cranberries are a staple in U.S. households at Thanksgiving – but how did this bog dweller end up on holiday tables? </p>
<p>Compared to many valuable plant species that were domesticated over thousands of years, cultivated cranberry (<em>Vaccinium macrocarpon</em>) is a young agricultural crop, just as the U.S. is a young country and Thanksgiving is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-advertising-shaped-thanksgiving-as-we-know-it-86819">a relatively new holiday</a>. But <a href="https://soilcrop.tamu.edu/people/desalvio-serina/">as a plant scientist</a>, I’ve learned much about cranberries’ ancestry from their botany and genomics.</p>
<h2>New on the plant breeding scene</h2>
<p>Humans have cultivated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-018-9314-2">sorghum for some 5,500 years</a>, <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=114445">corn for around 8,700 years</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.120.401362">cotton for about 5,000 years</a>. In contrast, cranberries were domesticated around 200 years ago – but people were eating the berries before that.</p>
<p>Wild cranberries are native to North America. They were an important food source for Native Americans, who used them in puddings, sauces, breads and a <a href="https://www.cranberries.org/exploringcranberries/into/maki_back.html">high-protein portable food called pemmican</a> – a carnivore’s version of an energy bar, made from a mixture of dried meat and rendered animal fat and sometimes studded with dried fruits. Some tribes <a href="https://lakotarednations.com/2017/11/wo-lakota-making-wasna/">still make pemmican today</a>, and even <a href="https://tankabar.com/">market a commercial version</a>. </p>
<p>Cranberry cultivation began in 1816 in Massachusetts, where Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall found that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt7NA7G808Y&t=5s">covering cranberry bogs with sand</a> fertilized the vines and retained water around their roots. From there, the fruit spread throughout the U.S. Northeast and Upper Midwest. </p>
<p>Today, <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/chart-gallery/gallery/chart-detail/?chartId=102649">Wisconsin produces roughly 60%</a> of the U.S. cranberry harvest, followed by Massachusetts, Oregon and New Jersey. Cranberries also are grown in Canada, where they are <a href="https://canadianfoodfocus.org/in-season/whats-in-season-cranberries/">a major fruit crop</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four men in waders, holding long rakes, thigh-deep in a flooded bog, its surface covered with floating cranberries." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558168/original/file-20231107-29-f3xdq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farmers often flood cranberry bogs to harvest the fruit, which they rake loose from the vines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/bBmqts">Michael Galvin, Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>A flexible and adaptable plant</h2>
<p>Cranberries have many interesting botanical features. Like roses, lilies and daffodils, cranberry flowers are hermaphroditic, which means they <a href="https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/info/hermaphroditic-plant-information.htm">contain both male and female parts</a>. This allows them to self-pollinate instead of relying on birds, insects or other pollinators. </p>
<p>A cranberry blossom has four petals that peel back when the flower blooms. This exposes the anthers, which contain the plant’s pollen. The flower’s resemblance to the beak of a bird earned the cranberry its original name, <a href="https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/vaccinium/macrocarpon/">the “craneberry</a>.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A flower with four curved white petals tinged with pink." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=742&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558169/original/file-20231107-23-zvban6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A blossom on a cranberry bush in Wisconsin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cranberry_Blossom_%289180939392%29.jpg">Aaron Carlson/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>When cranberries don’t self-pollinate, they rely on bumblebees and honeybees to transport their pollen from flower to flower. They can also be propagated sexually, by planting seeds, or asexually, through rooting vine cuttings. This is important for growers because seed-based propagation allows for higher genetic diversity, which can translate to things like increased disease resistance or more pest tolerance. </p>
<p>Asexual reproduction is equally important, however. This method allows growers to create clones of varieties that perform very well in their bogs and grow even more of those high-performing types.</p>
<p>Every cranberry <a href="https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/news/2018/07/13/farm-technology-days-five-fun-cranberry-facts/784392002/">contains four air pockets</a>, which is why they float when farmers flood bogs to harvest them. The air pockets also make raw cranberries bounce when they are dropped on a hard surface – a good indicator of whether they are fresh.</p>
<p>These pockets serve a biological role: They enable the berries to float down rivers and streams to disperse their seeds. Many other plants disperse their seeds via animals and birds that eat their fruits and excrete the seeds as they move around. But as anyone who has tasted them raw knows, cranberries are ultra-tart, so they have <a href="https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_viopa2.pdf">limited appeal for wildlife</a>. </p>
<h2>Reading cranberry DNA</h2>
<p>For cranberries being such a young crop, scientists already know <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119616801.ch8">a lot about their genetics</a>. The cranberry <a href="https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Diploid">is a diploid</a>, which means that each cell contains one set of chromosomes from the maternal parent and one set from the paternal parent. It has 24 chromosomes, and its genome size is less than one-tenth that of the human genome. </p>
<p>Insights like these help scientists better understand where potentially valuable genes might be located in the cranberry genome. And diploid crops tend to have fewer genes associated with a single trait, which makes breeding them to emphasize that trait much simpler. </p>
<p>Researchers have also described the genetics of the cultivated cranberry’s wild relative, which is known as the “<a href="https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/cs_vaox.pdf">small cranberry” (<em>Vaccinium oxycoccos</em>)</a>. Comparing the two can help scientists determine where the cultivated cranberry’s agronomically valuable traits reside in its genome, and where some of the small cranberry’s cold hardiness might come from. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CxGCZq0xv16/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Researchers are <a href="https://www.vacciniumcap.org/">developing molecular markers</a> – tools to determine where certain genes or sequences of interest reside within a genome – to help determine the best combinations of genes from different varieties of cranberry that can enhance desired traits. For example, a breeder might want to make the fruits larger, more firm or redder in color.</p>
<p>While cranberries have only been grown by humans for a short period of time, they have been evolving for much longer. They entered agriculture with a long genetic history, including things like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264966">whole genome duplication events and genetic bottlenecks</a>, which collectively change which genes are gained or lost over time in a population. </p>
<p>Whole genome duplication events occur when two species’ genomes collide to form a new, larger genome, encompassing all the traits of the two parental species. Genetic bottlenecks occur when a population is greatly reduced in size, which limits the amount of genetic diversity in that species. These events are extremely common in the plant world and can lead to both gains and losses of different genes. </p>
<p>Analyzing the cranberry’s genome can indicate when it diverged evolutionarily from some of its relatives, such as the blueberry, lingonberry and huckleberry. Understanding <a href="https://theconversation.com/modern-tomatoes-are-very-different-from-their-wild-ancestors-and-we-found-missing-links-in-their-evolution-130041">how modern species evolved</a> can teach plant scientists about how different traits are inherited, and how to effectively breed for them in the future.</p>
<h2>Ripe at the right time</h2>
<p>Cranberries’ close association with Thanksgiving was simply a practical matter at first. Fresh cranberries are ready to harvest from mid-September through mid-November, so Thanksgiving falls within that perfect window for eating them. </p>
<p>Cranberry sauce was first loosely described in accounts from the American colonies in the 1600s, and appeared in a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-americas-first-cookbook-says-about-our-country-its-cuisine-180967809/">cookbook for the first time in 1796</a>. The berries’ tart flavor, which comes from <a href="https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/60677/">high levels of several types of acids</a>, makes them more than twice as acidic as most other edible fruits, so they add a welcome zing to a meal full of blander foods like turkey and potatoes.</p>
<p>In recent decades, the cranberry industry has branched out into <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-cranberries-conquer-the-world-a-us-industry-depends-on-it-87912">juices, snacks and other products</a> in pursuit of year-round markets. But for many people, Thanksgiving is still the time when they’re most likely to see cranberries in some form on the menu.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Serina DeSalvio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Cranberries add color and acidity to Thanksgiving menus, but they also have many interesting botanical and genetic features.
Serina DeSalvio, Ph.D. Candidate in Genetics and Genomics, Texas A&M University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210192
2023-07-21T22:12:38Z
2023-07-21T22:12:38Z
Researchers find evidence of a 2,000-year-old curry, the oldest ever found in Southeast Asia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538673/original/file-20230721-6029-zzrvqd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1828%2C1145&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ancient starch grains of ginger (Zingiber officinale), cinnamon (Cinnamomum sp.) and nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) were identified on the surface of this footed sandstone grinding slab.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Khanh Trung Kien Nguyen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s hard to imagine a world without spice today. Fast global trade has allowed the import and export of all manner of delicious ingredients that help bring Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Sri Lankan (and so many more) cuisines to our dinner tables.</p>
<p>Now, new research shows the trading of spices for culinary use goes way back – some 2,000 years, to be precise. </p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adh5517">paper published today</a> in Science Advances, we and our colleagues detail our findings of what seems to be evidence of Southeast Asia’s oldest known curry. It’s also the oldest evidence of curry ever <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/british-monks-discovered-curry-recipe-200-year-old-cookbook-180957979/">found outside India</a>.</p>
<p>We made the intriguing discovery at the Oc Eo archaeological complex in southern Vietnam. We found eight unique spices, originally from different sources, which were likely used for making curry. What’s even more fascinating is that some of these would have been transported over several thousand kilometres by sea.</p>
<h2>Grinding into the evidence</h2>
<p>Our team’s research wasn’t initially focused on curry. Rather, we were curious to learn about the function of a set of stone grinding tools known as “pesani”, which the people of the ancient <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Funan">Funan kingdom</a> likely used to powder their spices. We also wanted to gain a deeper understanding of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/made-on-earth/the-flavours-that-shaped-the-world/">ancient spice trade</a>. </p>
<p>Using a technique called starch grain analysis, we analysed microscopic remains recovered from a range of grinding and pounding tools excavated from the Oc Eo site. Most of these tools were excavated by our team from 2017 to 2019, while some had been previously collected by the local museum.</p>
<p>Starch grains are tiny structures found within plant cells that can be preserved over long periods. Studying them can provide valuable insights into past plant use, diet, cultivation practices and even environmental conditions. </p>
<p>Of the 40 tools we analysed, 12 produced a range of spices including turmeric, ginger, fingerroot, sand ginger, galangal, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon. This means the occupants of the site had indeed used the tools for food processing, including to powder the rhizomes, seeds and stems of spice plants to release flavour.</p>
<p>To figure out how old the site and tools were, our team obtained 29 separate dates from charcoal and wood samples. This included a date of 207-326 CE produced by a charcoal sample taken from just below the largest grinding slab, which measures 76cm by 31cm (pictured below and at the top of this article).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538674/original/file-20230721-19-gjvz7g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We excavated this footed sandstone grinding slab in 2018. On its surface we found ancient starch grains of ginger (<em>Zingiber officinale</em>), cinnamon (<em>Cinnamomum sp.</em>) and nutmeg (<em>Myristica fragrans</em>).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Khanh Trung Kien Nguyen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Another team working at the same site applied a technique called <a href="https://www.uow.edu.au/science-medicine-health/research/geoquest/facilities/thermoluminescence-dating-laboratory/">thermoluminescence dating</a> to bricks used in the site’s architecture. Collectively, the results show the Oc Eo complex was occupied between the 1st and 8th centuries CE.</p>
<h2>A spicy history</h2>
<p>We know the global spice trade has linked cultures and economies in Asia, Africa and Europe since classical times. </p>
<p>However, before this study we had limited evidence of ancient curry at archaeological sites – and the little evidence we did have mainly came from India. Most of our knowledge of the early spice trade has therefore come from clues in ancient documents from India, China and Rome.</p>
<p>Our research is the first to confirm, in a very tangible way, that spices were valuable commodities exchanged on the global trading network nearly 2,000 years ago.</p>
<p>The spices found at Oc Eo wouldn’t have all been available in the region naturally; someone at some point would have transported them there via the Indian or Pacific Ocean. This proves curry has a fascinating history beyond India, and that curry spices were coveted far and wide.</p>
<p>If you’ve ever prepared curry from scratch, you’ll know it’s not simple. It involves considerable time and effort, as well as a range of unique spices, and the use of grinding tools. </p>
<p>So it’s interesting to note that nearly 2,000 years ago, individuals living outside India had a strong desire to savour the flavors of curry – as evidenced by their diligent preparations. </p>
<p>Another fascinating finding is that the curry recipe used in Vietnam today has not deviated significantly from the ancient Oc Eo period. Key components such as turmeric, cloves, cinnamon and coconut milk have remained consistent in the recipe. It goes to show a good recipe will stand the test of time!</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-batshit-experiment-bones-cooked-in-bat-poo-lift-the-lid-on-how-archaeological-sites-are-formed-156865">A batshit experiment: bones cooked in bat poo lift the lid on how archaeological sites are formed</a>
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<h2>What’s next?</h2>
<p>In this study, we primarily focused on microscopic plant remains. And we have yet to compare these findings with other larger plant remains unearthed from the site.</p>
<p>During an excavation conducted from 2017 to 2020, our team also collected a significant number of well-preserved seeds. In the future we hope to analyse these, too. We may identify many more spices, or may even discover unique plant species – adding to our understanding of the region’s history. </p>
<p>By completing more dating on the site, we might also be able to understand when and how each type of spice or plant started to be traded globally.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>We would like to acknowledge our colleague Khanh Trung Kien Nguyen of Vietnam’s Southern Institute for Social Sciences for their invaluable contribution to this work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210192/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The discovery is helping shed light on a vibrant ancient spice trade that spanned many thousands of kilometres.
Weiwei Wang, PhD Candidate, Australian National University
Hsiao-chun Hung, Senior Research Fellow, School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205656
2023-06-04T20:04:25Z
2023-06-04T20:04:25Z
‘Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living’: a (condensed) history of soup, from cave to can
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527416/original/file-20230522-23-9krgn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hot soup on a cold day brings warmth and comfort so simple that we don’t think too much about its origins. But its long history runs from the Stone Age and antiquity through to modernity, encompassing the birth of the restaurant, advances in chemistry, and a famous pop art icon. </p>
<p>The basic nature of soup has a fundamental appeal that feels primordial – because it is. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/12384834/2015_Speth_When_Did_Humans_Learn_to_Boil_">Archaeologists</a> speculate the first soup might have been made by Neanderthals, boiling animal bones to extract fat essential for their diet and drinking the broth. Without the fats, their high intake of lean animal meats could have led to protein poisoning, so stone age soup was an important complement to primeval nutrition.</p>
<p>The fundamental benefit of these bone broths is confirmed by archaeological discoveries around the world, ranging from a gelatin broth in <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/317-1811/trenches/7056-trenches-egypt-giza-livestock-bones">Egypt’s Giza plateau</a>, to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11981666">Shaanxi Province</a> in China. </p>
<p>The widespread distribution of archaeological finds is a reminder soup not only has a long history, but is also a global food. </p>
<p>Today, our idea of soup is more refined, but the classic combination of stock and bread is embedded in the Latin root of the verb <em>suppāre</em>, meaning “to soak”. </p>
<p>As a noun, <em>suppa</em> became <em>soupe</em> in Old French, meaning bread soaked in broth, and <em><a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED41830/track?counter=1&search_id=24326280">sowpes</a></em> in Middle English. This pairing was also an economical way of reclaiming stale bread and thickening a thin broth.
Wealthier households might have toasted fresh bread for the dish, but less prosperous diners used up stale bread that was too hard to chew unless softened in the hot liquid.</p>
<h2>From rustic to creamy</h2>
<p>New ideas about science and digestion in 17th century France promoted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340977432_The_Transformative_Influence_of_La_Varenne's_Le_Cuisinier_Francois_1651_on_French_Culinary_Practice">natural flavours</a> and thick, rustic preparations gave way to the creamy and velvety smooth soups we know today. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People line up for soup" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Soup Kitchen, Antonio de Puga, ca. 1630.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museo de Arte de Ponce</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>New versions of the liquid food were developed by early modern European chefs, such as the <a href="https://archive.org/details/lenouveaucuisini01mass/page/138/mode/2up">seafood bisque</a>, extracting flavour from the shells of crustaceans.</p>
<p>The first restaurant as we understand them today opened in Paris in 1765, and was immortalised for a <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9785063s/f167.item.r=sante">simple broth</a>, a clear soup made from bone broth and fresh herbs. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.rebeccalspang.org/invention-of-the-restaurant">Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau</a>, the original French restaurateur, created a new type of public space where weary diners could regain their lost appetites and soothe their delicate nerves at all hours. </p>
<p>It may appear to be a contradiction that the first restaurant specifically catered to clients who had lost their appetites, yet it seems perfectly natural soup was the cure.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revolutionary-broth-the-birth-of-the-restaurant-and-the-invention-of-french-gastronomy-165507">Revolutionary broth: the birth of the restaurant and the invention of French gastronomy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Easy and affordable</h2>
<p>Soup was not destined to be limited to fancy restaurants or the long simmering stock pots of peasants. Modern science made it convenient and less expensive for home cooks. </p>
<p>In 1897, a chemist at the Campbell soup company, John Dorrance, developed a <a href="https://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/about-us/our-story/campbell-history/">condensed canned soup</a> that dramatically reduced the water content. The new method halved the cost of shipping and made canned soup an affordable meal anyone could prepare. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of men at a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lunch (The Soup, Version II), Albin Egger-Lienz, 1910.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leopold Museum, Vienna</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This revolutionary achievement was recognised at the 1900 Paris Exposition, winning an award for product excellence. Winning the prize was an achievement considering the competition at the world fair. The other technological advances exhibited at the turn of the century included the diesel engine, “talking” films, dry cell batteries and the Paris Metro.</p>
<p>The bronze medallion from 1900 still appears on the iconic red and white label, made famous by pop artist Andy Warhol’s <a href="https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans-1962/">32 Campbell Soup Cans</a> (1962). </p>
<p>In his work, Warhol appropriated images from consumer culture and the media ordinary people would instantly recognise, from Coca-Cola bottles to Marilyn Monroe. In his famous soup painting, 32 canvases – one for each flavour of soup – are lined up like cans on a supermarket shelf. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://warhol.netx.net/portals/warhol-exhibitions/#asset/108496">interpretations</a> consider this a commentary on the link between art and consumerism, emphasising the ordinary quality of the everyday object. The artist may also have been influenced by his personal eating habits – he claimed he had <a href="https://whitney.org/collection/works/5632">soup for lunch</a> every day for 20 years. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/polaroids-of-the-everyday-and-portraits-of-the-rich-and-famous-you-should-know-the-compulsive-photography-of-andy-warhol-200081">Polaroids of the everyday and portraits of the rich and famous: you should know the compulsive photography of Andy Warhol</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘One of the prime ingredients of good living’</h2>
<p>A steady diet of soup is not guaranteed to inspire famous art, but its appeal is universal. Soup can be humble or fancy, cutting across cultures and classes. </p>
<p>Deceptively simple, the warmth and comfort of soup provide a temporary refuge from the winter chill, comforting the diner from the inside. </p>
<p>The French chef Auguste Escoffier, famous for enshrining the five basic “<a href="https://www.escoffieronline.com/our-guide-to-escoffiers-5-mother-sauces/">mother sauces</a>” in French cuisine, raised soups to perfection in the early 20th century, developing refined preparations that remain classics today. </p>
<p>Escoffier, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Escoffier.html?id=JFIDd639wlQC&redir_esc=y">known as</a> “the king of chefs and the chef of kings”, had very <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Guide_to_Modern_Cookery/KCbkcXHj7qoC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=escoffier+guide+culinaire&printsec=frontcover">high standards</a> for soup, claiming “of all the items on the menu, soup is that which exacts the most delicate perfection”.</p>
<p>An Austrian apprentice of Escoffier, Louis P. De Gouy, was chef at the Waldorf Astoria for 30 years and wrote 13 cookbooks. </p>
<p>He summed up the appeal of soup in a <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Soup_Book/1tNmDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">volume</a> dedicated to the dish with over 700 recipes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living. For soup can do more to lift the spirits and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From Neanderthal broth to pop art icon, this humble pantry staple has a rich and vibrant history, giving us both nourishment and food for thought.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Garritt C. Van Dyk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Archaeologists speculate the first soup might have been made by Neanderthals.
Garritt C. Van Dyk, Lecturer, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206234
2023-05-26T15:51:13Z
2023-05-26T15:51:13Z
Why more foam makes for the best beer-drinking experience – and always has
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528568/original/file-20230526-27-bktphl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C32%2C5455%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/glasses-light-dark-beer-on-pub-391005604">Viiviien/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What makes for the ultimate beer drinking experience? Some like theirs in a frosty glass, others with a wedge of lime. But when it comes to froth – or the head as it’s commonly known – what’s the best amount and how can it be achieved?</p>
<p>Too much froth and you’re left with a smear of bubbles across your face and hanging from your nose as you desperately try to get at the beer beneath. But too little will cause problems in your stomach.</p>
<p>You see, if there’s no foam the CO<sub>2</sub> stays dissolved in the beer. If you then eat something, the foam erupts in your <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/beer-foam-tilt-bloated-explanation-a8142506.html">stomach rather than the glass, causing beer bloat</a>. That’s why tipping a glass to avoid a frothy head is a rookie error. </p>
<p>Hoping to solve this issue, a company in Japan has designed a <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2023/05/04/nendo-beer-can-two-pull-tabs/">beer can with two pulls</a>, which control the level of foam produced by opening the can, resulting in the perfect amount of froth. </p>
<p>This is just the most recent development in beer technology. Humanity has been chasing the perfect pint since beer’s inception, which evidence suggests was <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/press-releases/2018/09/12/crafting-beer-lereal-cultivation/#:%7E:text=Liu%20and%20her%20research%20team,the%20world%2C%E2%80%9D%20Liu%20said.">roughly 13,000 years</a> ago near Haifa, Israel – the oldest known record of human-made alcohol.</p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>Beer consumption has evolved through the ages.</p>
<p>Those first producers and consumers of beer in Israel were the Natufian people, a group of hunter-gatherers in the eastern Mediterranean. Their beer would have been unfiltered, which made it look like thin porridge. </p>
<p>This led to the invention of beer straws around the fifth to the fourth millennium in Iran and Iraq, which featured a filter on the tip that held back the beer solids. These straws were similar in design to a modern <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombilla">bombilla</a></em> (a yerba mate tea straw used for at least four centuries in South America).</p>
<p>The next significant leap in brewing was not the glass bottle, but another airtight closure: the barrel. </p>
<p>Advances in cooperage (the making of wooden casks and barrells) during the Middle Ages meant that the CO<sub>2</sub> produced by yeast during fermentation remained in the solution within the container, rather than dissipating and giving it the porridge-like consistency of previous beers. This meant beer could be held and dispensed under pressure for the first time. This inexorably altered the appearance and flavour of beer, as it became effervescent and foamy when served fresh. </p>
<p>Foam was a vital component of proper beer because it showed its freshness. </p>
<h2>A good head</h2>
<p>The foamy head was at one time called a “collar” – a term that first appeared in print in John Steinbeck’s 1945 novel <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/apr/25/cannery-row-sentimental-shallow-john-steinbeck">Cannery Row</a>. There seems to be no origin story attached to the monicker. And sadly, there seems less need to apply a name to beer foam since society has strayed from proper beer pouring techniques. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A beer being poured." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528569/original/file-20230526-17-e2scjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528569/original/file-20230526-17-e2scjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528569/original/file-20230526-17-e2scjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528569/original/file-20230526-17-e2scjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528569/original/file-20230526-17-e2scjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528569/original/file-20230526-17-e2scjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528569/original/file-20230526-17-e2scjz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Beer should not be poured into a tipped glass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pouring-light-beer-into-glass-1730807953">RichelleJuniper32/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Traditionally, beer was allowed to foam up so much as it was being poured that a “foam scraper” (also known as a “foam flipper” or “head cutter”) was needed to shave the excess off the glass rim. A large head was achieved by pouring the beer in an upright glass and encouraging excessive foaming. This technique dissipates the trapped CO<sub>2</sub> and brings positive flavour elements to the forefront. </p>
<p>These days you’ll notice that glasses are tipped while beer is poured. This is done to minimise foam but leads to a less pleasurable, gaseous experience instead of a creamy, toasty sip.</p>
<p>Next time you order a pint you should ask your bartender to pour the amber stuff into an upright glass. This is all to say, don’t fear the foam, it’s integral to your enjoyment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206234/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anistatia Renard Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
If your beer has no foam you could end up with terrible bloat.
Anistatia Renard Miller, PhD in History, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206021
2023-05-25T12:05:35Z
2023-05-25T12:05:35Z
Chow mein and chips: a brief history of the British Chinese takeaway
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527269/original/file-20230519-27-6lxthk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C0%2C3529%2C2392&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Chinese and English takeaway in Claughton village, Birkenhead.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/birkenhead-uk-may-4-2020-sunny-1724863096">Philip Brookes/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I’ve never been so disgusted in my life.” Such was <a href="https://twitter.com/KeemVibes/status/1653513615864127489?s=20">one Twitter user’s</a> response to a recent video showcasing the spoils of a British Chinese takeaway order. “British Chinese” was trending on social media as American users analysed and criticised the cuisine, apparently <a href="https://twitter.com/daxdives/status/1652904458551185408">bewildered</a> by the “<a href="https://twitter.com/bruvduroiu/status/1654083090774622208?s=20">inauthentic</a>” inclusion of chips or thick curry sauce.</p>
<p>British consumers and producers of Chinese food alike <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/chinese-takeaway-tiktok-british-american-b2334781.html">proudly showcased their takeaways</a> in retaliation. Posters on either side of the debate sought to deem their version of Chinese food “authentic” or “traditional”, revealing the powerful connotations of these two words and their connection to culinary identity.</p>
<p>There is no hard definition for what makes food authentic or traditional. Instead, food goes through a process of authentication. A dish once considered novel or adaptive can form a strong identity over time, eventually becoming traditional in its own right.</p>
<p>Chinese food is a perfect example of this. It has always been produced in ways that blur both national boundaries and the borders between ethnic cuisines. </p>
<p>The history of Chinese food both <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Globalisation-of-Chinese-Food/Cheung-Wu/p/book/9781138863316">in China and around the world</a> serves as a rich record of <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo3536662.html#:%7E:text=China%20to%20Chinatown%20tells%20the,Polo%20and%20Franciscan%20missionaries%2C%20J.A.G.">trade, migration and colonialism</a>. Many citizens of former British colonies such as Malaysia and Hong Kong who migrated to the UK started working in the food sector. From the 1950s onwards, they began renting vacant fish and chip shops in small towns and villages.</p>
<p>In rural areas, these businesses were often one of few takeaway options available. Using the facilities on hand, they added a variety of dishes to their menu to cater to those more used to fish and chips fare.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1652904458551185408"}"></div></p>
<p>Roux-like curry sauces were included in Chinese takeaways for many of the same reasons. Indo-Pakistani inspired curries from another colonial migratory flow were the other major source of “non-British” takeaway foods at the time. </p>
<p>Stand-up comedian <a href="https://list.co.uk/news/2551/pierre-novellie-youre-expected-to-care">Pierre Novellie</a> defines British cuisine with one word – “wet”. There’s truth to his observation. It’s amazing how migrants have adapted and shaped the British love of thick sauces and no-fuss takeaways to suit their own businesses. </p>
<h2>Chinese takeaways around the world</h2>
<p>In Australia, Chinese takeaways date back to the 1850s, when Chinese cookhouses and greengrocers provided for gold miners in remote parts of the country. Today, it’s common for Australians to joke that a town is not a town without a pub and a Chinese takeaway (often being the same establishment).</p>
<p>As Jan O’Connell, author of <a href="https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/mutton-masterchef/">A Timeline of Australian Food</a> notes, Australian Chinese food reflects a <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-lurid-orange-sauces-to-refined-regional-flavours-how-politics-helped-shape-chinese-food-in-australia-150283">complex history</a> of pro- and anti-immigration policies. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Five foil takeaway containers with colourful food inside including chicken chow mein, chilli beef and prawn crackers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527268/original/file-20230519-15-xg6zxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=59%2C0%2C4839%2C3464&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527268/original/file-20230519-15-xg6zxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527268/original/file-20230519-15-xg6zxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527268/original/file-20230519-15-xg6zxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527268/original/file-20230519-15-xg6zxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527268/original/file-20230519-15-xg6zxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527268/original/file-20230519-15-xg6zxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A typical British Chinese takeaway order, including chicken chow mein, chilli beef and prawn crackers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chinese-takeaway-food-crispy-shredded-beef-1346935499">DronG/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cantonese-inspired “sizzling honey prawns” and chunky Australian variations of “Mongolian beef” are considered <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2018/11/22/why-does-every-town-australia-have-chinese-restaurant">staples of the modern Aussie diet</a>. Where British Chinese food is brown and gravy laden, Australian varieties favour sweet flavours and bright colours.</p>
<p>Legacies of colonialism have shaped other Asian cuisines too. Japanese dishes that have become popular in the US, UK and Australia – such as ramen noodles and gyoza dumplings – are a product of the movements of people, foodstuffs and ideas across national borders.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/20875">Slurp</a>, a history of ramen, cultural historian Barak Kushner traces how movements between China and Japan shaped the rise of ramen and gyoza.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A bowl of chicken covered in katsu curry sauce." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527272/original/file-20230519-25-c3c982.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527272/original/file-20230519-25-c3c982.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527272/original/file-20230519-25-c3c982.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527272/original/file-20230519-25-c3c982.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527272/original/file-20230519-25-c3c982.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527272/original/file-20230519-25-c3c982.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527272/original/file-20230519-25-c3c982.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Katsu curry sauce shares common ancestry with the British Chinese takeaway.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/japanese-chicken-katsu-curry-stew-rice-2275870681">Brent Hofacker/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chinese noodle varieties – often but not always made by migrants in port cities such as Yokohama – popularised the consumption of wheat-based noodles in Japan. The terms “ramen” and “gyoza” sound very much like the Japanese pronunciation of the northern Chinese foods <em>lamian</em> and <em>jiaozi</em>, although Kushner disputes the direct connection between the two terms.</p>
<p>After the second world war, many Japanese soldiers and farmers that had been stationed in occupied China returned home. There, some opened local Chinese restaurants with dishes inspired by their time in China.</p>
<p>British troops stationed in Japan as part of occupation forces in the same postwar period introduced local chefs to curry powder and roux-like sauces. Today’s popular Katsu curry sauce shares common ancestry in many ways with the British Chinese takeaway.</p>
<p>It’s clear from the recent social media trends around British Chinese food that the cuisine holds unique importance in different local identities. Cuisines go through stages of innovation, adaptation and localisation, becoming considered authentic or traditional in the process. </p>
<p>The passionate defence of British Chinese food on TikTok shows how important the humble takeaway is today and the contribution of Chinese migration to British identity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Citizens of former British colonies such as Malaysia and Hong Kong rented vacant fish and chip shops to start their Chinese takeaway businesses.
Jamie Coates, Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield
Niamh Calway, DPhil candidate, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203074
2023-04-03T14:50:53Z
2023-04-03T14:50:53Z
Easter eggs: their evolution from chicken to chocolate
<p>A lot of Easter traditions – including hot cross buns and lamb on Sunday – stem from <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-history-of-easter-feasts-and-why-the-english-breakfast-might-be-medieval-180521">medieval Christian</a> or even earlier pagan beliefs. The chocolate Easter egg, however, is a more modern twist on tradition.</p>
<p>Chicken eggs have been eaten at Easter for centuries. Eggs have long symbolised rebirth and renewal, making them perfect to commemorate the story of Jesus’ resurrection as well as the arrival of spring.</p>
<p>Although nowadays eggs can be eaten during the fasting period of Lent, in the middle ages they were prohibited along with meat and dairy. Medieval chefs often found surprising ways around this, even making <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mock-medieval-foods">mock eggs</a> to replace them. </p>
<p>For Easter – a period of celebration – eggs and meat, such as lamb (also a symbol of renewal), were back on the table.</p>
<p>Even once eggs were permitted in fasting meals, they kept a special place in the Easter feast. Seventeenth-century cookbook author <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A51636.0001.001/1:10.7?rgn=div2;view=fulltext">John Murrell recommended</a> “egges with greene sawce”, a sort of pesto made with sorrel leaves.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A painting showing three young girls rolling dyed blue eggs in the grass on a spring day." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518762/original/file-20230331-22-s84ty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rolling Easter Eggs by Edward Atkinson Hornel (1905).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/rolling-easter-eggs-21356/search/keyword:easter-egg--referrer:global-search/page/1/view_as/grid">Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Across Europe, eggs were also <a href="https://time.com/4732984/easter-eggs-history-origins/">given as a tithe</a> (a sort of yearly rent) to the local church on Good Friday. This might be where the idea of giving eggs as a gift comes from. The practice died out in many Protestant areas after the Reformation, but some English villages kept the tradition going until the 19th century.</p>
<p>It’s not known exactly when people started to decorate their eggs, but <a href="https://archive.org/details/eggateaster00vene/page/262/">research has pointed</a> to the 13th century, when King Edward I gave his courtiers eggs wrapped in gold leaf.</p>
<p>A few centuries later, we know that people across Europe were dying their eggs different colours. They usually chose yellow, using onion peel, or red, using madder roots or beetroots. The red eggs are thought to symbolise the blood of Christ. <a href="https://books.google.de/books?id=yh6E8D1CHhwC&hl=de&pg=PA241-IA6#v=onepage&q&f=false">One 17th-century author</a> suggested this practice went as far back as early Christians in Mesopotamia, but it’s hard to know for sure. </p>
<p>In England, the most popular way of decorating was with petals, which made colourful imprints. The Wordsworth Museum in the Lake District still has <a href="https://twitter.com/WordsworthGras/status/714107987107913729">a collection of eggs</a> made for the poet’s children from the 1870s.</p>
<h2>From dyed eggs to chocolate eggs</h2>
<p>Although dyeing patterned eggs is still a common Easter activity, these days eggs are more commonly associated with chocolate. But when did this shift happen? </p>
<p>When chocolate arrived in Britain in the 17th century, it was an exciting and very expensive novelty. In 1669, the <a href="https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.FOOD.5.129873">Earl of Sandwich paid £227</a> – the equivalent of around £32,000 today – for a chocolate recipe from King Charles II.</p>
<p>Today chocolate is thought of as a solid food, but then it was only ever a drink and was usually <a href="https://rarecooking.com/2016/01/28/chacolet-from-rebeckah-winches-receipt-book-at-the-folger-shakespeare-library/">spiced with chilli pepper</a> following Aztec and Maya traditions. For the English, this exotic new drink was like nothing they’d ever encountered. <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A44919.0001.001/1:5.48?rgn=div2;view=fulltext">One author called it</a> the “American Nectar”: a drink for the gods.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An illustrated advert for Fry's hot chocolate shows a pair of children drinking hot chocolate in bed, with the words 'Hooray! It's Fry's' written on the bed sheet." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518763/original/file-20230331-26-lu5ski.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An advert for Fry’s hot chocolate (c.1900-1909).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/p2u4mf9f/images?id=g9w2dz5r">Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Chocolate was soon a fashionable drink for the aristocracy, often given as a gift thanks to its high status, a tradition still followed today. It was also enjoyed in the <a href="https://books.google.de/books?id=zhzVN39UciQC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gbs_navlinks_s">newly opened coffee houses</a> around London. Coffee and tea had also only just been introduced to England, and all three drinks were rapidly changing how Britons socially interacted with each other.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07409710701273282?journalCode=gfof20">Catholic theologians</a> did connect chocolate with Easter in this time, but out of concern that drinking chocolate would go against fasting practices during Lent. After heated debate, it was agreed that chocolate made with water might be acceptable during fasts. At Easter at least – a time of feasting and celebration – chocolate was fine.</p>
<p>Chocolate remained expensive into the 19th century, when Fry’s (now part of Cadbury) made the <a href="https://archive.org/details/truehistoryofcho0000coes_o3r0/page/242/">first solid chocolate bars in 1847</a>, revolutionising the chocolate trade.</p>
<p>For the Victorians, chocolate was much more accessible but still something of an indulgence. Thirty years later, in 1873, Fry’s developed the first chocolate Easter egg as a luxury treat, merging the two gift-giving traditions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Supermarket shelves stacked with colourful Easter egg boxes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518778/original/file-20230331-16-9b170n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518778/original/file-20230331-16-9b170n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518778/original/file-20230331-16-9b170n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518778/original/file-20230331-16-9b170n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518778/original/file-20230331-16-9b170n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518778/original/file-20230331-16-9b170n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518778/original/file-20230331-16-9b170n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chocolate eggs went mainstream in the 1960s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/exeter-devon-england-march-6th-2019-1334619116">Wise Dog Studio/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even in the early 20th century, these chocolate eggs were seen as a special present, and many people never even ate theirs. A woman in Wales <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-61154848">kept an egg</a> from 1951 for 70 years and a museum in Torquay recently bought an egg that had been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-56419025">saved since 1924</a>.</p>
<p>It was only in the 1960s and 1970s that supermarkets began to offer <a href="https://theconversation.com/easter-eggs-were-once-a-rare-luxury-so-how-did-they-become-so-commonplace-94151">chocolate eggs at a cheaper price</a>, hoping to profit off the Easter tradition.</p>
<p>With rising concerns over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/15/climate-crisis-to-hit-europes-coffee-and-chocolate-supplies">long-term chocolate production</a> and bird flu provoked egg shortages, future Easters might look a little different. But if there is one thing that Easter eggs can show us, it’s the adaptability of tradition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Serin Quinn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Eggs have long symbolised rebirth and renewal, making them perfect to commemorate the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
Serin Quinn, PhD Candidate, Department of History, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/201007
2023-03-02T12:39:11Z
2023-03-02T12:39:11Z
Turnips: how Britain fell out of love with the much-maligned vegetable
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513121/original/file-20230302-29-oy3ewe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=96%2C60%2C1825%2C1078&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hand-coloured etching of a king and his turnip (1819).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/967190001">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Environment secretary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/23/food-shortages-environment-secretary-urges-britons-cherish-turnips">Thérèse Coffey’s recent suggestion</a> that Britons should turn to turnips following tomato shortages <a href="https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/30-of-the-best-coffey-turnip-memes-on-twitter/">did not go down</a> as she might have hoped. </p>
<p>In trying to revive interest in local produce, Coffey could not have chosen a less glamorous root vegetable. But why do we now look down on the faithful turnip – was it always so unloved? </p>
<p>It’s not clear when turnips were first eaten in Britain, but they didn’t always have a bad reputation. The Old English word <em>neep</em> – a name now only seen in Scotland alongside tatties and haggis – goes back to at least the 10th century, but turnip (“turn-neep”) is only about 500 years old.</p>
<p>Historically, the word “turnip” didn’t only refer to the round purple root, but root vegetables of various shapes, colours and sizes. Sixteenth-century botanist John Gerard was particularly keen on “<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A01622.0001.001/1:17.1?rgn=div2;view=fulltext">small turneps</a>”, which he said were much sweeter than the large kind and grown in a village called Hackney outside London. </p>
<p>Around the same time, <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A89219.0001.001/1:27.34?rgn=div2;view=fulltext;q1=sodd">physician Thomas Moffett</a> was eager to write about the blood red turnips he had eaten in Prague, which were so “delicate” that the emperor himself grew them. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing of a mostly white turnip and its leaves on a plain background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=930&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513123/original/file-20230302-21-fxid56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1168&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coloured etching of a turnip by Magdalena Bouchard (1772).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qnp24748">Courtesy of the Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Importing new kinds of fruit and vegetables from Europe was all the rage with the early modern rich, who loved to show off their connections and <a href="https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/food-in-early-modern-england-phases-fads-fashions-1500-1760/">turnips were no exception</a>. Writers of the time weren’t much interested in where their “ordinary” or “garden” turnips came from, but they were still happy to eat them. </p>
<p>Another botanist, <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A09010.0001.001/1:12.8.41?rgn=div3;view=fulltext">John Parkinson</a>, wrote in 1629 that thanks to their sweetness, turnips were: “much esteemed, and often seen as a dish at good men’s tables”. In response to Coffey, chef Thomasina Miers’ suggested <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1629804151566901250">caramelising turnips in butter</a>. This is just the sort of sweet dish turnips were once appreciated for. </p>
<p>Early modern authors <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A14328.0001.001/1:10?rgn=div1;view=fulltext">also praised their medical uses</a>. Turnips were considered nourishing, restorative and generally good for the body – even if they did sometimes cause wind.</p>
<h2>From human to animal fodder</h2>
<p>So what took the turnip off “good men’s tables”? Historians <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9780812252330/digging-the-past/">Frances Dolan</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/621824">Mark Overton</a> point to animal feed and crop rotations. Turnips have been used to feed animals since antiquity, although Roman naturalist <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D18%3Achapter%3D34">Pliny the Elder</a> stressed that they were just as good for human consumption.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman standing, another sitting and a man lying down in a field of turnips" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513124/original/file-20230302-21-78wx3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Turnip hoeing graphite by Brian Hatton (1906).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/68780001">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even as Gerard praised his Hackney turnips, he also noted that “poore people in Wales” were forced to eat them raw in times of hardship. Up to this point, the root could be both the food of the rich and the poor. But from the end of the 17th century, growing winter turnips to feed livestock became more common and systematic crops rotations started to take off, which used turnips as one of the main nutrient providing plants.</p>
<p>Rotting turnips could feed animals and make great compost, but this didn’t exactly endear them to aristocrats. At the same time, new root vegetables were coming in from the Americas, with potatoes and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sweet-potatoes-donald-trump-and-the-special-relationship-69254">sweet potatoes</a> proving very popular. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of hares recovering after a fight, one of them taking another's pulse and another eating a turnip." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513125/original/file-20230302-28-w8avj1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lithograph showing hares enjoying turnips after being hunted, by WBT (1859).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/d8exhb6b/images?id=hhah6d7s">Courtesy of the Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other now obscure but once favoured root vegetables – <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210325-the-strange-medieval-fruit-the-world-forgot">skirrets and eryngoes</a> – gradually fell out of British diets and parsnips and carrots were used less in sweet dishes partially thanks to the rapid increase in sugar production.</p>
<p>The global food chains that are at the heart of our current salad shortages mean that British consumers no longer need to eat (or individually produce) crops like turnips out of necessity.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising turnips couldn’t quite stand up to the huge changes in agriculture and food choice over the last three centuries. What their history does show, however, is that they have managed to survive despite it all, even if today’s consumers today aren’t really sure <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/26/therese-coffey-uk-tomato-salad-shortage-turnips/">what to do with them</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Serin Quinn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Thérèse Coffey’s recent suggestion that Brits eat turnips instead of tomatoes during food shortages was mocked – but the turnip hasn’t always been so unpopular, as a food historian explains.
Serin Quinn, PhD candidate, Department of History, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/188696
2022-08-25T12:42:54Z
2022-08-25T12:42:54Z
What’s behind America’s pickle craze?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480660/original/file-20220823-5597-3a9j84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C16%2C5582%2C3715&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hopefully, the pepperoni won't get too jealous over its disc-shaped competitor's moment in the sun.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/italian-pizza-with-bacon-pickled-cucumber-and-royalty-free-image/1409506296?adppopup=true">Ryzhkov/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Move over bacon and ranch dressing. There’s a new hot flavor in town. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/dining/pickle-flavor-foods.html">A pickle craze is sweeping the nation</a>, with dill pickle toppings and seasonings in such high demand that they’re appearing on popcorn, chewing gum, seeds and nuts.</p>
<p>The pickle obsessed can now order a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/07/31/pickles-are-pizza-topping-you-didnt-know-you-needed/">pickle pizza</a> with a side of <a href="https://www.utzsnacks.com/products/utz-potato-chips-ripples-fried-dill-pickle">pickle potato chips</a> and wash it down with a <a href="https://bestmaidpickles.com/product-category/sourpicklebeer/">pickle beer</a>. </p>
<p>Need dessert? Choose from <a href="https://blaircandy.com/pickle-flavor-cotton-candy.html">pickle cotton candy</a>, <a href="https://www.dairyfoods.com/articles/94264-nightfood-launches-pickle-flavored-ice-cream">pickle ice cream</a> and <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/shop/product/wicked-pickle-marshmallows-set-of-12-135429">pickle marshmallows</a>. Or you can head over to your local Sonic Drive-In <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/14/sonic-drive-in-brings-back-fan-favorite-pickle-juice-slush/">and order a Pickle Juice Slush</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1557080033541271552"}"></div></p>
<p>Yet for all the hoopla, pickles remain an acquired taste that <a href="https://www.delish.com/food/a43263/why-i-hate-pickles/">some are never able to appreciate</a>. Part of the reason may be rooted in your personality. But if you’re able to get over that initial aversion, pickles can become perfect complement to any dish.</p>
<h2>A cornerstone of civilization</h2>
<p>In the U.S., pickles tend to be associated with the cucumber, but they can come from any fruit or vegetable preserved in an acidic solution or brine. </p>
<p>Having preserved food available regardless of the season allowed populations to grow and civilizations to develop. With their long shelf life, pickles helped humans traverse the world by foot, animal and boat; helped feed troops fighting in wars; and were also touted for various benefits <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1081662/pdf/medhist00113-0029.pdf">such as preventing scurvy</a>.</p>
<p>The popularity of the dill pickle – which many in the U.S. consider “the” preeminent pickled fruit or vegetable – <a href="https://www.history.com/news/pickles-history-timeline">is attributed to</a> two sources. Dutch farmers started growing cucumbers in Brooklyn in the 17th century that were eventually pickled and sold. Then, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, surges of Eastern European Jewish immigrants brought kosher dill pickles to New York City. </p>
<p>Yet as chefs and teachers, we’re not surprised that Burger King’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pprTvtHnnTo">famed jingle</a>, “Have it Your Way,” begins with the omission of the pickle: “Hold the pickles / Hold the lettuce / Special orders don’t upset us…”</p>
<p>For all there is to love about pickles – they can be crunchy, sweet and acidic – they possess certain qualities that can make some people squeamish.</p>
<h2>Sour and slimy can be a turnoff</h2>
<p>For one, they’re sour. </p>
<p>Most pickles are sour because they soak for a long time in a salty brine. This long soak causes acetic acid bacteria known as <a href="https://www.mountainfeed.com/blogs/learn/39158209-whats-in-a-pickle-fermentation-pickling-and-their-common-roots">acetobacter to grow and multiply</a>. In a sense, pickles create their own vinegar, and that makes them sour.</p>
<p>The ability to detect a sour taste in foods <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/pucker-why-humans-evolved-taste-sour-foods">likely came from our aquatic ancestors</a>, who acquired the ability to determine the safety of their environment by detecting abnormalities in acidity. </p>
<p>There are also some evolutionary advantages for enjoying the mouth-puckering sensation. The same lactic fermentation necessary for early pickles also served as a green light for omnivores that a food was safe to consume, as lactic acid limits the reproduction of harmful bacteria.</p>
<p>This might explain why some have developed a taste for it and others haven’t. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fchemse%2F28.2.173">In one study</a> of children, their mothers, their ability to detect sour and their preferences for the taste, virtually all could accurately determine and rank acid levels in gelatin. However, some children preferred the highest concentration of acid levels – in other words, the most sour foods. Others blanched at it. </p>
<p>The authors indicate that it is unclear why this phenomenon occurs. They hypothesized that an affinity for sour flavors could be related to a child’s propensity for adventure. And <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/02/evolution-of-sour-food/621628/">there does seem to be a strong correlation</a> between the aversion to sour in both children and adults and their unwillingness to try new foods. </p>
<p>Preservation methods also change food textures, and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-sour-preference-age/">food aversions are rooted in texture as much as flavor or smell</a>. The texture of a pickle can be off-putting for some people; foods described as “slippery” or “slimy” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1518228.htm">are ranked at the top</a> for adult picky eaters. Both words could be used to describe a pickle. </p>
<h2>A ‘new dill’ for the American people</h2>
<p>But if you can grow to appreciate the texture and taste, there’s a world of possible pickle pairings.</p>
<p>Pickles work well in so many dishes because <a href="https://blog.kitchenwarehouse.com.au/why-pickles-are-awesome/">the leading flavors</a> in most main dishes are fat, umami, salt, something creamy and frequently something sweet. Pickles add acidity and crunch and balance out the dish. Burger King may sound eager to hold the pickle upon request, but a burger with a pickle – from a sensory perspective – is a better burger. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Green bag of potato chips next to bowl of chips and bottle of wine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480659/original/file-20220823-2358-vl02kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480659/original/file-20220823-2358-vl02kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480659/original/file-20220823-2358-vl02kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480659/original/file-20220823-2358-vl02kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480659/original/file-20220823-2358-vl02kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480659/original/file-20220823-2358-vl02kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480659/original/file-20220823-2358-vl02kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">White wine and dill pickle potato chips – the perfect summer pairing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/august-9-2017-2016-the-ned-sauvignon-blanc-waihopai-river-news-photo/842882030?adppopup=true">Anne-Marie Jackson/Toronto Star via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Seen this way, the pickle’s incorporation into pretty much everything starts to make more sense. Take, for instance, its surging popularity as a pizza topping. Much like that burger, pizza has yeasty bread, tomato sauce for acid and sweetness, mozzarella for fatty, rich, and creamy textures, and then all the other toppings you choose to put on to suit your needs.</p>
<p>In the case of the pickle pizzas, the most popular kind is served with a white sauce or olive oil, which adds even more fat and richness to an already-cheesy dish, giving the pie an unbalanced flavor profile. But pickles restore the flavor balance by introducing acidity and adding a texture that wasn’t there before. You’re also adding the temperature contrast and flavors of garlic, dill and subtle spice. </p>
<p>Dill pickle flavoring is versatile because of the combination of salty, sour and sweet, <a href="https://pastrychefonline.com/how-to-pair-flavors-1/">which allows it to complement</a> so many items. </p>
<p>Take, for instance, potato chips or sunflower seeds. These are traditionally salty snacks with a relatively neutral flavor, which is why they so often have flavors added to them. Pickle flavoring adds sour and sweet – which are a classic, balanced duo – to the salty profile. </p>
<p>Pickle-flavored foods are everywhere because the profile works well with almost anything. But if you want to avoid offending your friends with your pickle breath, you might want to avoid the <a href="https://mcphee.com/products/pickle-candy">pickle flavored mints</a> after dinner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The pickle-obsessed can now order a pickle pizza with a side of pickle potato chips, wash it down with a pickle beer and have pickle ice cream for dessert.
Kenneth Symsack, Instructor of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Colorado State University
Jeffrey Miller, Associate Professor of Hospitality Management, Colorado State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/187472
2022-08-01T15:24:26Z
2022-08-01T15:24:26Z
Five historical summer drinks to keep you cool
<p>We all have our favourite summer cold drinks, from fruity British favourites like a cup of thirst-quenching Pimms or a refreshing goblet of Italian Aperol spritz to non-alcoholic favourites such as a tall glass of lemonade or squash. </p>
<p>But this summer, why not try something different? Many drinks have fallen into obscurity over time. Carefully documented in <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Oxford+Nightcaps&oq=Oxford+Nightcaps&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.229j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Oxford Nightcaps</a>, which was published in 1827, they deserve their day in the sun. Here are five drinks that hail from around the world to add to your repertoire: </p>
<h2>Limonade</h2>
<p>Sweetened lemon juice and water was a cooling sip in 16th-century France. But it was the Paris debut of effervescent limonade, made with naturally sparkling spring water, that saw the drink soar in popularity in the summer of 1630.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of a man selling drinks from a receptacle on his back." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475486/original/file-20220721-10497-ri3dzd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475486/original/file-20220721-10497-ri3dzd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475486/original/file-20220721-10497-ri3dzd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475486/original/file-20220721-10497-ri3dzd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475486/original/file-20220721-10497-ri3dzd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475486/original/file-20220721-10497-ri3dzd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475486/original/file-20220721-10497-ri3dzd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A lemonade merchant selling the refreshing drink from a container on his back.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1855-0609-1914">The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The French passion for fizzy lemonade grew so much that in 1676 vendors formed a commercial guild called the Compagnie de Limonadiers. These licensed sellers dispensed their wares from <em>limonadieres</em>, which were ornate dispensers strapped to their backs. </p>
<p>Lemonade really took off though thanks to a little English contribution in the 1700s when artificially carbonated water was invented. Writing in a paper in 1772, the scientist Joseph Priestly <a href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/bs6kgbcq">described the process</a> as “impregnating water with fixed air”. This research was used to launch the household name we continue to know and love, <a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/history-of-the-soda-fountain/inventor">Schweppes, in 1783</a>.</p>
<p>Today, the <em>limonadieres</em> are all but forgotten and bottled sparkling French lemonade is commercially sold just about everywhere, though nothing can beat the freshness of this classic version. For two servings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Ingredients</strong><br>
150 gr caster sugar<br>
120 ml water<br>
Strips of lemon peel from 1-½ lemons<br>
Strained juice of 3 lemons<br>
250 ml sparkling water </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Method</strong>
Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the lemon peels and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for five minutes. Let the syrup cool and stir in the lemon juice. Remove the lemon peels. Pour into a small pitcher and add sparkling water. Serve.</p>
<h2>Switchel</h2>
<p>Switchel debatably originated in the Caribbean, but New England also holds credit as the source where it refreshed <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/switchel-drinking-vinegar-to-stay-cool-98891755/">17th-century New England colonists</a>. Also known as haymaker’s punch, the drink hydrated fieldworkers toiling under the searing sun during the hay harvest.</p>
<p>Punched up with a healthy shot of Jamaican rum, it also braced Washington’s senators and congressmen during heated sessions in Congress during the 1800s. If molasses is not to your taste, try making this recipe with local honey. For eight servings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Ingredients</strong><br>
4.5 litres water<br>
360 ml molasses<br>
80 ml apple cider vinegar<br>
1 tbs fresh ginger, grated </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Method</strong>
Blend all ingredients in a large pot. Decant into pitchers and serve in mason jars.</p>
<h2>Nimbu Pani</h2>
<p>In the days of the Raj, colonists encountered Nimbu Pani, lemonade’s bright cousin. The surprising twist is kala namak, which is a black salt. Ice came at a premium, even in the elite colonial clubs in Bengal, Madras (now Chennai) and Bombay (now Mumbai). But it’s surprising how the salt chills the palate as well as the water, cooling the drink down to the last sip.</p>
<p>Nimbu Pani is still a popular thirst quencher in India and can still be found on street corners around the country. For two servings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Ingredients</strong><br>
Strained juice of 2 lemons<br>
2 tbs caster sugar<br>
¼ tsp kala namak (black salt)<br>
1 pinch of table salt<br>
600 ml cold water<br>
2 fresh mint leaves </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Method</strong>
Place lemon juice, sugar, water and salts into a small jug and stir until sugar and salts are dissolved. Pour into tumblers. Garnish with fresh mint leaves and add two or three cubes of ice, if desired. </p>
<p>Optional: For a spicy kick, add ½ tsp of chaat masala.</p>
<h2>Julepum Stomachicum (Stomachic Julep)</h2>
<p>Adventurous 18th century Brits sipped a sophisticated mint julep found in the 1753 edition of William Lewis’ <a href="https://archive.org/details/newdispensatoryw00lewi/page/542/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Julepum+Stomachicum">New English Dispensatory</a>. It was believed that this Julep helped <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/ecco/004780943.0001.000/1:5.59?rgn=div2;view=fulltext">relieve stomach issues</a>. </p>
<p>Although the original included a hydrosol (a non-alcoholic distillate) of fresh mint, the whiskey infusion, and a bouquet of fresh mint sprigs in a julep cup (a metal tumbler) will more than make up for this extra step. For one serving:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Ingredients</strong><br>
60 ml mint-infused Irish whiskey
10 ml saffron syrup</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Method</strong>
Saffron syrup: Bring 150 ml of water to a boil in a small saucepan. (Optional: you can use dry sherry in place of the water here.) Add 125 gr caster sugar. Stir to dissolve. Remove from heat, add 10 threads of saffron to the mixture and cool. Let the saffron rest in the syrup for a few days and strain. This syrup will last about two weeks if kept refrigerated.</p>
<p>Mint-infused whiskey: Crush seven sprigs of fresh mint into an empty glass bottle. Pour in Irish blended whiskey to fill. Seal and allow to infuse for seven days. Strain into a fresh, empty bottle.</p>
<p>To serve: Fill a julep cup halfway with crushed ice. Pour in the whiskey and syrup. Using a long bar spoon, lift the ice and its contents to blend. Then add more crushed ice to fill. Add a bouquet of fresh mint and a pair of short straws to serve.</p>
<h2>Ponche (Diapente)</h2>
<p>Lexicographer <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LnfHFXMK3CsC&pg=PA331#v=onepage&q&f=false">Francisco Sobrino</a> defined ponche or diapente, in 1732, as an English drink made with aguardiente, water, lime, and sugar. Sound familiar? </p>
<p>Ponche predated grog, the drink ordered by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Vernon">Admiral Edward “Old Grog” Vernon</a> to replace the daily beer ration, which spoiled too quickly during long voyages and was too heavy to transport. (The daily rum ration was abolished in 1970 after concerns that drinking alcohol would lead to unsteady hands).</p>
<p>But when the Royal Navy captured and held the port of Havana in 1762, the fleet introduced the locals to this drink which they adapted into the <em>canchánchara</em>, a honeyed ponche, and later, the now famous <a href="https://punchdrink.com/recipes/floridita-daiquiri-frappe/">Daiquirí Frappé</a>. For one serving:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Ingredients</strong><br>
250 ml cold water
20 grams caster sugar
32 ml fresh lime juice
60 ml aguardiente or silver Cuban rum</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Method</strong>
Stir ingredients together in a mixing glass to dissolve the sugar. Strain into a tall glass. Add a couple of cubes of ice, if desired.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anistatia Renard Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A mix of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages that kept people cool in the past.
Anistatia Renard Miller, PhD in History, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184447
2022-06-29T19:56:09Z
2022-06-29T19:56:09Z
Mulled wine: how ‘Christmas in a cup’ went from ancient medicine to an Aussie winter warmer
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471021/original/file-20220627-25-wjtwu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>When the temperature drops in the southern hemisphere, you might like to stave off the chill with a big steaming pot of mulled wine, and fill your home with the comforting aroma of red wine, citrus and spice.</p>
<p>The mention of mulled wine conjures images of winter-wonderland white-Christmas scenes – no matter where in the world you live. </p>
<p>Although mulled wine is a staple of contemporary Christmas celebrations throughout Europe, and the customs and recipes may differ somewhat, the celebratory nature of the warm, spiced (usually) red wine is common to all – as are the ingredients sugar, cinnamon and cloves. </p>
<p>Its long history incorporates both pagan and Christian lore, traverses old and new worlds and established it as a favourite Christmastime beverage, travellers’ tipple of choice and a tonic of sorts in times of convalescence. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/appearance-aroma-and-mouthfeel-all-you-need-to-know-to-give-wine-tasting-a-go-172500">Appearance, aroma and mouthfeel: all you need to know to give wine tasting a go</a>
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<h2>Ancient pagan paradox</h2>
<p>Whether for festivity or fortification, mulled wine has been around for at least 2,000 years. </p>
<p>The ancient Greek version of mulled wine, <em>Ypocras</em> or <em>Hippocras</em>, takes its name from Hippocrates, the Greek physician regarded as the father of medicine. (It is also the name of the <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/angl.2008.063/html">apothecary’s bag</a> or sieve used to strain this wine.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A satyr drinks from a wine glass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471019/original/file-20220627-7170-73hjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Early versions of mulled wine can be found as far back as Ancient Greece.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© The Trustees of the British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>Wine played an <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.15?seq=1">important role in medicine</a> in Greek antiquity. In the only ancient cookery book surviving to our times, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmariani/2021/12/28/bravissimo-great-moments-in-italian-food-history/?sh=49f52e5623aa">De re coquinaria</a>, we see a few versions of spice wine (<em>conditum paradoxum</em>) and wine with honey and pepper. </p>
<p>The latter, known as <em>conditum melizomum viatorum</em> was recommended for travellers: the honey and spices acted as a preservative, allowing the alcohol to accompany travellers on long journeys. </p>
<p><em>Conditum paradoxium</em> became a prominent feature of the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07266-1_12#Fn1">Saturnalia Festival</a> in ancient Rome: the winter solstice celebration of the passing of the shortest day of the year and the rebirth of the Sun. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471020/original/file-20220627-24-lkmkp0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"><em>Conditum paradoxium</em> was a prominent feature of the Roman winter festival, Saturnalia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Uffizi/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>By the time of the late-Roman Republic, Saturnalia had grown from a one-day celebration to a week-long festival held each year from December 17 to 23. Consuming the warming wine as part of the celebrations was thought to help ward off winter illness and so became firmly associated with the December celebrations.</p>
<p>Towards the end of the 4th century, this pagan solstice celebration became interwoven with Christianity and the celebration of Christmas Day. By the middle ages, mulled wine had become entrenched as part of the festivities throughout Europe. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pompeii-is-famous-for-its-ruins-and-bodies-but-what-about-its-wine-147011">Pompeii is famous for its ruins and bodies, but what about its wine?</a>
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<h2>Mulling over the recipe</h2>
<p>According to several medieval cookbooks the most common of the sweet, spiced wines in the late middle-ages were still referred to as <em>hippocras</em>, with the term “mulled wine” coming later. </p>
<p>Just as they do today, <a href="https://blog.britishmuseum.org/how-to-cook-a-medieval-feast/">ingredients</a> varied depending on the region, but key components were hot red wine blended with sugar and ground spices – usually ginger, cinnamon and pepper and sometimes nutmeg and cloves. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in the snow drinks mulled wine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471023/original/file-20220627-14-a1jnhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In Europe, mulled wine is synonymous with winter scenes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Throughout Europe, mulled wine is synonymous with postcard scenes of snow-capped Alps, après-ski shenanigans, the aroma of roasting chestnuts and Christmas markets. </p>
<p>In Sweden, <em>glogg</em> comes sprinkled with almonds and plump raisins, which have soaked up the wine and taken on the flavour of the spices. It is often served with distinctive raisin-studded saffron buns called <em>Lussekatter</em>. </p>
<p><em>Bischopswijn</em> (Bishop’s Wine) is the Dutch name, in honour of Saint Nicholas, the bishop celebrated during the <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-story-of-sinterklaas-1128632">Feast of Sinterklaas</a> in early December in the Netherlands. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man serves mulled wine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471024/original/file-20220627-15-q4cce8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Mulled wine is a staple of European Christmas markets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Italians call it <em>vin hrüle</em> (French for “burnt wine”). In Poland it’s called <em>grzane wino</em> and in Germany it is <em>gluhwein</em>, which both directly translate to mulled wine.</p>
<p>So beloved is <em>gluhwein</em> in Germany, that when popular Christmas markets were cancelled in December 2020 due to COVID restrictions, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-germany-wine-idUSKBN28N0GD">pop-up <em>gluhwein</em> stalls</a> began appearing in parks and street corners in German cities despite the rules. </p>
<p>It sparked a plea in parliament from then German Chancellor Angela Merkel for citizens to forgo their usual Christmastime tipple to help avoid increased numbers of deaths. </p>
<h2>Exorcising the winter chill</h2>
<p>In France it’s called <em>vin chaud</em> (“hot wine”) and more likely than not to contain star anise. The larger-than-life <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-may-30-la-tr-colette-20100530-story.html">French writer Colette</a> described <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1640497614/95692898CA08463EPQ/"><em>vin chaud</em> as</a> “the great exorcist of winter crepuscules [twilight] that fall as early as three o’clock” in an advertisement she wrote for a French wine merchant in the early 20th century.</p>
<p>Rather than a Christmastime tipple, in the first 100 years of Australian settlement, mulled wine was more likely to be administered during times of illness or convalescence rather than times of celebration. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hands clasp a glass of mulled wine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471025/original/file-20220627-24-zfqz78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">It may not be Christmas – but that doesn’t mean you don’t need a winter warmer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>In the 19th and 20th centuries Australian domestic cookbooks <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1747-0080.12468">commonly included</a> recipes for sick or convalescing patients. Advice about food preparation for “invalids”, “convalescents” or “the sickroom” would commonly take up an entire section of cookbooks. Many of these included recipes for mulled wine. </p>
<p>With nobody under any illusions nowadays that mixing up a large amount of sugar in a hefty pot of red wine is good for anyone’s health, we find other similarly absurd excuses to partake. Christmas in July, anyone?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184447/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morag Kobez does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Mulled wine has been around for at least 2,000 years.
Morag Kobez, Associate lecturer, Queensland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173294
2022-01-25T09:27:29Z
2022-01-25T09:27:29Z
The race to protect the food of the future – why seed banks alone are not the answer
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435887/original/file-20211206-17-2py2ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4125%2C2740&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/macro-view-glass-gem-ears-unique-514422814">ThomasLENNE/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last summer I grew three varieties of corn in my tiny garden. I knew from the start that my harvest, if any, would be meagre. The plants would be hindered by poor soils, assertive pigeons and, worst of all, my pathetic knowledge of farming. Luckily it wasn’t so much the product I was interested in, as the process. I was interested in the idea of crop diversity – and in what it means to conserve it. </p>
<p>Today hundreds of organisations around the world, from community non-profits to international research agencies, strive to conserve crop diversity. Many are worried about a future in which today’s industrial monocrops wither in the face of climate change, drought and emerging diseases, forcing farmers and plant breeders to look for crops with traits suited for a changing planet. </p>
<p>Today’s conservationists are trying to ensure that uncommon varieties of grains, vegetables and fruits remain available to future generations who might need the options they provide. But approaches to this shared goal can vary dramatically. I hoped that getting some seeds (and my hands) in the soil would help me better understand what makes conservation so challenging.</p>
<p>Decades of research has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17733">revealed</a> that the diversity of the plants we grow for food has diminished since the early 20th century. Scores of seeds no longer in widespread cultivation are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-010-9534-z">maintained by agricultural institutes</a> as resources for future crop research and development. Copies of the most valuable of these collections are ferried to the Arctic for long-term cold storage in the <a href="https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/">Svalbard Global Seed Vault</a>.</p>
<p>This widespread attention to endangered seeds hasn’t always been the case. Agricultural experts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2018.12.002">began insisting</a> on the importance of preserving local strains of key crops in the 1880s. But it wasn’t until the 1970s that governments started to put <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12072">significant resources</a> into this issue and to coordinate conservation efforts across countries.</p>
<p>In the intervening period, many scientists and research institutions created collections of their own. Some were enormous. In Soviet Russia, the botanist and geneticist Nikolai Vavilov orchestrated world-spanning <a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/104272">collection missions</a> in the 1920s and 30s. By 1940 he and his colleagues had amassed some 250,000 samples of diverse crop varieties and crop wild relatives in Leningrad.</p>
<p>Most collections were specialised. While Vavilov traversed the globe hoping to turn his department into “the treasury of all crops and other floras”, the British botanist A.E. Watkins drew on imperial networks, for example connections at the London Board of Trade, to have wheat seeds from around the world sent his way. By the 1930s, he had about 7,000 samples of different varieties in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4110413/">his collection</a>.</p>
<p>Few collectors were able to aspire explicitly to long-term preservation. Seeds are living things and will gradually die in storage, typically over years or decades depending on the type of seed and how it’s kept. As a result, keepers and curators of collections must monitor <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-012-9929-0">seeds’ viability</a> and be ready to sow, grow, and harvest a fresh batch of seeds when that viability drops off. For a collection of even a modest size (let alone for one of 250,000 samples) this is big commitment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Wooden boxes containing different coloured dried beans." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440736/original/file-20220113-13-e44a9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440736/original/file-20220113-13-e44a9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440736/original/file-20220113-13-e44a9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440736/original/file-20220113-13-e44a9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440736/original/file-20220113-13-e44a9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440736/original/file-20220113-13-e44a9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440736/original/file-20220113-13-e44a9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Six varieties of beans at the CIAT gene bank in Colombia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Six_bean_varieties_at_a_gene_bank.jpg#/media/File:Six_bean_varieties_at_a_gene_bank.jpg">Neil Palmer (CIAT)/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Long-term conservation action was slow to materialise as a result. It was hard to convince both scientists and states to bother with time-consuming monitoring and regeneration of collected “old” varieties, especially when all the reward seemed to be in making and growing new ones. Industrial farms, private seed companies and development experts were all transfixed by so-called modern varieties, with little time to spare for what had come before. </p>
<p>So what turned the tide? And why does it matter? To answer these questions, I dove deep into the history of seed banks and crop conservation. I visited active research stations and institutional archives, spoke with today’s seed conservation specialists and sifted through the papers of their predecessors. My findings are documented in my book, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520307698/">Endangered Maize</a>.</p>
<p>An early breakthrough came as I thumbed through files at the archives of the <a href="http://nasonline.org/about-nas/history/archives/">US National Academy of Science</a>. Inside several folders labelled “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02985328">Committee on Preservation of Indigenous Strains of Maize</a>” from the 1950s lie minutes and records charting more than a decade of efforts to collect varieties of <em>Zea mays</em> – also known as maize or corn – from across the western hemisphere and, most ambitiously, preserve them in perpetuity. This immediately stood out to me. Here was an early outlier in the history of crop conservation: an international effort with its eyes on the very long term.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This story is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em> </p>
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<p>The members of this Maize Committee worried that the corn varieties developed by professional breeders and sold by seed companies were steadily supplanting the kinds traditionally grown by farmers in Latin America. They called these varieties “indigenous strains” but today many scientists would speak of these locally adapted, farmer-saved lines as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018683119237">landraces</a>”.</p>
<p>From the northern deserts of Mexico to the tropical lowlands of Brazil to the highlands of Peru and Ecuador, the diverse peoples of the Americas had created <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11010172">many kinds of corn</a> over centuries of cultivation and trade. The committee wanted to preserve these – not as crops cultivated and harvested by farmers – but as samples maintained in research facilities that they could study as geneticists and improve as breeders.</p>
<p>The Maize Committee succeeded in gathering thousands of seed samples. By 1960 most were stored in what the committee members referred to as “seed centres”, but which today we would label seed banks or genebanks. These were among the earliest facilities designated specifically for long-term seed conservation. The committee hoped that refrigerated storage at the centres would extend seeds’ lifespans and keep the inevitable task of regenerating samples to a manageable minimum. </p>
<p>Fast forward seven decades. Curious about the fates of these samples, I traced their journeys whenever paper trails and research budgets allowed. While visiting a seed bank in Mexico, I held a jar filled with seeds collected during those early missions. I passed descendants of many similar samples as I navigated the aisles of the <a href="https://www.iowastatedaily.com/news/ames-seed-bank-saves-for-future/article_e6bd7ae2-0736-11e2-bba9-0019bb2963f4.html">US maize germplasm collection</a> in Iowa. Clearly the Maize Committee had some success in its mission to secure seeds.</p>
<p>Despite this, I’m sceptical that seed banks – still conceived today as the central element in successful conservation of genetic diversity in crop plants – offer the long-term solution we need. The history of maize can help us understand why.</p>
<h2>F1 hybrid corn – a triumph of capital?</h2>
<p>To explain this, we need to get back to the Maize Committee. What drove its collecting and conservation enterprise in the 1950s? A simple answer is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15flCcT9N3g">hybrid corn</a>. This was the looming threat that worried the Maize Committee as it surveyed the future of corn diversity across the Americas. </p>
<p>I planted what’s known as an F1 hybrid variety in my garden last summer. It was a sweet corn, with creamy yellow kernels just like the corn I buy from the grocery store near my home. Cooked within minutes of being cut from the plant, it was meltingly tender and unbelievably delicious.</p>
<p>The “F1” stands for “first filial” and it indicates that the seed was produced by hybridising two genetically distinct parent lines. Those parent lines in turn had been produced through years of inbreeding, a process that ensured they would possess and pass on only the qualities that scientists wanted.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Aerial view of two agricultural harvesters cutting and harvesting mature corn on large fields." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440742/original/file-20220113-955-1dih7n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440742/original/file-20220113-955-1dih7n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440742/original/file-20220113-955-1dih7n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440742/original/file-20220113-955-1dih7n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440742/original/file-20220113-955-1dih7n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440742/original/file-20220113-955-1dih7n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440742/original/file-20220113-955-1dih7n2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Most maize grown today is hybrid corn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/above-view-two-agricultural-harvesters-they-1841838514">Roman023_photography/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>My F1 hybrids had been through a process of genetic standardisation in which professional plant breeders had eliminated many potential sources of variability among them. I could expect plants of about the same size, ears of uniform colour, and that they’d all develop at roughly the same rate.</p>
<p>Historical accounts often pinpoint <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1740022819000354">the invention and rapid adoption</a> of F1 hybrid corn from the 1940s, initially in the midwestern “corn belt” of the United States, as a turning point in agricultural history. In Iowa, the heart of the corn belt, hybrid varieties accounted for 1% of corn acres planted in 1933. By 1945, they represented <a href="https://cas.cgiar.org/sites/default/files/pdf/77.pdf">90%</a>.</p>
<p>For some observers, hybrid corn represented <a href="https://www.genetics.org/content/148/3/923.short">a first triumph</a> of the science of genetics, in which better understanding of the principles of heredity led to improvements in agricultural productivity and economic gains.</p>
<p>For others, it was more <a href="https://monthlyreviewarchives.org/index.php/mr/article/view/MR-038-03-1986-07_5">a triumph of capital</a>. The genetic makeup of a hybrid line means that subsequent generations grown from its seeds aren’t as productive as the parent plant. As a result, farmers cannot save their own seeds but instead must purchase fresh hybrid seeds each season. For seed companies, the most important outcome of the F1 hybrid method was not more productive varieties but a guaranteed revenue stream through the <a href="https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/2659.htm">commodification of the seed</a>.</p>
<p>Geneticists and corn breeders were inclined to see the swift uptake of hybrid corn as a good thing. But some found the speed at which midwestern cornfields “upgraded” from eclectic assemblages of locally adapted varieties to homogeneous stands of hybrid varieties disconcerting. The botanist and geneticist Edgar Anderson <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2394369">warned his colleagues</a> in 1944 that “the whole genetic pattern of <em>Zea mays</em> [corn]” had been “catastrophically overhauled”.</p>
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<img alt="Assortment of vegetable seeds for sale." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440744/original/file-20220113-15-op65zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440744/original/file-20220113-15-op65zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440744/original/file-20220113-15-op65zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440744/original/file-20220113-15-op65zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440744/original/file-20220113-15-op65zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440744/original/file-20220113-15-op65zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440744/original/file-20220113-15-op65zn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Growing hybrid varieties often requires farmers to purchase fresh seed each year, rather than saving it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/minsk-belarus-march-20-2018-agriculture-1058124995">ArtCookStudio/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Anderson thought that there was still a lot to learn from the older varieties – including information that might make new hybrid corn still more productive. But without farmers to plant these, and save their seed from season to season, they weren’t likely to be available long to study. He called on his colleagues to think of some way to organise their conservation. Perhaps some farmers could be paid to grow them, he thought.</p>
<p>Neither Anderson nor any other scientists mobilised to systematically preserve farmers’ varieties in the US midwest. But when they learned of new state agricultural programs in Mexico, Brazil and other Latin American countries setting up shop in the 1940s and heard of hybrid seed companies making inroads with their commercial varieties, alarm bells went off. What if new corn varieties swept across these countries just as they had across the US?</p>
<p>This prospect was worrying because of the tremendous diversity of <a href="https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jbsc/037/05/0843-0855">maize varieties</a> grown across Latin America. Farmers harvested wide-kernelled <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/5185264337">white flour corn</a>, slender <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/5185322195/">red popcorn</a>, deep purple <a href="https://repositorio.inia.gob.pe/bitstream/20.500.12955/996/1/Manrique-Maiz_Morado_Peruano.pdf">flint corn</a> and more. They grew towering <a href="https://www.cimmyt.org/news/saving-the-giant/">20-foot giants</a> and scrubby desert bushes. Some types were dried and ground for flour and others eaten fresh as a vegetable. The manifestations of maize were as diverse and distinctive as the peoples who grew them.</p>
<p>An anticipated transition away from these diverse landraces explains the rapid mobilisation and almost bewildering ambition of the Maize Committee in the 1950s. The committee members assumed they had about a decade in which to gather farmers’ locally adapted varieties before hybrid corn and other professionally bred products overtook them.</p>
<p>The Maize Committee did not want to stop this transition. Most members were corn breeders themselves and all thought that the introduction of breeders’ “improved” lines, hybrid or otherwise, represented agricultural progress in form of higher grain yields and greater economic returns. That’s why they felt it safe to assume that farmers would inevitably shift from their locally adapted landraces to seeds of new varieties. Surely, they thought, it would be in farmers’ best interest to grow the best that scientific breeding had to offer?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Labelled jars of maize seeds on a shelf." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441101/original/file-20220117-25-1xy664b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441101/original/file-20220117-25-1xy664b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441101/original/file-20220117-25-1xy664b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441101/original/file-20220117-25-1xy664b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441101/original/file-20220117-25-1xy664b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441101/original/file-20220117-25-1xy664b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441101/original/file-20220117-25-1xy664b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A maize seed bank in Ames, Iowa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Helen Curry</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The Maize Committee therefore pursued the preservation of corn varieties they considered in danger of disappearing —- which is to say, all “indigenous strains” —- as samples in refrigerated storage. The main collections of these samples were sited at agricultural research stations in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. Farmers were superfluous to this model of conservation. Maintaining crop diversity was a task for technical workers at central research facilities and not farmers in far-flung rural communities.</p>
<p>In 1956, with more than 12,000 samples collected and stored “in perpetuity” according to this model, the Maize Committee declared its conservation enterprise a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02985328">resounding success</a>.</p>
<h2>Hopi blue corn</h2>
<p>In setting out their conservation objectives and methods, the members of the Maize Committee assumed a singular, inexorable trajectory of agricultural development. Farmers would surely adopt breeders’ new varieties as these were introduced. Locally adapted varieties of maize and other crops that scientists categorised variously as “indigenous”, “native”, and “primitive” would give way to “improved” and “modern” lines. In the process farmers would transition, too, casting off approaches to cultivation usually denigrated as “primitive” or “backwards”. It was not a matter of whether these shifts would happen, but when.</p>
<p>This projection of inevitable cultural and agricultural change informed not only the work of the Maize Committee but also the efforts of many scientists who engaged in the <a href="https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/_migrated/uploads/tx_news/Scientists__plants_and_politics_240_01.pdf">conservation of crop diversity</a> in the decades that followed. They <a href="https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/handle/10568/105366/727.pdf?sequence=3#page=33">constructed seed and gene banks</a> to preserve the world’s “primitive” and “traditional” crop varieties, assuming a world in which neither these varieties nor the modes of farming that sustained them would survive.</p>
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<img alt="Girl in white clothing peeling a raw blue corn cob with green leaves." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440749/original/file-20220113-23-1ka5lix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/440749/original/file-20220113-23-1ka5lix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440749/original/file-20220113-23-1ka5lix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440749/original/file-20220113-23-1ka5lix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440749/original/file-20220113-23-1ka5lix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440749/original/file-20220113-23-1ka5lix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/440749/original/file-20220113-23-1ka5lix.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Hopi blue corn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mexican-girl-white-traditional-clothing-peeling-641202910">Victoria Tori Dim/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Internationally coordinated seed banking projects <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cuag.12072">intensified in the late 1960s</a> when “agricultural modernisation” was seen to accelerate in developing countries, thanks especially to the creation of new “high-yielding varieties” and aid programmes that sought to embed these as widely as possible.</p>
<p>Yet even as an international infrastructure for seed bank based conservation took shape, researchers began poking holes in the extinction narrative that sustained it.</p>
<p>One especially disruptive piece of evidence was the discovery that, in some places, farmers didn’t change over to newly introduced “high yielding” crop varieties, even when they had an opportunity to do so. Or that when farmers did adopt new seed, they also kept continued growing the older types, too. As a result, varieties slated for inevitable extinction in the 1950s hadn’t disappeared.</p>
<p>They still haven’t. Another variety I coaxed out of the soil last summer was Hopi blue corn. I wasn’t sure whether the British climate would be to the liking of these seeds, which trace their origins to the deserts of the American south-west and the labour of generations of <a href="https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/heart-hopi">Hopi farmers</a>. To my delight, however, the seeds I planted eventually produced gorgeous ears of plump, lavender-coloured kernels. These were chewy and nutty, and only delicately sweet, making a more satisfying savoury side than their hybrid neighbours did.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Women in dungarees crouches by a vegetable bed with tall maize plants." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441102/original/file-20220117-17-1k3jb72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441102/original/file-20220117-17-1k3jb72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441102/original/file-20220117-17-1k3jb72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441102/original/file-20220117-17-1k3jb72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441102/original/file-20220117-17-1k3jb72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441102/original/file-20220117-17-1k3jb72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441102/original/file-20220117-17-1k3jb72.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author tending her maize crop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Andrew Buskell</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This type of corn, along with others originating among Hopi and neighbouring Native American communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2014.3">who have cultivated corn</a> in the hot, dry south-west for thousands of years, were among those targeted by the Maize Committee in the 1950s. The committee assumed their fields represented some of the only remaining sites of significant maize diversity north of the US-Mexico border and dispatched the ethnobotanist Hugh Cutler to collect there in 1953.</p>
<p>As he travelled to pueblos of the south-west, Cutler encountered many farmers growing blue maize varieties. He learned that these were preferred for their tolerance of drought and resistance against insect pests and because they produced excellent flour.</p>
<p>Cutler and the Maize Committee imagined these seeds and others obtained from Native American farmers would only remain safe in perpetuity in the seed bank – unlike in farmers’ fields where, according to Cutler, many growers had already “practically ceased to grow their old kinds of corn”.</p>
<p>Three decades later, a trio of researchers <a href="https://www.nativeseeds.org/blogs/the-seedhead-news/no-29-summer-solstice-1990">visited farmers of the same region</a>. Seeking to document the diversity of crops still in cultivation in the late 1980s, they focused in on Hopi farmers.</p>
<p>After visiting more than 50 growers in 1988 and 1989, they concluded that the fields of Hopi farmers were “dominated by Hopi crop varieties”. These were better suited to the harsh desert environment than commercial alternatives and treasured for ceremonial and other specific uses.</p>
<p>These findings confirmed a pattern that researchers had observed repeatedly by the early 1990s. Many farmers continued to grow diverse “traditional” crop varieties, despite expectations to the contrary.</p>
<p>Maize fields in the Mexican highlands, potato plots in Peru, rice paddies in Thailand: these and other spaces where anthropologists and botanists discovered farmers’ varieties <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00889077">still in cultivation</a> suggested that “modernisation” was not the singular, all-encompassing pathway often imagined.</p>
<p>In fact, farmers had <a href="https://doi.org/10.3763/ijas.2007.0291">many reasons to maintain diversity</a>. Growing lines with different characteristics, and which would respond differently to drought or heat or wind, offered security against bad weather and unpredictable climates. Some varieties were valued for qualities that professional plant breeders neglected, everything from prized flavours to the ability to be stored for long periods. And sometimes breeders’ new offerings just didn’t grow as well or produce as much as established local varieties did.</p>
<p>A new conservation vision emerged on the heels of these observations, informed by the realisation that so-called “traditional” farmers had a deep knowledge of farming methods and the environments in which they lived. </p>
<p>New “on-farm” <a href="https://www.bioversityinternational.org/research-portfolio/conservation-of-crop-diversity/">conservation programmes</a> aimed to support the farmers cultivating local varieties. Activists and scientists organised community-run seed banks. Participatory breeding programmes helped farmers enhance the productiveness of local varieties and thus keep them in cultivation. These and other projects encouraged conservation on farms by farmers – rather than in cold storage facilities run by technicians.</p>
<p>Programmes like these would help sustain farmers and communities who had not benefited from the top-down agricultural development of previous decades. And rather than dictate farmers’ transformation from “traditional” into “modern”, they would recognise the value of diverse communities and cultures. They would contribute to not only communities’ survival, but also their flourishing.</p>
<p>The contrast between this approach to conservation and the cold-storage model espoused by the Maize Committee could hardly be more stark.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two cobs of red corn and one white-blue on a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441104/original/file-20220117-25-58cwtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441104/original/file-20220117-25-58cwtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441104/original/file-20220117-25-58cwtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441104/original/file-20220117-25-58cwtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441104/original/file-20220117-25-58cwtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441104/original/file-20220117-25-58cwtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441104/original/file-20220117-25-58cwtd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blue and red corn from the author’s garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Andrew Buskell</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Double red sweetcorn</h2>
<p>Since the 1990s, efforts to ensure the survival of the world’s maize diversity have taken a variety of forms.</p>
<p>Most state-led conservation activity remains centred on cold storage in seed banks. When studies in the 1970s and 1980s suggested that seed banks often <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/ced-81-75.pdf">struggled to maintain samples</a> in the ideal conditions demanded for successful long-term conservation, collection managers responded by <a href="https://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/index.php/procedures-mainmenu-242/safety-duplication-mainmenu-207">duplicating their collections</a> and sending the copy for safekeeping at another facility.</p>
<p>This recourse to copying was a tacit acknowledgement of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/lack-diversity-lack-funding-seed-banks-face-world-challenges-180959409/">the challenges faced</a> in keeping seeds alive in cold storage, especially in contexts where governments failed to cough up the required financial support.</p>
<p>Over time it produced an elaborate system of back up. Today this system has reached its apex in the <a href="https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/">Svalbard Global Seed Vault</a>. Its holdings include <a href="https://www.cimmyt.org/multimedia/preserving-the-legacy-of-biodiversity/">copies of the preeminent global maize collection</a> of the International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat in Mexico. The Svalbard vault is seen by many people as the ultimate guarantor that crop diversity will survive for future generations to use.</p>
<p>But others disagree. Participatory breeding programs, community seed banks, subsidies to “seed guardians” and other farm and farmer-centred programmes run counter to the idea that diverse varieties must inevitably disappear from fields and therefore be frozen to survive. In this view, seed banks may be an important safeguard, but never the only sites where genetic diversity is kept alive. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1370434712062337035"}"></div></p>
<p>There is also a growing movement to protect and, where needed, <a href="https://lithub.com/seedkeeper-rowen-white-on-the-rematriation-of-seeds-to-their-native-lands/">to restore the crop varieties</a> traditional to certain communities as a means of <a href="https://viacampesina.org/en/peasant-seeds-the-heart-of-the-struggle-for-food-sovereignty/">defending sovereignty</a> over land and food. The network <a href="https://braidingthesacred.org/">Braiding the Sacred</a> brings together Native and Indigenous corn growers to share knowledge, practice – and seeds – with the aim of increasing the cultivation of traditional maize, as well as other foods.</p>
<p>Seed banks have occasionally played a significant role in farm-based conservation programmes, for example by <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2021/10/native-american-food-sovereignty-alliance-honors-seed-rematriation-through-short-film/">“rematriating” seeds</a> of varieties otherwise lost to growers. And as the changing climate, water stress and resource shortages intensify the challenges to global agriculture, creating demands on breeders to produce resilient crop varieties, scientists’ access to seed-banked materials is more important <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15427528.2011.609928">than ever before</a>.</p>
<p>But crop diversity saved on a farm and in the bank are different. Seeds sown and harvested are seeds in motion, not just geographically but genetically. </p>
<p>A good example of this is a recent seed sensation. <a href="https://www.nativeseeds.org/pages/glass-gem-corn">Glass gem corn</a> burst onto the scene in the 2010s, thanks in large part to the glittering multi-coloured kernels from which it derives its name.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JMJ2zxTMypE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Although it has been described as a “poster child for the return to heirloom seeds”, glass gem is not an old variety but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-behind-glass-gem-corn-2013-10?r=US&IR=T">a new one</a>. Its creator, the Oklahoman Carl Barnes, started collecting corn varieties in the 1940s, inspired by memories of the corn grown by his Cherokee grandfather. He especially prized varieties associated with Native American communities, which he gathered from across the country.</p>
<p>Barnes was interested in preserving history, but for him this didn’t mean keeping varieties as static as museum samples. It meant cultivating. And it especially meant mixing. Barnes allowed different kinds to cross-pollinate in the fields and selected new types from the subsequent mosaic.</p>
<p>In the 1990s, a small, rainbow-kernelled line that Barnes developed from a mix of a few varieties caught the eye of another corn enthusiast, who started growing the seeds in New Mexico. There it cross-pollinated with larger, local flour corns, before making its way <a href="https://www.nativeseeds.org/blogs/blog-news/the-story-of-glass-gem-corn-beauty-history-and-hope">into the hands</a> of the director of an heirloom seed organisation and to eventually into internet fame and impressively widespread cultivation.</p>
<p>The story of glass gem is an outlier among seed conservation stories. Accounts of nearly vanished varieties, recovered intact as they were once grown, often from an isolated farmer or an aged gardener, are far more common. Recovery, revival, and narrow escapes from extinction feature centrally in these stories.</p>
<p>Glass gem reminds us that there is also potential for conservation in motion as well as in stasis, in reinvention alongside restoration. Diversity is not just something we can lose if we aren’t careful. It is something we can create.</p>
<p>I couldn’t get my hands on any glass gem seeds, so I tracked down another striking corn variety attributed to recent remixing. My <a href="https://www.seedsavers.org/double-red-organic-corn">double red sweet corn</a>, which I bought from a UK supplier, originated in handiwork of breeder Alan Kapuler of <a href="http://www.peaceseedslive.com/">Peace Seeds</a> in Oregon, USA.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A freshly harvested red corn on the cob." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441105/original/file-20220117-27-191po11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441105/original/file-20220117-27-191po11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441105/original/file-20220117-27-191po11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441105/original/file-20220117-27-191po11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441105/original/file-20220117-27-191po11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441105/original/file-20220117-27-191po11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441105/original/file-20220117-27-191po11.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author’s harvested double red maize.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Andrew Buskell</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A collector and cultivator of crop diversity since the 1970s, Kapuler today specialises in breeding new varieties from his diverse seed stocks. Double red is one product of Kapuler’s 15 years’ work with sweet corns high in anthocyanin pigments, including some originating among Hopi farmers. It is visually striking: deep red stalks and leaves and an equally red husk that is peeled back to reveal an ear of sparkling crimson kernels.</p>
<p>My harvest of double red was disappointing in comparison to the more abundant output of the F1 hybrid and Hopi sweet corn. I ended up with just a couple of ears, beautiful but devoured in a flash. Still, double red is even more new to my corner of the world than to Oregon and might need to adapt to the climate and soils I can provide.</p>
<p>That’s why I’ve saved some seeds of double red to sow next year. It’s a painfully small step, but it’s one I’m making in solidarity with a conservation agenda that my research has taught me can, and should, be centred on renewal, change and creativity.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Anne Curry receives funding from the Wellcome Trust.</span></em></p>
A historian argues for conservation strategies that embrace creativity and diverse farming methods.
Helen Anne Curry, Associate Professor in History of Modern Science and Technology, University of Cambridge
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/166965
2021-10-06T05:00:42Z
2021-10-06T05:00:42Z
True to the Land: a new history of food in Australia begins 65,000 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424645/original/file-20211005-13-fe0dlb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1022%2C682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An 1817 painting by Joseph Lycett, depicting First Nation peoples cooking and eating whale meat.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Australia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Review: True to the Land: A History of Food in Australia by Paul van Reyk (Reaktion Books)</em></p>
<p>Paul van Reyk’s True to the Land: A History of Food in Australia ambitiously evaluates the foodways of this land over 65,000 years. A Sydney-based food writer, van Reyk is also a regular presenter and administrator of the symposium of Australian Gastronomy. </p>
<p>The bulk of rigorous food research in Australia is conducted through university PhD theses, and in recent years several monographs have been published by food historians on the food practices here. This book weaves the history of Indigenous Australians with that of settlers and migrants. </p>
<p>A chronologically organised social history, it is skilfully structured through empirical evidence and ably builds on the work of prominent Australian food historians. In a series of themes spread over ten chapters, van Reyk includes primary sources from newspapers, exploration accounts, early cookery books and women’s magazines. The volume is amply illustrated with maps, recipes, anecdotes and photographs from the archives. </p>
<p>True to the Land, more than any other food history of Australia, re-evaluates previous accepted knowledge about Indigenous Australians on a range of issues including land use, food sovereignty and food security.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-we-be-australian-without-eating-indigenous-food-53742">Can we be Australian without eating indigenous food?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Food and the continent</h2>
<p>Throughout this book the author constantly reminds us of the ways in which Indigenous Australians contribute to our foodways (the eating habits and culinary practices of a community). He writes,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Aboriginal Australians] were actively involved in agriculture and aquaculture, were managing food stock for sustainability and had developed sophisticated strategies for turning fire, a significant environmental hazard, into a powerful tool for resource management. The consequences of this act of possession reverberate through the rest of this book.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The first two chapters discusses the lie of the land in geographical and historical terms. This premises the starting point of the food history of the continent when the First Peoples migrated to the Australian mainland. </p>
<p>Van Reyk, as with other scholars in recent years, asserts that Aboriginal people developed deliberate strategies in resource management of the land. There were controlled burn-offs, careful harvests of food from plants, the sea and other waterways. Importantly too, surplus food was stored for later use, in protected locations such as trees, caves or buried in sand. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424877/original/file-20211005-21-1bjjskp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Budj Bim eel traps in Lake Condah, Victoria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Budj Bim/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gold and Chinese food</h2>
<p>From the period 1788 to 1850, van Reyk details the rudimentary food practices of British colonists in New South Wales, and, the establishment of settlements and colonies in other parts of Australia. </p>
<p>Cooking was done on open fire until permanent homes were built. Colonists and settlers initially supplemented their European diet with native flora and fauna. Colonial land grab caused conflict resulting in the killing of Aboriginal men, women and children.</p>
<p>One outcome of the displacement of Aboriginal peoples and land exploration was the discovery of gold. A direct consequence of the gold rush years, between 1851 to 1899 was the increase in population in the cities and towns associated with the goldfields. European populations prospered and dining out was possible. The gold boom also attracted Chinese workers to Australia; this gave rise to the first Chinese food being sold to the public. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-lurid-orange-sauces-to-refined-regional-flavours-how-politics-helped-shape-chinese-food-in-australia-150283">From lurid orange sauces to refined, regional flavours: how politics helped shape Chinese food in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Van Reyk pinpoints the ebb and flow of the nation’s economic life between 1900 to 1945 through the years of federation, the two world wars and the interwar years. The publication of cookery books for home cooks began at this time. As the nation prospered, Aboriginal people were coerced to work on farms and as domestic servants on little remuneration. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424880/original/file-20211005-27-18sscc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Chiko Roll: an Australian version of the Chinese Spring Roll.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Aboriginal labour and the stolen generation</h2>
<p>Discussing Aboriginal labour and the stolen generation, the author points out that while cookery books and other records </p>
<blockquote>
<p>offer insights into the domestic lives of Australian women as home makers, what they don’t tell is the stories of the thousands of Aboriginal women and girls forced into domestic service during these years.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Among other topics examined in the years spanning between 1946 and 1979, are the contributions to the culinary landscape by European postwar migrants and the Asianisation of Australian foodways.</p>
<p>The emergence of modern Australian cuisine took hold from the 1980s to the 1990s, with rising affluence. The concluding chapter identifies current environmental and sustainable concerns of foodways in the nation and food insecurity among Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424647/original/file-20211005-27-dh08jl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Australian barbeque.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-curried-wombat-to-rendang-and-doro-wat-a-brief-history-of-curry-in-australia-150370">From curried wombat to rendang and doro wat: a brief history of curry in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>I have two minor criticisms. One, it would enhance this book if there was more engagement with secondary sources pertinent to food historiography. I temper this though by saying that the readability of this book for the general reader is achieved without overuse of theory and jargon. The other criticism is that not all authors cited are in the index. These two points in no way detract from what is a brilliantly structured and well-researched book. </p>
<p>I highly recommend True to the Land to the general public, university students of food history, school teachers and academics. This food history is also relevant to researchers on Australian history, colonial history and cultural and social histories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/166965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cecilia Leong-Salobir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
True to the Land explores the history of the Australian continent through our diverse and changing cooking and eating habits.
Cecilia Leong-Salobir, Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/157747
2021-05-12T12:47:47Z
2021-05-12T12:47:47Z
Agnolotti, bucatini and the innovative new ‘cascatelli’ – a brief history of pasta shapes
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399846/original/file-20210510-5469-t4qora.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=298%2C137%2C5079%2C3442&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are hundreds of varying shapes of pasta. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pasta-variation-royalty-free-image/185065945">AngiePhotos/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.escoffieronline.com/pasta-types-and-when-to-use-them">There are at least 350 shapes of pasta you can buy</a>. Food blogger Dan Pashman apparently thought we could use one more. </p>
<p>Enter cascatelli – which means “waterfall” in Italian – the world’s newest pasta shape. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/05/dining/sfoglini-pasta-shape.html">Pashman developed the shape</a> to hold a lot of sauce and be easily stabbed with a fork. To me, a <a href="https://www.chhs.colostate.edu/bio-page/jeffrey-miller-1070">food historian and former bistro chef</a>, it looks like the love child of two lesser-known pastas, <a href="https://chefsmandala.com/archaeology-pasta-creste-di-gallo/">creste di galle</a> and <a href="https://www.the-pasta-project.com/mafaldine-mafalda-reginette/">mafaldine</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Two pieces of cascatelli, a new pasta that is shaped a bit like a waterfall, sit next to each other" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399881/original/file-20210510-18-ovi1xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399881/original/file-20210510-18-ovi1xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399881/original/file-20210510-18-ovi1xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399881/original/file-20210510-18-ovi1xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399881/original/file-20210510-18-ovi1xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399881/original/file-20210510-18-ovi1xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399881/original/file-20210510-18-ovi1xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cascatelli means ‘waterfall’ in Italian, hence its shape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cascatelli_Duo_3.jpg">Filibustre/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the history of this new shape has been heavily documented, including in a <a href="http://www.sporkful.com/tag/mission-impastable/">five-part podcast</a>, the story behind how pasta got its shape is a bit murkier.</p>
<h2>The noodle is born</h2>
<p>Pasta is one of the oldest processed foods, dating back several thousand years to around 1100 B.C. For comparison, bread <a href="http://lyonbakery.com/the-origin-of-bread/">dates back to around 8000 B.C.</a> </p>
<p>While it may seem like fighting words to an Italian, the first pasta that modern eaters would recognize <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jef.2016.08.003">probably came from China</a> and <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/glass-noodles-cellophane-noodles-bean-thread-3217043">could have been made out of a variety of starchy foods besides wheat</a>, including rice, mung beans, tapioca and sweet potatoes. In fact, the earliest forms of pasta <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/4-000-year-old-noodles-found-in-china">excavated in archaeological digs</a> were made from millet, a grain that has been in use in East Asia much longer than rice or wheat.</p>
<p>Early Chinese cultures <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2016/07/29/who-invented-noodle-italy-or-china">mostly grew soft wheat</a> that was not well suited to making dried pastas, but made good fresh pasta. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2016/07/29/who-invented-noodle-italy-or-china">More mystery surrounds</a> which culture invented the first cut and dried noodles. Some say the Chinese; others say the Italians. The real answer is probably neither of them.</p>
<p>Triticum, or durum, wheat needed to make a sturdy dry pasta <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/triticum-durum">is Middle Eastern in origin</a>, so it is likely that Arabs and others in the Middle East were producing and eating the earliest modern forms of dry pasta – as little balls like acini de pepe and couscous – before they became common in Italy. </p>
<p>These tiny forms of pasta kept well in hot climates and could be cooked using very little fuel, which was scarce in Arab dominions. Since they were dehydrated and sturdy, they were an ideal food for people traveling across the Middle East and northern Africa. </p>
<p>The earliest pasta shape was a simple sheet, which was treated more like bread dough. It probably didn’t have the toothsome quality – known as “al dente” – associated with Italian pasta today, and would have been similar to unleavened matzo bread with sauce on it. The <a href="https://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/pastas/history-of-pasta.asp">first mention of boiled pasta</a> wasn’t until the fifth century A.D., in the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/talmud-jerusalem">Jerusalem Talmud</a>. </p>
<p>Most of the earliest forms of pasta that we consider to be the core of the Italian repertoire – such as vermicelli and spaghetti – <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/nzkk3g/the-edible-legacy-that-arabs-left-in-southern-italy">were probably first developed by Arabs</a> and didn’t appear in Italy until the ninth or 10th centuries. These noodles became widespread once durum wheat had established itself in Sicily and regional food makers learned to work with the semolina flour it produced. </p>
<h2>Italy and an explosion of shapes</h2>
<p>Spaghetti, which means little strings, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1986/07/pasta/306226/">was easy to make</a> and dry in the climates of Southern Italy. </p>
<p>In Italy, these thin noodles were initially cut from sheets using knives or wire cutters. Almost all the earliest shapes were probably formed by hand, which was a tedious process, so people worked on making their production more efficient as pasta gained importance in their diets. </p>
<p>What really sparked the explosion of pasta shapes <a href="https://museo.pastafabbri.it/the-history-of-the-pasta-extrusion-press/?lang=en">was the invention of the extrusion press</a>. Versions of an extruder had been experimented with since the 1300s, but it took the <a href="https://historyplex.com/renaissance-inventions">revolution in mechanics</a> of the Renaissance to allow the machines to quickly mass-produce pasta, including shapes like elbow macaroni, rigatoni and tagliatelle.</p>
<p>Stiff pasta doughs made from semolina could be worked in large quantities by machines in volumes not possible by manual production. These doughs were then extruded through bronze “dies” that yielded the style of pasta familiar today. Bronze was hard enough to be durable but soft enough to be easily worked using pre-Industrial Revolution technologies.</p>
<p>The introduction of machinery powered by steam in the 1800s <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/steam-in-the-industrial-revolution-1221643">during the Industrial Revolution</a> made the process of extruding noodles even more efficient. As factory-made pasta caught on with the public, manufacturers quickly added pastas of various shapes and sizes to their repertoire. Fantastic shapes like gemmeli, radiatori, wagon wheels and stuffable shells soon crowded the shelves. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bronze die machine extrudes pasta into a shape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397669/original/file-20210428-17-14r5jng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397669/original/file-20210428-17-14r5jng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397669/original/file-20210428-17-14r5jng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397669/original/file-20210428-17-14r5jng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397669/original/file-20210428-17-14r5jng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397669/original/file-20210428-17-14r5jng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397669/original/file-20210428-17-14r5jng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pasta makers use bronze dies to extrude various shapes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pasta-machine-dies-brass-factory-industrial-machine-royalty-free-image/848188220">LucaLorenzelli/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>America embraces the noodle</h2>
<p>The U.S. was slow to adopt most of the wide variety of pasta shapes common in Italy. </p>
<p>That’s despite the fact that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2019/12/thomas-jefferson-a-man-of-the-pasta/#:%7E:text=%22The%20best%20pasta%20in%20Italy,a%20similar%20one%20at%20Monticello">was a major proponent of pasta</a> and even owned a pasta maker at his home in Monticello. </p>
<p>The earliest Italian immigrants to America came from the northern regions of the peninsula, but their overall numbers were small. The <a href="https://ilovepasta.org/history">first documented pasta factory in America</a> was established in Brooklyn in 1848, and by the time of the Civil War, macaroni, as it was mostly called then, was fairly common on American tables. Though Italian noodles were called macaroni, they were most often some form of flat noodle, like fettuccine. </p>
<p>American <a href="https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/noodlenarratives/2019/08/10/history-of-pasta-and-its-influence-in-the-u-s-june-sohn/#:%7E:text=Because%20most%20Italian%20settlers%20in,with%20olive%20oil%20(McMillan)">pasta consumption began to surge</a> following the the “Great Arrival” of nearly 4 million Italian immigrants to the U.S. from 1880 to 1920, most from Southern Italy. This is when most of the pasta dishes Americans are familiar with today – such as spaghetti and meatballs, cheesy elbow macaroni and linguine with clam sauce – became popular. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>But it wasn’t until the Italian “food boom” of the 1970s and 1980s that Americans <a href="https://italianacademy.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/papers/paper_sp04_Cinotto.pdf">became familiar with the cornucopia of pasta shapes</a>, sizes, sauces and fillings that were common in Italy. </p>
<p>Today, Americans consider pasta <a href="https://www.rd.com/article/america-favorite-food/">one of their favorite foods</a> – which means there’s probably always room for one more type. </p>
<p>And perhaps, given the comforting nature of pasta, the COVID-19 <a href="https://foodinstitute.com/focus/pasta-trends/">pandemic was an ideal moment</a> for Dan Pashman to introduce cascatelli. A pasta shape that holds more of the rich sauces people crave like marinara and alfredo could not have come at a more opportune time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157747/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Cascatelli, the world’s newest pasta shape, is shaped like a waterfall and designed to hold a generous quantity of sauce.
Jeffrey Miller, Associate Professor, Hospitality Management, Colorado State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150283
2021-02-08T19:06:39Z
2021-02-08T19:06:39Z
From lurid orange sauces to refined, regional flavours: how politics helped shape Chinese food in Australia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382917/original/file-20210208-13-3jscrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C7%2C2393%2C1812&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Chinese community dinner in Sydney, some time in the 1930s.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">City of Sydney Archives</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/australian-culinary-histories-97720">this series</a>, our writers explore how food shaped Australian history – and who we are today.</em></p>
<p>The first whiffs of Chinese cooking in mid-19th century Australia would have emanated from tiny huts owned by Chinese workers in the <a href="http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/109917/life-on-the-goldfields-living-there.pdf">goldfields</a>. There, they faced racial hostility from the European miners, culminating in the Lambing Flat riots in New South Wales in 1860-61, where Chinese residents of the fields were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/aug/07/the-riots-history-erased-reckoning-with-the-racism-of-lambing-flat">physically assaulted</a> and had their camps set on fire.</p>
<p>Chinese cooks were also employed in farms and factories and sold food from “cookshops” in the various urban centres for other migrants, such as Sydney’s Chinese furniture factory workers. </p>
<p>Locally sourced meat, seafood and vegetables were complemented by imported <a href="https://www.academia.edu/41138794/Voices_of_Sydneys_Chinese_Furniture_Factory_Workers_1890_1920">ingredients</a> such as Cantonese sausage, tofu, lychee nuts, black fungus and bamboo shoots. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C610&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C610&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373220/original/file-20201207-23-anyi0f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Alloo’s Chinese restaurant traded in Ballarat during the gold rush, as pictured here in 1853.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the late 1800s, about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-21/humble-chinese-diner-mapped-by-food-historians/7187218">a third of commercial cooks</a> in Australia were Chinese. </p>
<p>But when it came to the development of Chinese cuisine here, food and politics were deeply entangled. The <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/immigration-and-citizenship/immigration-restriction-act-1901">White Australia Policy of 1901</a>, its amendment in the 1930s and abolition in 1973; the Tiananmen Square protest and other political developments all had consequences for Australia’s Chinese restaurant trade. </p>
<h2>From the mines to the cities</h2>
<p>When the gold rush years ended, Chinese miners flocked to the cities to start restaurants. The public taste in the first half of 20th century Australia <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1320410">shifted from mutton to lamb</a>, before shifting further. While there were newspaper <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/209085277">caricatures</a> of Chinese people eating or selling cats and rats, some Anglo-Australians were soon attracted to flavours other than the one meat and three veg.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-story-of-fook-shing-colonial-victorias-chinese-detective-94017">Friday essay: the story of Fook Shing, colonial Victoria's Chinese detective</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Anti-Chinese sentiment and other factors led to the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 – known as the White Australia Policy — restricting migration from Asia and the Pacific.</p>
<p>Most of Australia’s Chinese population before the White Australia policy were from <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137522238">Guangdong and served Cantonese fare</a>. It was this food which took a foothold.</p>
<p>From the early 1900s, Chinese restaurants were concentrated in Chinatowns in Australia, as happened elsewhere <a href="http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?ISB=9781861891334&m=705&dc=899">around the world</a>. Alongside food, these enclaves provided <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14443050309387854">networks</a> for Chinese labour, trade and provisioning Chinese ingredients. </p>
<p>The Australian public started eating at Chinese restaurants from the 1930s, or brought saucepans from home for takeaway meals. Chicken chow mein, chop suey and sweet and sour pork were the mainstays. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374742/original/file-20201214-13-26tpel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photograph, taken for the Australian Consolidated Press in 1939, shows a Chinese Australian family eating dumplings together.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy ACP Magazines Ltd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The latter — together with other dishes smothered in sweet sticky sauces — became the lurid-orange epitome of Chinese cuisine for many Anglo Australians.</p>
<p>This fondness was aided and abetted by Chinese cooks who thought this sweetness was what Westerners thought of — and wanted from — Chinese food. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Fried food covered in an orange sauce." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374991/original/file-20201215-20-12uluv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For many Anglo-Australians, ‘Chinese food’ was defined by lurid-orange sauces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Drew Taylor/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>After White Australia</h2>
<p>When the White Australia Policy ended, a new wave of more educated and affluent Chinese arrived. Settling in suburbs, they did not require the infrastructure of Chinatown. Later, from the 1980s, international Chinese students took up residence near university campuses. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of young Asian and white women talking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375012/original/file-20201215-20-86hd5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With increasing Chinese migration in the 1980s, Chinese food could be found in the suburbs as well as the cities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library Victoria © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With this, Chinese restaurants and provision stores were no longer found only in Chinatown. Still, the survival of Chinatowns depends on the Chinese food industry: in restaurants, cafes and grocery shops. The <a href="https://cpes.org.uk/om/items/show/179">majority</a> of Chinese restaurants in Australia are of the mum-and-dad variety and not part of global fast food conglomerates. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sydneys-chinatown-is-much-more-of-a-modern-bridge-to-asia-than-a-historic-enclave-94482">Sydney's Chinatown is much more of a modern bridge to Asia than a historic enclave</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Both resident and transient Chinese consume and purchase Chinese goods in Chinatown for two reasons: to consume the familiar foods of home or childhood and to <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137522238">reconnect</a> with their culture. And in eating Chinese meals in Chinatown, Australians show off their global palate by tasting a foreign and yet familiar cuisine.</p>
<h2>Tiananmen and Hong Kong</h2>
<p>Following the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protest, the Australian government granted <a href="https://www.scmp.com/article/50114/chinese-students-win-right-stay-australia">permanent residence</a> to 20,000 Chinese international students. </p>
<p>They brought food practices from many different regions of China. Importing their own particular ingredients and cooking methods, restaurants started offering cuisines from Hunan, Sichuan, Beijing and Shanghai. </p>
<p>In the years before and after Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997, numerous Cantonese chefs migrated to Australia. Locals at the time boasted that the best Hong Kong Cantonese food in the world was found in Perth’s Northbridge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chinese greens" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=286&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374990/original/file-20201215-21-ee335h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian Chinese food is becoming increasingly diverse and refined.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hanxiao/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today the discerning restaurant diner in Australia looks more for regional foods from China: the hot chilli lamb and noodles from Uyghur cuisine, the delicate dumplings of Shanghai, the Beijing hot pot. “Chinese food” is no longer a good enough descriptor for the variety of cuisines available in Australia.</p>
<p>But while Australians can now eat Peking duck and <em>xiao long bao</em> (soup dumplings), the ubiquitous Chinese restaurant — with its sweet and sour pork and chow mein — still exists across Australia in a culinary time warp. It is evidence of the enduring love for Chinese food here. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic means this week’s Lunar New Year will be different. Usually marked by an obligatory reunion dinner, this year not every family member will be at the dining table — but every dining table is sure to be piled high with food.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150283/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cecilia Leong-Salobir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From Cantonese sausage on the goldfields, to mid-century sweet and sour pork, to today’s delicate xiao long bao, Chinese food in Australia has come a long way.
Cecilia Leong-Salobir, Honorary Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150370
2020-12-27T20:41:52Z
2020-12-27T20:41:52Z
From curried wombat to rendang and doro wat: a brief history of curry in Australia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373213/original/file-20201207-72125-1h8ivdv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3462%2C2580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Hay/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a new series, our writers explore how food shaped Australian history – and who we are today.</em></p>
<p>Curry occupies a <a href="https://eprints.utas.edu.au/23775/">grey area in Australia</a>: sometimes exotic and other, sometimes ordinary, often a bit of both.</p>
<p>Advertised in Australia as early as <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/628816">1813</a>, curry powder was a familiar ingredient for British colonists, developed in British India through a process of “<a href="https://www.routledge.com/Food-Culture-in-Colonial-Asia-A-Taste-of-Empire/Leong-Salobir/p/book/9781138785151">negotiation and collaboration</a>”. </p>
<p>Curry powder was a food of empire. </p>
<p>For the British colonialists who moved to Australia, curry powder was an “<a href="http://australianhumanitiesreview.org/2011/11/01/nineteenth-century-experimentation-and-the-role-of-indigenous-foods-in-australian-food-culture/">agent of transformation</a>”. In a new country with unusual animals, these spices could <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2842722551/view?partId=nla.obj-2842722733">render</a> the unfamiliar into the familiar, as in “Iguana” tail curry and curried wattle bird.</p>
<p>Writing in the Melbourne Herald in 1874, journalist Marcus Clarke <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/245308912">said</a> a man who had not eaten curried wombat “has not used his opportunities”.</p>
<p>In his 1893 dietary advice publication <a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007668492">The art of living in Australia</a>, physician Philip Muskett proposed vegetable curry as a suitable national dish.</p>
<p>By the early 20th century, curry was a standard feature of Australian cookbooks and recipes. Curry powder was a given pantry item. In most discussions, curry barely rated a second mention: it was known, accepted and widely eaten. </p>
<h2>Sugar and spice and all things nice</h2>
<p>Keen’s curry powder was first blended in Hobart in the 1860s by British immigrant <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/keen-joseph-13019/text23539">Joseph Keen</a>. By the 1960s, the company was promising curries “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/47473250">fit for a Maharajah</a>” such as <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46448968">Murgh Korma</a> and <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/5342149">Kare Daging</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A very ugly looking curry on spaghetti with lemons" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373211/original/file-20201207-72125-1epnbnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=694&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An issue Women’s Weekly in 1948 listed a recipe for ‘curried steak with spaghetti’, including one dessertspoon of curry powder, two dessertspoons of sultanas and two apples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/4784207">Trove</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But these promises of a “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42113628">rich true Indian flavour</a>” were undermined by the use of stereotypes to sell their product. </p>
<p>An <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/46448968">advertisement</a> from 1965 read:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>To the Indian housewife, “curry” means a richly spiced sauce … Indians curry anything. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Keen’s suggested recipes included ingredients such as canned fruit, plum jam, sultanas and tomato sauce alongside the curry powder.</p>
<p>From the 1930s, Australians developed a fashion for sweeter curries — perhaps initially stemming from the need to substitute unavailable souring agents such as tamarind. </p>
<p>But it also reflected a sweetening Australian palate and successful marketing campaigns by companies such as Golden Circle, who suggested meat curries be <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/5524551#">topped with their</a> tinned pineapples. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373210/original/file-20201207-15-14qdcgm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1965 ad for Golden Circle pineapples, the perfect topping for your curry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/5524551#">Trove</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A recipe for “<a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/166673616">Australian Curry</a>” published in the 1981 Catholic Women’s League of Tasmania cookbook is characteristic of these tastes, featuring tinned pineapple, a granny smith apple, two bananas, meat, a tin of tomato soup and one dessertspoon of curry powder. </p>
<h2>Looking outward</h2>
<p>From the 1960s, sweet Australianised curries increasingly competed with a trend of heightened (although often questionable) cultural knowledge in the context of Australia’s broader cultural, economic and political change. </p>
<p>Post the second world war, a booming economy allowed for greater emphasis on lifestyle and travel. Increasingly aware of our proximity to Asia, Australia shifted its gaze to its own neighbourhood. There was a boom in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hic3.12071">international food</a> in restaurants, on television and in homes.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombo-plan-an-initiative-that-brought-australia-and-asia-closer-3590">Colombo Plan</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-vietnamese-refugees-who-changed-white-australia">Vietnam War</a> resulted in greater migration from Asian countries. The White Australia Policy was abolished in 1973, and an international movement for social equality and civil rights movements reverberated through the nation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/colombo-plan-an-initiative-that-brought-australia-and-asia-closer-3590">Colombo Plan: An initiative that brought Australia and Asia closer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australians integrated foods from the Asia-Pacific region – including the incorporation of dishes from cuisines other than India under the label “curry”, such as Thai green curry. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Complete Asian Cookbook Solomon Charmaine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373208/original/file-20201206-15-1kxw9fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1036&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1972, Charmaine Solomon published her first book, the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4649099-south-east-asian-cookbook">South East Asian Cookbook</a>, with recipes for Indonesian rendang daging and Burmese fish kofta curry. Her second, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1111992.The_Complete_Asian_Cookbook">The Complete Asian Cookbook</a> (1976), became one of the most influential cookbooks in Australia.</p>
<p>Solomon’s family heritage from Sri Lanka, Burma and India is reflected in <a href="https://www.booksforcooks.com.au/pages/books/0727100998-01/charmaine-solomon/south-east-asian-cookbook">her recipes</a>, moving Australian curries away from sweetened sauces and generic curry powders and towards more nuanced and complex tastes. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9382567-the-curry-cookbook">1980</a>, she pledged to work with Australian tastes, but would not put up with:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>those strange and spurious dishes that masquerade under the name of curry and are only the leftover roast disguised in a yellow sauce thickened with flour and flavoured with what some people are pleased to call “curry” [with] bits of apple, banana and sultanas.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Solomon’s history reminds us of how people move — carrying and adapting culinary customs but also contributing to the food cultures of their adopted homes. </p>
<p>From the late 1960s, Australian cookbooks and magazines shifted towards recipes for more subtle and refined curries. “Australianised” curries didn’t disappear, but knowledge of regional and cultural variations gradually increased.</p>
<p>South Asian migrants opened restaurants and takeaways, tending to offer a stable repertoire of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jul/21/they-wanted-tandoori-chicken-australias-slow-embrace-of-regional-indian-cuisine">North Indian dishes</a>, reflecting both migration patterns and an Anglo-Australian preference for familiar flavours. </p>
<h2>An evolving food culture</h2>
<p>Our understanding of curry hasn’t stopped evolving. Australians are still encountering and remaking foods from around the world as curry, and new migrants are expanding our cultural understanding and diets.</p>
<p>From Ethiopian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_(food)">Doro Wat</a> to Afghani <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/afghan-braised-chicken-yoghurt-and-turmeric-lawang">Lawang</a>, curry is still at once ordinary and exotic. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B4BkIFtFq5C","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Food is never just food. What we ingest becomes part of us, and can be a statement of who we are: a marker of identity. It has the capacity to unite or divide. </p>
<p>While food can signal the boundaries of cultures between “us” and “them”, it can also mark the spaces where these delineations break down.</p>
<p>I wonder what sort of curry Muskett might propose as a national dish today?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frieda Moran does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Originally made with curry powders imported by British colonialists, Australia’s understanding of curry has come a long way.
Frieda Moran, PhD Candidate, University of Tasmania
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/151201
2020-12-24T21:25:20Z
2020-12-24T21:25:20Z
A festive feast of fish and fruit: the creation of the Australian Christmas dinner
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373001/original/file-20201204-13-cnpef1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=42%2C0%2C4752%2C3151&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Maddi Bazzocco/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In this new series, our writers explore how food shaped Australian history – and who we are today.</em></p>
<p>A traditional British meal of roast turkey and plum pudding may have once dominated Australia’s Christmas tables. But as our population has become more diverse, so has our menu. </p>
<p>While some may mark the day with a <a href="https://www.nordickitchenstories.co.uk/2017/11/30/pepparkakor-swedish-ginger-thins-recipe/">pepparkakor</a> and others a <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/panettone-italian-christmas-cake-from-milan-4052603">panettone</a>, it would now be a rare house where prawns and a bowl of cherries did not make an appearance. </p>
<p>But how did this distinctively Australian Christmas spread get its start?</p>
<p>The peculiarity of preparing a roast and pudding in high summer was amusing to colonials. In many ways its <a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/philosophical-historical-international-studies/eras/past-editions/edition-six-2004-november/eras-journal-donaldson-r-abstract">absurdity was celebrated</a>, representing the ambiguity of emergent Antipodean identity. But there were soon calls for innovation. </p>
<p>In 1907, Henry Lawson described a “sensible Christmas dinner” in one of his short stories, celebrating a festive feast where all the food was cold. </p>
<p>His narrator <a href="https://www.telelib.com/authors/L/LawsonHenry/prose/sendroundthehat/prettygirlarmy.html">observed</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Billy’s wife and her sister [were] fresh and cool-looking and jolly, instead of being hot and brown and cross like most Australian women who roast themselves over a blazing fire in a hot kitchen on a broiling day, all the morning, to cook scalding plum pudding and red-hot roasts, for no other reason than that their grandmothers used to cook hot Christmas dinners in England.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two maids stand by a table laden with meat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372181/original/file-20201201-22-p3u0hh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian Christmas dinners – like this one in 1910 – were once very British affairs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Coffs Harbour City Council</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cornucopias of festive fruits</h2>
<p>From the late 19th century, new traditions developed celebrating summer. Tropical and stone fruits became <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442276987">increasingly popular</a> as a seasonal addition to the festive spread.</p>
<p>While the heady scent of mangoes and piles of ruby-red cherries must have seemed extraordinary to migrants used to a winter Yuletide, the emphasis on fruit was far from novel — fruit had long played a role in British Christmases. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/decking-the-halls-of-history-the-origins-of-christmas-decorations-129037">Decking the halls of history: the origins of Christmas decorations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The heavy use of dried fruits — luxury goods imported from the east — underpinned the celebratory status of traditional favourites like <a href="https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections/view/811">plum pudding</a> and <a href="http://www.reaktionbooks.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781861894250">mince pies</a>. Oranges and apples appeared in the <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/A-Victorian-Christmas/">stockings</a> of Victorian children and as decorations on the tree.</p>
<p>In Australia, the bounty of colour was perfect for the Victorian tradition of festive window displays, and grocers competed to wow crowds with cornucopias of fruit and flowers. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A busy market filled with people, fruits and plants." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373801/original/file-20201209-23-29gf7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Victoria Markets at Christmas, as printed in the Illustrated Australian News, 1893.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1890, The Daily Telegraph <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/235792341">reported</a> on the Christmas Eve spectacle in Sydney’s King Street Arcade:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>great masses of beautiful flowers at the florists and the magnificent spread of fruit near by — the piles of oranges, lemons, mangoes, pineapples, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, cherries, red and white currants, grapes, gooseberries and other fruits — decked with Christmas bush making a picture worth travelling to see.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Boxes of mangoes became popular gifts, so common that, in 1945, a columnist for the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/56441320">decried</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>if we get another Christmas box that includes mangoes, pineapples or a watermelon I’ll scream.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the 20th century, the popularity of tropical fruits at Christmas was bolstered the development of another modern festive classic: the pavlova. </p>
<p>Rising in popularity in the decades following its fabled “<a href="https://www.otago.ac.nz/press/books/otago071803.html">invention</a>” on one side of the Tasman or the other (a debate for another time), by the 1940s it was promoted by women’s magazines, newspapers and cookbooks as an <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22390104">alternative to pudding</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pavlova with mango" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373002/original/file-20201204-15-1vw7lab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We are more likely to cook a pavlova than a pudding for Christmas dinner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the traditional pud was to be ousted, its rival needed a mythology of its own. The pav was a more than worthy opponent, and by December 2017, Australia’s recipe searches for pavlova <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-24/google-christmas-trends-pudding-pavlova/9255722">far outstripped</a> searches for pudding.</p>
<h2>Out with the meat and in with the fish</h2>
<p>The seafood feast is a decidedly more recent phenomenon. </p>
<p>In contrast to other parts of Europe, after Britain’s 16th century Reformation the seafood meal associated with Christmas Eve as a traditional Catholic fast day declined, and the festival became a decidedly <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442276987">meat-oriented affair</a>. </p>
<p>Fish had no defined role in the menu the British brought with them to Australia, where roast fowl, beef and ham dominated Christmas tables for <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/51907">almost 200 years</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tofu-turkey-paleo-feast-christmas-culinary-traditions-are-ever-changing-68748">Tofu turkey? Paleo feast? Christmas culinary traditions are ever changing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Real change did not begin until the 1980s, gathering pace in the 1990s, as Australian culinary identity developed increasing confidence and embraced new flavours. Post-war migrants, especially from the Mediterranean, shaped change, too: bringing not just their seafood traditions, but also lessons in the art of cooking and eating <em><a href="http://coasit.com.au/IHS/journals/Individual%20Journal%20Extracts/Italian%20Migrant%20Food%20Australia%20from%20IHS%20Journal0032.pdf">al fresco</a></em>. </p>
<p>In 1994, the Sydney Fish Market began their 36-hour seafood marathon. </p>
<p>From 5am on 23 December until 5pm on Christmas Eve the market sells fish, squid, prawns and oysters to approximately 100,000 shoppers.</p>
<p>Last year, <a href="https://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Portals/0/adam/Content/yS4yblh5t0u5e4H3AwF42Q/ButtonLink/Media%20Release_1.4%20Million%20Auction%20Trade.pdf">A$1.4 million</a> was spent over the 36 hours — an estimated 700 tonnes of seafood, including 130 tonnes of prawns.</p>
<p>Just over a century ago, Henry Lawson marvelled at the innovation of a cold seasonal spread. Today, it is fair to say the prawn and mango have well and truly found their place on the festive table as hallmarks of a uniquely Australian Christmas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151201/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Madeline Shanahan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When British colonials came to Australia, they stuck to their winter Christmas traditions of roast meats and plum puddings. But over the centuries, Australians found their own ways to celebrate.
Madeline Shanahan, Honorary Adjunct Lecturer, University of New England
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150151
2020-11-23T13:18:12Z
2020-11-23T13:18:12Z
The rise and fall of Tab – after surviving the sweetener scares, the iconic diet soda gets canned
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370404/original/file-20201119-21-lu4xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Before there was Diet Coke, there was Tab.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/cans-of-diet-cola-tab-brand-soft-drink-produced-by-the-coca-news-photo/595289606?adppopup=true">Ramin Talaie/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tab, the Coca-Cola company’s original diet soda brand, is headed to the soda graveyard, joining retired brands such as <a href="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/x0MAAOSwbWhdZzLu/s-l400.jpg">Like</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/georgeginis/status/1307440469090078722">Leed</a> and <a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/690161122/1970s-lime-crush-limette-metal-pop-top">Limette</a>.</p>
<p>Coca-Cola has announced that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/16/business/coca-cola-tab.html">it is discontinuing Tab after 57 years on the market</a>, and fans of the drink will have until the end of December to purchase their last can of nostalgia.</p>
<p>From the beginning, Tab’s story has been one of perseverance. The brand survived initial low sales, the artificial sweetener scares of the 1960s and 1970s, lukewarm enthusiasm for the product at the corporate level and intermittent consumer availability to become – for a brief period – the most popular diet soda in America. Then, of course, Diet Coke came along.</p>
<p>While it never regained its lofty status as the top diet soda, loyal Tab fans kept the brand alive.</p>
<h2>Meant for diabetics, downed by dieters</h2>
<p>While some might think Tab was the first diet soda, that honor actually belongs to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSHfJ1tgzbQ">a beverage called No-Cal</a>, which was developed by beverage industry pioneer Hyman Kirsch in 1952. Kirsch wanted to create a soda for diabetics and people with cardiovascular problems, <a href="https://www.saveur.com/artificial-sweeteners/">so he used cyclamate</a>, which was discovered in 1937 by a graduate student working at a University of Illinois chemistry lab after he licked some of the substance and found that it tasted sweet. About 30 times sweeter than sugar, cyclamate isn’t metabolized, making it ideal for people who need to avoid sugar.</p>
<p>But from the start, No-Cal was popular with a different type of consumer: dieters. Actress Kim Novak became <a href="https://i2.wp.com/baybottles.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/KH-1956.jpg?resize=768%2C929&ssl=1">the brand’s slim celebrity spokesperson</a>. Canada Dry followed soon after with a line of diet sodas called Glamor, <a href="http://lileks.com/bleats/archive/15/0915/0902/product/2.jpg">marketing it to women trying to lose weight</a>.</p>
<p>Diet soda really took off with <a href="https://healthfully.com/diet-rite-cola-ingredients-6270941.html">the introduction of Diet-Rite Cola</a> by the Royal Crown Cola company in 1958. Like No-Cal, Diet-Rite initially targeted diabetics and was often placed in the over-the-counter medicine section of grocers. But it soon became clear that the real market was dieters. By 1960, <a href="https://www.drinkstuff-sa.co.za/the-bittersweet-sexist-history-of-marketing-diet-soda/">Diet-Rite was the fourth-best-selling soft drink in the country</a>, trailing only Coca-Cola, Pepsi and 7 Up. </p>
<h2>Soda giants caught flat-footed</h2>
<p>Coca-Cola and Pepsi, finding themselves behind the ball, scrambled to come up with their own diet soda offerings. </p>
<p>Coca-Cola’s foray into the diet cola market – <a href="https://www.metv.com/stories/in-the-1970s-coca-cola-also-tried-to-expand-its-diet-soda-with-a-variety-of-tab-flavors">dubbed Project Alpha</a> – was an ambitious one. It wanted to come up with a soda that tasted good, had a proper mouthfeel – sugar adds not only sweetness <a href="https://www.mydrinkbeverages.com/challenges-faced-in-creating-sugar-free-beverages">but also viscosity</a> – and was attractive to women, the presumptive market. It also needed a catchy name.</p>
<p>For the name, Coke executives had one directive: Even though its taste was engineered to mimic Coke’s, it couldn’t be called Diet Coke. Because most early diet sodas didn’t taste that great, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1537-4726.2004.00115.x">strategists warned</a> against associating their brands with drinks that might taint their tremendous value.</p>
<p>So an early IBM mainframe computer generated <a href="https://soda.fandom.com/wiki/Tab">more than 600 candidates</a> with the parameters that the name be three or four letters and not offensive in any foreign language.</p>
<p>Tabb, which was eventually shortened to Tab, eventually won the battle of market testing. Stylized as “TaB,” it was introduced to the world <a href="https://clickamericana.com/topics/food-drink/20-years-tab-diet-cola-vintage-ads">in a series of ads</a> with the tagline “How can just one calorie taste so good?”</p>
<p>For a company that ordinarily has such excellent marketing instincts, Coca-Cola wasn’t sure how to fit Tab into its portfolio. Bottlers resisted the product, fearing it would undercut their profitable sugar-based sodas. By the end of its first year, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1537-4726.2004.00115.x">it had only 10% of the diet soda market</a>, an unusual predicament for a brand backed by the No. 1 soda company in the world.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DJL4yQn_7qQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Coca-Cola wasn’t subtle about targeting dieting women.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Later in the 1960s, Coca-Cola introduced the grapefruit-flavored diet soda Fresca, <a href="https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/fresca-lived-up-to-its-tagline-for-1967-new-york-debut">which was a much bigger hit</a> with consumers and further sidelined Tab.</p>
<h2>Emerging from the sweetener scares</h2>
<p>Artificial sweeteners were riding high in the 1960s as Americans wanted to enjoy their sweets without paying the caloric price. But danger was lurking in the form of the <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/HRD-82-3">Delany Clause</a> in the Food Additives Amendment of 1958, which prohibits food additives that have been found to cause cancer. </p>
<p>In 1969, <a href="http://ilovetab.com/the-bitter-truth-about-a-sweetener-scare/">the Food and Drug Administration banned the sweetener cyclamate</a> after lab studies indicated that large doses of the sweetener led to bladder cancer in animals. While Tab contained two artificial sweeteners – saccharin and cyclamate – cyclamate was the more important of the two. Saccharin is 300 to 400 times sweeter than sugar, but in high concentrations it gives products a bitter, metallic aftertaste. However, when it’s combined with cyclamate, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chembiol.2017.08.004">bitterness goes away</a>.</p>
<p>After the cyclamate ban, Tab was forced to reformulate and ended up deciding to use saccharine as its primary sweetener. Then in a second blow, follow-up research on potential health problems associated with artificial sweeteners focused on saccharin, leading the FDA to require warning labels on products using the sweetener. </p>
<p>Despite these obstacles, Tab <a href="https://www.mashed.com/263185/the-real-reason-coke-just-discontinued-tab/">still ended up becoming the bestselling diet cola of the 1970s and 1980s</a>. People, it seems, were willing to turn a blind eye to potential health problems as long as they were able to continue to get their diet soda. And Tab, for a brief period, was apparently the favorite of the bunch.</p>
<p>In 1982, Tab was reformulated yet again to include Nutrasweet, <a href="https://foodinsight.org/everything-you-need-to-know-about-aspartame/">also known as aspartame</a>. But Tab drinkers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/10/garden/tab-soda-drinkers-miss-familiar-taste.html">protested the change to the drink’s flavor profile</a>, and the company dropped aspartame from the recipe.</p>
<h2>Enter: Diet Coke</h2>
<p>After Pepsi entered the diet cola market with Patio, it rebranded the product as “Diet Pepsi” within a year. Consumers embraced the new drink and a string of celebrity endorsers only enhanced its popularity. </p>
<p>This lesson was lost on Coca-Cola, which didn’t bring a diet drink using the Coca-Cola name onto the market until 1982, when it introduced Diet Coke.</p>
<p>Contrary to the company’s original fears, <a href="https://www.beveragehistory.com/2018/01/history-of-diet-coke.html">Diet Coke was an immediate hit</a>. Even though the flavor of the new beverage was not a carbon copy of the sugar-sweetened version, customers took to it. And the main victim of Diet Coke was not the original Coke, but Tab. Over the years, Tab’s market share dwindled; by 2019, <a href="https://www.ingredientsnetwork.com/cocacola-to-discontinue-production-of-tab-soda-news085577.html">its sales made up only about 1% of the Coca-Cola portfolio</a>.</p>
<p>Yet the drink managed to retain some passionate devotees, even as rumors of its impending doom circulated on and off over the years. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tab-shortage-sparks-panic-2018-10">A Tab shortage in 2018</a> caused self-described Tab-aholics to stockpile their favorite beverage, and petitions to save the drink were circulated and sent to the company. </p>
<p>They couldn’t stop the inevitable. Coca-Cola is trying to cut underperforming brands, and even modern ones like Odwalla juice and regional sodas like Delaware Punch <a href="https://www.today.com/food/coca-cola-will-stop-selling-tab-end-2020-t195035">are poised to fall prey to the cost-cutting guillotine</a>. The company says more than half of the 500 brands it currently markets <a href="https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2020/10/23/coca-cola-company-200-drinks-coke-brands-being-cancelled-list/">will disappear in the near future</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Tab lovers might have less time than they think to load up; serious Tab fans <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2020/10/16/coca-cola-discontinuing-tab-one-of-the-first-diet.html">have begun snapping up any six-packs</a> that might still be lurking on store shelves. </p>
<p>It won’t be long until the only cans left will be in the basements of Tab-aholics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Tab was Coca-Cola’s first foray into the diet soda market. Though the brand went on to build and maintain a legion of devoted fans, its days are numbered.
Jeffrey Miller, Associate Professor, Hospitality Management, Colorado State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148798
2020-11-12T03:55:34Z
2020-11-12T03:55:34Z
Vale Sizzler: the cheese toast king couldn’t keep up with dining trends
<p>After 35 years in Australia, the last plates of <a href="http://www.sizzler.com.au/sizzler-cheese-toast">cheese toast</a> will soon be served at Sizzler’s nine remaining outlets across Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.</p>
<p>The family-friendly restaurant, famous for the all-you-can-eat salad bar and cheesy TV ads, was once a suburban dining stalwart. But Sizzler’s <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/sizzler-will-close-the-remaining-9-restaurants-by-november-15/news-story/77aa30606113057bb72138fa1fd7f864">closure on 15 November</a> isn’t just another consequence of COVID-19.</p>
<p>Australia’s food values and tastes have changed since the chain’s heyday of the 1990s. Today, food is much more important in our everyday lives. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GweOAt8I_mk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>An era of casual dining</h2>
<p>Sizzler began in the United States in the late 1950s, opening its first Australian restaurant in 1985 in the Brisbane suburb of Annerley. A novelty of the chain was its salad bar, which the Canberra Times in 1992 <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/132381063/12992894">described as</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>15 metres of salad choices, two soup choices and croutons and rolls, a potato casserole, savoury rice, two types of pasta (with the usual unfortunate consequences for pasta left sitting) with a meat, tomato and cream sauces, and four or five desserts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Optional steak, seafood and chicken offerings could be served to your table. When the chain reached its Australian peak in the mid-1990s, our food culture was very different. Cuisine of the era was increasingly multicultural – as food author Cherry Ripe notes in her book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Goodbye-Culinary-Cringe-Cherry-Ripe/dp/1864481234">Goodbye Culinary Cringe</a> – but food was more often spoken about in utilitarian terms.</p>
<p>Sizzler positioned itself as food that was cheap and fast, but not “fast food”. Most of those who dined there, alongside the dine-in all-you-can eat Pizza Huts, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/au/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/accounting-tastes-australian-everyday-cultures?format=PB&isbn=9780521635042">earned</a> under A$60,000 (approximately $110,000 today).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OGBCW4GzzbI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But over the past 25 years, the way Australian families dine has <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Eating-Between-Lines-Rebecca-Huntley/dp/1863952632">dramatically changed</a>. Instead of a large “family friendly” diner, we are more likely to frequent a range of small, culturally diverse eateries.</p>
<h2>The changing face of value</h2>
<p>While Sizzler has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/curtains-for-sizzler-in-australia-as-covid-forces-full-closure-20201002-p561b0.html">attributed the shuttering</a> of the final nine stores to the impact of COVID-19, the brand has experienced a <a href="https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/06/the-sad-decline-of-sizzlers-restaurants-in-australia/?">slow death</a>, with <a href="https://concreteplayground.com/melbourne/food-drink/food-2/sizzler-will-close-down-all-of-its-remaining-australian-eateries-by-mid-november">19 outlets closing across Australia since 2015</a>. </p>
<p>Its demise can be attributed to many factors. </p>
<p>Since Sizzler’s peak, Australian consumers have shown greater interest in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-04-15/nsw-youth-food-movement/7329880">food provenance</a>, or understanding where their food comes from. </p>
<p>There are growing concerns about environmental impacts of the way we eat, particularly around <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/war-on-waste">food waste</a>. These concerns become stark in buffet settings.</p>
<p>Other contemporary culinary interests include the ideals of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/11/why-we-fell-for-clean-eating">clean eating</a>” and Instagrammable <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/04/what-food-porn-does-to-the-brain/390849/">#foodporn</a> – Sizzler isn’t entirely suited to either category.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lobster, steak and chips" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368215/original/file-20201109-21-1iej857.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sizzler’s meals aren’t exactly #foodporn.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark James Miller/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once considered “alternative” approaches to eating, vegetarianism and veganism are also on the rise. By 2019, <a href="https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/health-and-wellness/the-vegan-boom-is-more-than-just-a-blip-20190411-p51dai">more than 2.5 million</a> Australians were vegan or vegetarian. </p>
<p>We have embraced movements like <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/national/food-and-drink/article/rise-flexitarian">flexitarianism</a> (a mostly plant-based diet, with animal products eaten in moderation) and <a href="https://medium.com/@chrisjriedy/meat-free-mondays-launch-in-australia-e02181e171d0">Meat Free Mondays</a>. Sizzler is known for its salad bar, but the prominent grill offerings of steak, seafood and chicken don’t necessarily align with these culinary values.</p>
<p>Pressure has been placed on Sizzler, too, as fast-casual dining <a href="https://www.thenpdgroup.com.au/wps/portal/npd/au/news/latest-reports/restaurant-visits-in-australia-increase-with-greatest-growth-coming-from-foodservice-industrys-smallest-category/">chains gain popularity</a>, with companies like Guzman y Gomez and Grill’d focusing on ethical and healthy choices.</p>
<p>The pressures faced by Sizzler can also be seen in the Australian fine-dining sector. There has been <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/brisbane-finedining-restaurants-close-as-glut-of-trendy-midrange-shyvenues-flood-brisbane/news-story/76ea0ba5c33718f74c8cc0d36512ae7c">an explosion</a> of mid-tier, casual but trendy venues opening to accommodate diners’ changing tastes. This has led to closures of both “value for money” sit-down restaurants, like Sizzler, at one end of the spectrum, and fine dining at the other end.</p>
<p>Our notion of what constitutes “good value” has also evolved.</p>
<p>Until Sunday, a standard Sizzler all-you-can-eat salad bar will cost you $27.95. You can add $4 and get a rump steak, or $2 for a “Malibu Chicken Supreme” (think parmy-meets-Chicken-Cordon-Bleu).</p>
<p>But “value” now lies in the <em>quality</em> rather than quantity of one’s meal. As Australians’ idea of value is shifting, we are inclined to <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/food-and-the-self-9780857854353/">pay more</a> for food we consider to be good quality – so $30 for an average steak and salad now seems rather steep.</p>
<p>This isn’t to say Australians are a bunch of food snobs.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/761">my 2014 research</a> into food and food media habits, I spoke to then 38-year-old food enthusiast Melanie, who enjoyed trips to Adriano Zumbo’s Sydney patisserie and celebrated her sister’s 40th birthday dinner at Tom Colicchio’s New York restaurant – but she was not opposed to more lowbrow or fast-food offerings.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I will say I love fine dining, but if you offered me up Sizzler on a Sunday, I’m right there. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>I hope Melanie got a booking at Sizzler to enjoy one last Sunday indulgence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148798/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Kirkwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Launched in Brisbane in 1985, the final 9 stores will close this Sunday. Australia’s tastes have changed.
Katherine Kirkwood, PhD Candidate, Queensland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137973
2020-05-29T12:28:20Z
2020-05-29T12:28:20Z
An ode to mac and cheese, the poster child for processed food
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338365/original/file-20200528-51527-9omqt8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C35%2C5973%2C3925&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We love to bad-mouth processed foods – usually while our mouths are full of it.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/macaroni-and-cheese-in-bowl-royalty-free-image/539959124?adppopup=true">IcemanJ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January 2015, food sales at restaurants overtook those at grocery stores for the first time. Most thought this marked <a href="https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/chart-day-retail-sales-grocery-stores-vs-restaurants/">a permanent shift</a> in the American meal. </p>
<p>Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, that trend took a U-turn. <a href="https://www.restaurant.org/articles/news/restaurant-sales-and-job-losses-are-widespread">Restaurant revenue cratered</a>, while shoppers emptied grocery shelves stocking up on food to cook at home. And with sales of pantry items soaring, shoppers found themselves reaching for an old reliable.</p>
<p>In April 2020, sales of Kraft macaroni and cheese <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/business/2020/04/09/we-cant-make-enough-mac-and-cheese-processed-food-is-undergoing-a-renaissance/">were up 27%</a> from the same time last year. General Mills, the maker of Annie’s mac and cheese, <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/processed-foods-see-sales-boost-during-coronavirus-pandemic">has seen a similar bump</a>.</p>
<p>The cheap, boxed meal has long been a poster child for processed food. While it’s often dismissed as stuff for kids, a lot of grownups secretly savor it. As I tell my own students, we love to bad mouth processed foods – usually while our mouths are full of it. It’s also played an important role in kitchen science, wars and women’s liberation.</p>
<h2>Solving the age-old problem of spoiled cheese</h2>
<p>People have eaten pasta and cheese together for hundreds of years. Clifford Wright, the doyen of Mediterranean food history, says <a href="http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/16/id/105/">the first written recipe</a> for macaroni and cheese was created in the court of the king of Naples in the 13th century, while <a href="https://food52.com/blog/9916-the-history-of-macaroni-and-cheese">the first reference</a> in an English language cookbook likely appeared in Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 book “The Experienced English Housekeeper.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338398/original/file-20200528-51462-z9itwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338398/original/file-20200528-51462-z9itwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338398/original/file-20200528-51462-z9itwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338398/original/file-20200528-51462-z9itwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338398/original/file-20200528-51462-z9itwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338398/original/file-20200528-51462-z9itwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338398/original/file-20200528-51462-z9itwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neopolitans eating macaroni, which they often dressed with Parmesan cheese and a little salt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/neopolitans-eating-macaroni-a-typical-country-village-news-photo/113489991">Universal History Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An internet search for macaroni and cheese recipes will turn up over 5 million hits, but many still prefer to get theirs in a box – the kind with pasta that comes in shapes ranging from shells to Pokemon characters, accompanied by a packet of powdered cheese sauce. </p>
<p>Boxed macaroni and cheese was one outcome of the quest for ways to keep cheese longer. Some cheese gets better as it ages – a well-aged cheddar is one of life’s delights – but once most cheeses hit their prime, <a href="https://www.dairyfoods.com/articles/91548-how-to-maximize-cheese-shelf-life">they tend to quickly go bad</a>. Before household refrigeration became common, many retailers wouldn’t even stock cheese in the summer because it spoiled so quickly.</p>
<p>Processed cheese solved this age-old problem.</p>
<p>Credit for inventing processed cheese should go to a pair of Swiss food chemists named Walter Gerber and Fritz Stettler who, in 1913, were looking for a way to improve the shelf life of Emmenthaler cheese using sodium citrate. When they heated up the treated cheese, they noticed it <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-03-27/what-exactly-processed-cheese-anyway">melted better as well</a>. But Chicago cheese salesman James L. Kraft was awarded the first patent for processed cheese in 1916.</p>
<p>Kraft understood the spoilage problem and had tried various solutions to it. He tried putting it tin foil packages, sealing it in jars, even canning it. But none of these solutions caught on with the public. </p>
<p>He eventually realized that the same bacteria that made cheese age nicely was also the bacteria that ultimately caused it to go bad. So he took some cheddar cheese scraps, heated them to kill the bacteria, ground them up with some sodium phosphate as an emulsifier and voila – <a href="https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/cheese-cheese-food-1">Kraft processed cheese was born</a>. </p>
<p>These early processed cheeses were similar to the processed American cheese slices we see in the stores today, though wrapping slices individually didn’t happen for another 40 years. Kraft’s first big customer was the U.S. Army, which <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/08/us-military-helped-invent-cheetos/">bought more than 6 million pounds of the stuff to feed soldiers in World War I</a>. A number of variations appeared in the following years, including Velveeta and Cheez Whiz. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=828&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/338397/original/file-20200528-51471-1n5x97w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1041&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the start, Kraft was selling convenience.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jbcurio/7308722038">Jamie/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The product was a hit, but Kraft wanted to find more ways to sell processed cheese, and eventually came up with the idea to make a powdered base. The packet in the box of macaroni and cheese is essentially a cheese sauce that has been partially defatted and dehydrated. When you make it, you’re adding back the fat and the liquid when you mix in the milk and butter.</p>
<p>In 1937, Kraft debuted its boxed macaroni and cheese, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/marvelous-macaroni-and-cheese-30954740/">which it sold for 19 cents and contained four servings</a>. Its slogan was “make a meal for four in nine minutes,” and the product got a big lift with American consumers during World War II because you could get two boxes and spend only one ration point. With meat hard to come by, the cheap main dish substitute was a hit. </p>
<h2>When natural was nasty</h2>
<p>Today, food that’s simple, pure and natural is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-was-french-cuisine-toppled-as-the-king-of-fine-dining-66667">all the craze</a>, while <a href="https://apnews.com/c06a1200807c4b82a03452d08d480692">disdain for processed foods</a> is practically a credo among sophisticated consumers.</p>
<p>But when Kraft’s different forms of processed cheese came out, they found widespread acceptance despite their strange textures. The fact that it wasn’t natural didn’t seem to bother consumers at all. In fact, as international food historian Rachel Laudan <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/article/1/1/36/93394/A-Plea-for-Culinary-Modernism-Why-We-Should-Love">has noted</a>, back then, “natural was something quite nasty.” She describes fresh milk as warm and “unmistakably a bodily secretion.” Throughout the history of cookery, most recipes aimed to transform an unappetizing raw product into something delightful and delectable.</p>
<p>So for most consumers, processed foods were a godsend. They kept well, tended to be easily digestible and, most importantly, they tasted good. Many of them could be easily prepared, freeing women from spending entire days cooking and giving them more time to pursue professions and avocations.</p>
<p>In some ways, processed foods were also healthier. They could be fortified with vitamins and minerals, and, in an era before everyone had access to mechanical refrigeration, the fact that they kept well meant consumers were less likely to contract diseases from spoiled, rotten foods. Pasteurization of dairy products virtually <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/foundations/rethinking-raw-milk--1918-65126">eliminated diseases like undulant fever</a>, while foods processed and canned in large factories were less likely to harbor food-borne illnesses that could crop up due to faulty or improperly sanitized equipment used by home canners.</p>
<p>Given today’s marketing emphasis on the fresh, local and natural, one might think that processed foods are going the way of the dinosaur. But this isn’t the case. Almost all the processed foods invented in the 20th century are still being produced <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-spam-became-one-of-the-most-iconic-american-brands-of-all-time-80030">in one form or another</a>. While you may not see much Tang on American shelves, it’s <a href="https://fortune.com/2011/11/29/what-ever-happened-to-tang/">hugely popular</a> in the Middle East and Central and South America. </p>
<p>And mac and cheese – with roughly 7 million boxes of Kraft’s version <a href="https://www.mashed.com/123963/untold-truth-kraft-macaroni-cheese/">sold each week</a> – continues to be devoured in good times and bad. Whether it recalls <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-diets-whats-behind-the-urge-to-eat-like-little-kids-137864">happier, simpler times</a> or feeds a family on a shoestring budget, the Day-Glo orange dinner is here to stay.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137973/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
A food historian explains how the popular boxed dinner played an important role in kitchen science, wars and women’s liberation.
Jeffrey Miller, Associate Professor, Hospitality Management, Colorado State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137528
2020-05-12T14:49:59Z
2020-05-12T14:49:59Z
The historical roots of your lockdown sourdough obsession
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334305/original/file-20200512-175229-1i4je2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C12%2C4031%2C3005&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many home cooks have taken to baking sourdough as a show that they are OK in lockdown.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Your social media feed has likely been filled with images of well-lit fluffy, crusty and flour-dusted loaves of bread. Whether it’s banana, focaccia or sourdough – bread has emerged as the baked-good champion of the lockdown. Widespread national flour and yeast <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/apr/14/grains-flour-shortage-tells-us-about-who-we-are">shortages</a> attest to the popularity of baking as a lockdown coping strategy, with bread recipes topping recent search engine <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/healthy-at-home/top-bread-recipes-pinterest-a4419236.html">hit lists</a>. </p>
<p>Baking allows you to engage in a process – something with a beginning, middle and end – so you feel like you have accomplished something <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/19/coronavirus-stress-baking-sourdough-kneading-relax">tangible</a>, with a delightful carby end-product. People have noted that kneading dough can trigger a sort of <a href="https://www.calmmoment.com/mindfulness/how-mindful-baking-can-improve-your-mood-and-reduce-stress/">zen-like calm</a>, forcing the anxious mind into the present. These explanations as to why people have turned to baking ring true, but underneath them are less obvious but deep-rooted reasons as to why bread specifically is officially #lockdowngoals.</p>
<h2>Baking connection</h2>
<p>The simple doughy stuff is enduring and ubiquitous. It was vital in the formation of early societies. The cultivation and domestication of wheat encouraged humans to give up their nomadic lifestyle and take up farming, forming settlements that gave rise to towns and increasingly sophisticated forms of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/24/631583427/14-000-year-old-piece-of-bread-rewrites-the-history-of-baking-and-farming">society</a>. Archaeologists have found evidence of human preparation of bread from over <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180716151513.htm">14,000 years ago</a> – the end of the Stone Age. Variations of it can also be found pretty much everywhere around the world, from South Asian parathas to Jewish Challah and every other flatbread and loaf in between.</p>
<p>For those of us stuck at home, part of the anxiety felt is due to <a href="https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2020-05-01/does-it-feel-like-like-time-is-flying-by-during-coronavirus-quarantine-heres-why">feeling flung out of time itself</a> –– the world is on pause. As economies stagnate and public life ceases, baking bread allows us to reconnect to our place in history, and one another. In these unprecedented times, we need a common language to speak across the national and cultural borders this pandemic has traversed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332182/original/file-20200504-42918-3fkf0o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C123%2C613%2C459&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332182/original/file-20200504-42918-3fkf0o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332182/original/file-20200504-42918-3fkf0o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332182/original/file-20200504-42918-3fkf0o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332182/original/file-20200504-42918-3fkf0o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332182/original/file-20200504-42918-3fkf0o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332182/original/file-20200504-42918-3fkf0o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Baking bread is universal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When we think about socialising and community, we think of breaking bread together; even the history of this term reveals the central role of bread in our conceptions of community. In <a href="https://www.alimentarium.org/en/knowledge/bread-and-christianity">Biblical mythology</a>, breaking bread was a metaphor for sharing blessings. However, as we currently find ourselves unable to do this in person, it makes sense that we do it now in the only communal space left to us – online. The explosion of baking hashtags and instaposts demonstrates that in our digitally enabled world the food we make is consumed twice: once in real life, and once again online. </p>
<p>French critic Roland Barthes claimed that <a href="https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/roland-barthes-footnotes-to-plato/">food could be “read”</a> like any written text. Posting photos of the bread we bake is partially about self-presentation; it is creating a narrative about our own lives - but it is also a way to speak to one another. There is a thriving culture of online bakers sharing tips on how to get that sourdough just right, how to make a healthy loaf, or how to get started if you have never made bread before. Likewise, novice and seasoned bakers are sharing their successes on the internet. </p>
<h2>Domestic nostalgia</h2>
<p>In this unique moment in history, bread conveys several meanings. By baking it, we can reassure ourselves we are OK in lockdown because we can still access the sustaining pleasures of the domestic. The warmth and security it inspires are invaluable when our public spaces have been deemed dangerous. The agelessness of bread conveys the simplicity and knowability of the past, it roots us back into a recognisable narrative of history. This is a turn toward nostalgia – a looking back for a time that came before, a time that feels less uncertain. </p>
<p>Brexit also caused these kinds of nostalgia, driving people back to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/13/how-brexit-made-the-allotment-cool-again">allotment</a> to grow their own produce, and reinvigorating the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35NpLveVZDg">“Dig for Victory” spirit</a> of the second world war. The antidote to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/09/look-back-in-joy-the-power-of-nostalgia">anxiety is often simplicity and certainty</a> — two vital ingredients in the nostalgic impulse.</p>
<p>There are also more sinister urges at play when it comes to our renewed interest in bread. Baking bread invites us to rehearse post-apocalyptic fantasies of survival, self-sufficiency and regression. </p>
<p>If society collapses, we tell ourselves we can still make and feed our families and ourselves something wholesome and nourishing. This same catastrophising impulse induces <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-game-theory-of-panic-buying-and-how-to-reduce-it-134107">panic-buying</a> and hoarding – a common response to crises. These doomsday scenarios conjure images of a society that resembles older, more basic forms of life. In light of these regressive fantasies, our current fascination with food thought to have been first invented in the pre-Neolithic period makes even more sense. </p>
<p>Times of national and global worry can trigger a bizarre and somewhat morbid fascination with the <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/07/age-apocalypse-anxiety-will-never-stop-worrying-doomsday-9853553/">end times</a>. Moments like this can cause terrible anxiety, but also a burning curiosity to witness the coming disaster — a hungry desire to see what it might look like if it all came crashing down. This may go some way to explaining why so many of us have turned to <a href="https://theconversation.com/pandemics-from-homer-to-stephen-king-what-we-can-learn-from-literary-history-133572">pandemic literature</a> and film in the lockdown - Steven Soderburg’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/04/business/media/coronavirus-contagion-movie.html">Contagion (2011) is suddenly popular</a> on streaming platforms. Apocalyptic fantasies contain both pleasure and fear.</p>
<p>So while it may seem like bread is the simplest of foods, it conveys a multitude of meanings, and baking it fulfils several practical, psychological and social functions. All in a day’s work, for the dependably humble loaf.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muzna Rahman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
During the lockdown, baking bread can bring us together and help us articulate our fears.
Muzna Rahman, Lecturer in English, Manchester Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137229
2020-05-11T19:48:24Z
2020-05-11T19:48:24Z
What Canada knows about food crises can help prevent shortages and protect workers during coronavirus
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331852/original/file-20200430-42942-fqt5n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C479%2C3779%2C2482&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food is a measure of how countries respond to crises from access to pricing to shortages.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(nrd/Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As news of the pandemic began circulating, Canadians hurried to grocery stores, laying in supplies for the upcoming crisis. By mid-March, experts had begun warning <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6688655/coroanvirus-canadians-food-shortages/">against hoarding</a>. There is plenty of food in our supply chain, they said; do not “panic buy” lest we create shortages — and very real hardships — for vulnerable members of our communities. </p>
<p>As an historian of Canadian food, I am alarmed to see how pressures for productivity <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6856544/bc-coronavirus-outbreak-poultry-plant/">have endangered</a> — and in some cases <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/cargill-alberta-covid-19-deena-hinshaw-1.5537377">tragically taken</a> — the lives of food workers. These tragedies are preventable and untenable. And there is historical precedent for strong government intervention in our food marketplace.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332557/original/file-20200504-83745-1ivecse.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Food stability and security are influenced by histories of colonialism and a history of governments exerting control over foodways.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>They brought their foods</h2>
<p>The greatest crisis affecting Canadian food history started about 400 years ago: the <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/019373ar">colonization of Indigenous food</a>. Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have <a href="https://www.fnha.ca/Documents/Traditional_Food_Fact_Sheets.pdf">practised sustainable food production, distribution and consumption</a>. </p>
<p>When Europeans arrived, however, they brought their foods with them. By Confederation, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/edible-histories-cultural-politics-4">English</a> and <a href="https://www.septentrion.qc.ca/catalogue/a-table-en-nouvelle-france">French</a> Canadians were transposing their preferences for beef, pork, sugar and wheat upon the northern American landscape. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-unequal-health-system-may-make-remote-indigenous-communities-more-vulnerable-to-the-coronavirus-134963">Canada's unequal health system may make remote Indigenous communities more vulnerable to the coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>As settlement increased, a battery of measures meant that Indigenous peoples faced <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1033506ar">increased barriers</a> to their own food. <a href="https://doi.org/10.7202/1033506ar">Reserves</a>, the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pass-system-in-canada">pass system</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/B07-020">residential schools</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03404373">forced resettlement</a>, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/academic/subjects/history/american-history-general-interest/pemmican-empire-food-trade-and-last-bison-hunts-north-american-plains-17801882?format=HB&isbn=9781107044906">species extinction</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-013-9591-y">habitat loss</a> have been especially harmful. </p>
<p>On the plains, for example, the extinction of wild bison in the 1870s dealt a severe blow to individual and <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/medicine-that-walks-3">community health</a>. Simultaneously, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald’s determination to push a railway through to the Pacific Ocean, together with his plan to fill the plains with European wheat farmers, spurred his government to enforce settlement on reserves, including through <a href="https://uofrpress.ca/Books/C/Clearing-the-Plains2">forcible removals</a>. Such actions were heinous. They also barred access to traditional animal and plant food.</p>
<p>Well into the 20th century, the food available to Indigenous peoples through rations and residential schools was carbohydrate-heavy and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2013.828722">devoid of most nutrients</a>. It was often also rancid. To this day, Indigenous people are three times more likely than non-Indigenous people to face <a href="https://anishinabeknews.ca/2020/01/09/new-study-finds-first-nations-in-canada-face-serious-problems-with-food-supply/">food insecurity</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/334160/original/file-20200511-49584-omqfw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous food remains a sustainable and viable way fo producing food as documented by authors Dolly and Annie Watts of the Liliget Feast House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.annielwatts.com/wpf.htm">Annie Watts/Arsenal Pulp Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>State control of Canadian food</h2>
<p>The effects of colonization show how state oppression has created and maintained food insecurity. It is, in fact, instructive to compare the difference between how the Canadian state has treated Indigenous people’s access to food, on the one hand, and British and Euro-Canadians’ access, on the other. </p>
<p>During the First and Second World Wars, the Canadian government moved to protect the food supply. During the First World War, Britain called upon its empire to increase shipments of beef, pork, butter, sugar and flour to the mother country. </p>
<p>In response, (and as <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/purchasing-power-2">I demonstrate in my recent book</a>) — Canada stepped up production of these goods. It also introduced 28 orders-in-council that regulated meat, dairy, sugar and wheat consumption. At no time did Canada introduce rationing during this war; instead it urged compliance through propaganda, fines and jail sentences. </p>
<p>Things were different the next war. Having witnessed skyrocketing inflation between 1917 and 1921, the federal government created <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/wartime-prices-and-trade-board">the Wartime Prices and Trade Board (WPTB)</a> in 1939. </p>
<p>Designed to curb inflation, reduce shortages and secure supplies for overseas, the WPTB was an unprecedented intervention. In 1941, the WPTB introduced “<a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/food-will-win-the-war">comprehensive price, rent, and wage controls</a>.” The next year, it introduced rationing. To purchase meat, sugar, butter, preserves, tea and coffee, Canadians had to use ration coupons. </p>
<p>The last restrictions weren’t lifted until 1947. Even then, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/CHR.83.4.483">shoppers protested</a>. As soon as restrictions were removed, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/us/radical-housewives-2">prices rose</a>. </p>
<h2>What we can learn from the past</h2>
<p>Today’s problems differ from those of other times. Especially pressing are dangers affecting <a href="https://lfpress.com/news/local-news/covid-19-southwestern-ontario-outbreak-puts-migrant-farm-workers-in-spotlight/">agricultural</a>, <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2020/04/24/Alberta-Meat-Packers-COVID-Outbreak/">butchery</a> <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/essential-workers-talk-about-how-covid-19-affects-them-1.4883241">and grocery</a> workers. There are also important difficulties that food distributors encounter when retooling wholesale products <a href="https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/saputo-inc-sees-demand-shift-from-food-service-to-retail-amid-covid-19-pandemic-1.4869609">for retail</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, other problems are familiar. Now more than ever, it is important to address how disruptions affect food insecurity. Some First Nations are already taking action against <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/adapting-to-coronavirus-how-b-c-first-nations-balance-food-security-and-conservation/">possible shortages</a>. Intermittent shortages in the retail sector — caused by supply disruption, increased consumer demand and decreased wholesale demand — also affect shoppers who cannot buy in bulk. Empty grocery shelves further affect those who shop infrequently in efforts to socially distance.</p>
<p>As Canadians experienced during the First World War, shortages often precipitate <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/purchasing-power-2">price hikes</a>. Already, Atlantic grocery distributors are <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/atlantic-grocery-distributors-prices-rise-1.5534470">reporting changes to prices</a>. In the North, further inflation would be unconscionable, given that northerners already struggle with <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-unequal-health-system-may-make-remote-indigenous-communities-more-vulnerable-to-the-coronavirus-134963">outrageous prices</a>. </p>
<p>In the past, much finger-pointing accompanied price markups, with some arguing that profiteers deliberately raised prices and others suggesting that inflation was the inevitable <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/buying-happiness">result of disequilibrium</a>. </p>
<p>Whatever the causes of food instability, however, there are demonstrable viable solutions, in both the past and present. To this day, Indigenous food systems <a href="https://foodsecurecanada.org/resources-news/newsletters/1-indigenous-food-sovereignty">are equitable</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/indigenous-food-1.4294388">sustainable</a>. </p>
<p>During the Second World War, William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberal government’s interventions protected both producers and consumers. Its main instrument, the WPTB, also — and completely unintentionally — improved many <a href="https://wartimecanada.ca/essay/eating/food-home-front-during-second-world-war">people’s diets</a>. Restrictions kept prices affordable while rationing ensured greater availability. </p>
<p>It is time now to revisit how Canadians produce and distribute food. The twin spectres of food insecurity and fatal illness demand such consideration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137229/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donica Belisle receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>
Food is essential to survival. It is also essential to identity. During times of national crisis like the coronavirus pandemic and in the historical landscape, food issues become prominent.
Donica Belisle, Associate Professor of History, University of Regina
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131771
2020-02-24T20:02:23Z
2020-02-24T20:02:23Z
How the Mediterranean diet became No. 1 — and why that’s a problem
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316502/original/file-20200220-92507-dz1up2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=87%2C67%2C4237%2C2863&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Considered one of the healthiest ways to eat, the Mediterranean diet has evolved over hundreds of years, but ignoring other diets is a form of cultural superiority. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Mediterranean diet was voted by a panel of 25 health and nutrition professionals as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/health/best-diet-worst-diet-2020-wellness/index.html">the best diet for 2020</a>. Characterized by plant-based meals, the diet emphasizes eating less red meat and dairy, and more fish and unsaturated fatty acids like olive oil. Red wine can be enjoyed in moderation.</p>
<p>Even if you are familiar with the Mediterranean diet, you may not know that it “involves a set of skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking and particularly the sharing and consumption of food,” as described by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 2013, UNESCO added the diet to its <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/mediterranean-diet-00884">list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/B8zAy8HHD4_","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>The Mediterranean region and its <strong>food traditions</strong></h2>
<p>The Mediterranean area covers portions of Europe, Asia and Africa around the Mediterranean Sea. While many nations share that bio-geography and elements of the diet, only the nations of Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal and Spain sponsored the diet’s addition to UNESCO’s list.</p>
<p>Mediterranean food traditions have deep history, but different ingredients arrived at different times. Olives were first <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218001">pressed for olive oil</a> sometime before 2,500 years ago. Grapes were likely first enjoyed as wild harvests, but by 6,000 years ago <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/aug/30/traces-of-6000-year-old-wine-discovered-in-sicilian-cave">full wine production was underway</a>. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.1009363108">Domesticated grains and legumes</a> like wheat and lentils appeared between 9,000 and 10,000 years ago. Fish would have been one of the earliest resources, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/magazine/2018/01-02/what-is-garum-rome-fish-sauce/">traded even into non-coastal areas</a>. </p>
<p>In spite of the diet’s guidelines, various red meats and dairy products also enjoy a long history in the region. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.0801317105">Domesticated herd animals</a> such as sheep, goats, cattle and camels arrived on the scene at least 10,000 years ago, and <a href="https://www.heritagedaily.com/2016/11/early-evidence-of-dairying-discovered/113234">dairying goes back at least 9,000 years</a> in Europe. The prominence of red meat and dairy foods in daily meals may have varied regionally, but both are deeply rooted in Mediterranean history. </p>
<p>But these are just the ingredients. Defining a single Mediterranean diet is tricky business. The Mediterranean region encompasses hundreds of languages and cultures, culinary techniques and styles. The ancient past was equally diverse, with millennia of migration and trade across the region bringing new ingredients and culinary innovations. Ask someone in Lebanon if their food is the same as Spain’s, or someone in Morocco if their food traditions are identical to those in Greece. </p>
<p>And no one in the Mediterranean would agree that their diet is identical to that of their ancestors. The multinational group that nominated Mediterranean food traditions to UNESCO might agree on the broadest framework, but culturally each region in the Mediterranean is distinct. </p>
<h2>What’s wrong with the Mediterranean diet?</h2>
<p>We are anthropologists who study biological and cultural aspects of nutrition and past foodways as part of human gastro-heritage. And we are simultaneously excited and concerned about the Mediterranean diet in public health messaging. </p>
<p>Health professionals should focus on food traditions rather than just nutrients, but it worries us when one cultural food tradition is held up as superior to others — especially one that has been associated with a history of Western political and cultural imperialism. </p>
<p>Historian <a href="https://experts.mcmaster.ca/display/levenst">Harvey Levenstein</a> writes that <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/F/bo12778615.html">the Mediterranean diet was created</a> by physiologist Ancel Keys and his biochemist wife, Margaret Keys. In 1952, the Keys travelled to Italy and Spain and conducted some quasi-experimental surveys of blood pressure, blood cholesterol and diet.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kOifkb4JlfY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A brief history of Ancel Keys, the physiologist who, along with his wife, popularized the Mediterranean diet.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many epidemiological studies later, the couple promoted the Mediterranean diet in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/obituaries/dr-ancel-keys-100-promoter-of-mediterranean-diet-dies.html">their popular diet book <em>How to Eat Well</em></a>, later repackaged as <em>How to Eat Well and Stay Well the Mediterranean Way</em>. </p>
<p>In the 1990s, <a href="https://www.internationaloliveoil.org/olive-world/olive-oil-health/">the International Olive Oil Council</a> promoted olive oil as a key ingredient in the diet, and the Harvard School of Public Health built <a href="https://memory.ucsf.edu/sites/memory.ucsf.edu/files/MediterraneanDietHandout.pdf">the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid</a>.</p>
<h2>Promoting the value of all food heritage</h2>
<p>The promotion of the Mediterranean diet is an example of what anthropologist Andrea Wiley calls bio-ethnocentrism. Wiley’s <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Re-imagining-Milk-Cultural-and-Biological-Perspectives-2nd-Edition/Wiley/p/book/9781138927612">study of milk</a> argues that although milk has been promoted as a healthy and nutritious food for all, only a segment of the human species — predominantly those whose ancestry comes from Europe, where there is a long history of dairying — are able to digest the primary sugar in milk (lactose). </p>
<p>Bolstering one region’s diet as universally ideal ignores the long evolution of social, biological and environmental human food traditions through the development and conservation of regional and local cuisines. This includes, as found in <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/mediterranean-diet-00884">UNESCO’s description of the Mediterranean diet</a>, the production, preparation and consumption of food through human skills, knowledge, and social and cultural practices.</p>
<p>In a globalized world with increasing migration, retaining traditional cuisines may seem meaningless. But in fact, it may be more important than ever. Anthropological research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.17730/0018-7259.76.1.15">migrants work hard to maintain their traditional cuisines as part of their ethnic identity</a> and to support their health and well-being. When a health-care provider suggests to their patient that they adopt a Mediterranean diet, there are several things that can go wrong. Unless the diet is explained in detail, a patient may have a very different idea of what constitutes the Mediterranean diet. More harmfully, if a patient believes that their own cultural food traditions are bad for their health, they may give those up to adopt a diet seen as medically approved.</p>
<p>A survey of global food shows that the core principles of the Mediterranean diet can be found in the traditional cuisines and food traditions of many people. In Mexico, for example, the combination of corn tortillas and beans — accompanied by foods like squash and tomato salsas — has yielded complete plant-based proteins that provide <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/T0395E/T0395E0c.htm">a nutritious and sustainable diet</a>. Research on soy-derived and fermented foods found in traditional Chinese cuisines shows they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2016.08.009">high in bioactive peptides that can provide protection against disease</a>. </p>
<p>In a world where we are rapidly losing diverse biological and cultural heritage, we should be celebrating the plurality and unique qualities of traditional foods rather than attempting to promote and universalize one regional diet over another. Diverse traditional diets can and should be promoted through public health messaging that is culturally sensitive and inclusive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tina Moffat received funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shanti Morell-Hart receives funding from SSHRC and CFI-ORF. </span></em></p>
Olive oil, grapes and fish. There’s a lot to love about the Mediterranean diet but focusing on it might be a way to exclude other healthy and global diets.
Tina Moffat, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University
Shanti Morell-Hart, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, McMaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/117686
2019-05-23T11:02:36Z
2019-05-23T11:02:36Z
Why did Jamie Oliver’s eateries go bust? Don’t blame the chain restaurant business
<p>As the chain of mid-range Italian restaurants run by star TV chef Jamie Oliver <a href="https://theconversation.com/jamie-oliver-restaurant-closures-did-the-celebrity-chef-bite-off-more-than-he-could-chew-117532">goes into administration</a>, the reactions will be mixed. Some may mourn the closure of these restaurants, which offered a veneer of breezy cool and authentic “Italianness”. But, ultimately, sales weren’t high enough to keep them afloat. </p>
<p>For “foodies” there is something a bit naff about a chain restaurant. They may well smugly roll their eyes at the bottles of olive oil with Jamie’s friendly face staring at them encouragingly from the label and reach instead for something more “authentic”. </p>
<p>But chain restaurants are as authentic to the British food world as the inns and taverns of the 18th century. While Jamie’s Italian and a number of other mid-market chain restaurants <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48355861">are closing down</a>, history tells us that the chain restaurant in its different guises will remain for many years to come.</p>
<p>Like the inns of the 18th century, chain restaurants fulfil people’s basic need to be fed and so offer a commercial opportunity. With the rise of the middle class in the 19th century that had cash to burn, there came new markets for cooks – and new opportunities to transform eating out from a biological necessity to a leisure activity in its own right. </p>
<p>The first major British chain restaurant was the much-loved <a href="https://flashbak.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-lyons-cornerhouses-and-their-nippy-waitresses-35186/">Lyons Cornerhouse</a>. The founders of Lyons opened their first tea house in 1894, and the chain of Cornerhouses began in 1909, lasting until well into the 1970s. These respectable restaurants were welcomed by the British public who were hungry for eateries that were accessible both financially and culturally. </p>
<p>Where the elegant restaurants of the Victorian era could be intimidating to the lower middle classes, Lyons Cornerhouses were easier to navigate, with simple, English-language menus (unlike the elegant French menus of pricier venues) and familiar dishes. Even with all the familiarity, there were still exotic flavours, such as their weekly curry nights. </p>
<p>Like Jamie Oliver, Lyons also had an elegant dining restaurant which operated separately from its mid-priced chain. In Lyons’ case it was the upmarket Trocadero in central London. For Jamie, it was Fifteen in trendy East London, an upmarket restaurant he launched in order to train homeless people to work in the restaurant business. </p>
<h2>Ease and safety</h2>
<p>Diners at Jamie’s Italian may, like patrons of Lyons, have appreciated the ease and safety on offer from a chain. Jamie’s is not McDonald’s. It looks like a restaurant, has an enticing menu, and waiters come to your table to take your order – and later to check on the progress of your meal. There is an ease, perhaps even an elegance, to this. Like the “nippies” who waited on tables in Lyons’ establishments, staff at Jamie’s Italian were always cheerful and put guests at their ease – you might not know much about balsamic vinegar or wild boar ragout, but it was OK because the staff could guide you to make good choices.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276065/original/file-20190523-187169-1uv3663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276065/original/file-20190523-187169-1uv3663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276065/original/file-20190523-187169-1uv3663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276065/original/file-20190523-187169-1uv3663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276065/original/file-20190523-187169-1uv3663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276065/original/file-20190523-187169-1uv3663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276065/original/file-20190523-187169-1uv3663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A middle-class dining dream.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bristol-england-july-08-2015-jamie-301446536?src=wlhOmRoWVRkXkvu7tp9oww-1-3">Christian Mueller / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps Jamie Oliver had a knack that other successful restaurateurs in British history have had – of understanding that when it comes to fine dining many Brits have a bit of an inferiority complex. We want to eat elegantly, but we are worried about who is judging us. </p>
<p>One of the first restaurant critics in the UK, the military man turned journalist, <a href="https://archive.org/details/b21528974/page/n10">Lieutenant Colonel Newnham-Davies</a> summed this up way back in 1899. In a book chapter on “The Difficulties of Dining” he wrote that “It requires a certain amount of bravery” to ask questions about the menu, and order a truly first-rate dinner in a London restaurant. </p>
<p>The great chef of the late 19th century, <a href="http://www.culinarycareer.net/a_escoffier/">August Escoffier</a> invented a formula to help nervous dinners at the Savoy: he would meet with them in the afternoon and compose a menu to suit their needs and make them proud. He kept a record of each meal served, to spare diners the embarrassment of ordering the same dinner twice. At Jamie’s Italian the service was less bespoke, but your possible anxieties were anticipated and averted by the cheerful and knowledgeable staff.</p>
<p>Why, then, has Jamie Oliver had to call in the administrators? Perhaps there is a point where familiarity leads to contempt. While Lyons kept its Cornerhouses going for nearly six decades, in the 21st century we have more choice and a greater desire for novelty. But the restaurant market is saturated. And there are parallels with the ultimate closure of Lyons, which was due to a mix of overstretch and a downturn in the UK economy – both of which are clearly at play in the demise of the Naked Chef’s 25 restaurants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Rich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Chain restaurants are as authentic to the British food world as the inns and taverns of the 18th century.
Rachel Rich, History Course Director, Leeds Beckett University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/100362
2018-07-24T10:27:43Z
2018-07-24T10:27:43Z
3 questions about tequila, answered
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228873/original/file-20180723-189313-r9xqli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An agave plant cutter, or 'jimador,' cuts the tips off from agave branches at a Jose Cuervo blue agave field.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Mexico-MEXI-/0ccc0ceaeae0da11af9f0014c2589dfb/59/0">AP Photo/Guillermo Arias</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In less than a decade, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tequila-sales-are-soaring-in-america-2016-5">worldwide sales of tequila have doubled</a>, while sales of premium and ultra-premium brands have <a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/article/interest-builds-up-in-the-premium-tequila-market-cm910247">shot up by 292 percent and 706 percent</a>, respectively.</p>
<p>In recent years, you may have heard of tequila tastings and walked by a new mezcal bar – and wondered about the difference between the two. Or you’ve seen a headline proclaiming that a shot of tequila a day will keep the doctor away. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.fshn.chhs.colostate.edu/faculty-staff/miller.aspx">As a food historian</a>, I hope to debunk some myths and explore some little-known aspects of the Mexican spirit that’s become a global phenomenon. </p>
<h2>1. What’s the deal with the worm?</h2>
<p>Walking through the tequila section of your local liquor store, you may see a bottle with a worm floating in it. But if you see one, you’re looking at a bottle of mezcal – not tequila. </p>
<p>While all tequila is mezcal, all mezcal is not tequila: To be labeled as tequila the spirit <a href="http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/SUCCULENTS/Family/Agavaceae/22672/Agave_weberi">must be distilled from at least 51 percent blue agave</a> (<em>Agave weberii</em>) and made within a region <a href="https://www.diffordsguide.com/encyclopedia/993/bws/tequila-regions-where-does-tequila-come-from">around the Mexican town of Tequila</a>.</p>
<p>Mezcals, on the other hand, can be made from any of 30 aloe-like succulents and can be made in a number of Mexican states. </p>
<p>As for the worm, it’s the larva of the <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/maguey-worm-gusano-del-maguey">maguey moth</a>, an animal that lives and feeds on agave plants. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228867/original/file-20180723-189335-1o83rx0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hundreds of red worms used in mezcal wait to be placed into bottles at a plant in Oaxaca, Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Mexico-TEQU-/657607e644e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/2/0">AP Photo/Gregory Bull</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was originally inserted <a href="http://www.gusanorojo.com/web/gusano_english.html">into bottles of Gusano Rojo</a>
mezcal as a marketing gimmick. The worm isn’t a psychedelic <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xywvnn/that-worm-at-the-bottom-of-your-mezcal-isnt-a-lie-1">as fraternity lore would have it</a>, but it is edible and is sold as a delicacy in food markets across central Mexico.</p>
<h2>2. Can tequila actually be good for you?</h2>
<p>Tequila has long been thought of as a cure for various ailments.</p>
<p>During the influenza pandemic of 1918, Mexican doctors would prescribe tequila with lemon and salt <a href="http://www.tequiladosalas.com/process.php">to treat flu symptoms</a>. To this day, Mexicans stir it into hot tea with honey to assuage sore throats.</p>
<p>In recent years, you may have come across articles <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/7-ways-tequila-good-article-1.3136410">giddily announcing</a> that a shot of tequila a day can lower bad cholesterol and blood sugar. </p>
<p>But the study showing lower cholesterol levels <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/drinking-tequila-health-benefits/">was conducted on mice</a>, and there’s been no evidence showing the same effect on humans. (In fact, the findings for mice couldn’t be replicated in a similar study.) Meanwhile, agave has been shown to have a higher fructose content than sugar – <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/sugar-wars/372220/">and even high-fructose corn syrup</a>.</p>
<p>In the end, your tequila benders aren’t likely to have any inadvertent health benefits.</p>
<h2>3. Is the margarita named after a woman?</h2>
<p>Tequila is mixed with lime juice, salt and liquor to make the margarita, one of the more popular summer cocktails.</p>
<p>Most of the margarita’s origin stories <a href="http://observer.com/2016/02/the-origin-of-the-margarita-and-7-twists-on-the-classic-drink/">claim it was named after a girl named Margarita</a>. One version of the legend says that the drink was named after dancer Marjorie King: On a trip to Mexico, she asked a bartender near Tijuana to make her a drink with tequila since she was allergic to grain-based spirits. <a href="http://intoxicology.net/controy-orange-liqueur-hits-the-u-s/">Another version</a> traces the drink to Ensenada, Mexico, where, in the early 1940s, a bartender concocted the drink to honor Margarita Henkel, the daughter of the German Ambassador to Mexico. </p>
<p>Neither story is probably true. Before Prohibition, a very popular cocktail in California was the <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/brandy-daisy-cocktail-recipe-759414">Brandy Daisy</a>, a mix of brandy, Curaçao liqueur and lemon juice. As people drifted over the border into Mexico to evade Prohibition’s restrictions, it’s likely that bartenders began making the drink with Mexico’s national spirit, which would have been more available and cheaper. </p>
<p>“Margarita” is Spanish for daisy, so when Americans ordered a daisy, it would have been natural for the bartender to reply, “One margarita, coming up.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100362/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Is a shot of tequila actually good for you? What’s the deal with the worm? Who was margarita, anyway? A food historian explores some little-known aspects of the popular Mexican spirit.
Jeffrey Miller, Associate Professor, Hospitality Management, Colorado State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/99812
2018-07-23T10:22:57Z
2018-07-23T10:22:57Z
A brief history of ketchup
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228700/original/file-20180722-142438-k7576v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Heinz is why ketchup seemed to become distinctly American.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Mike Blake</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Trade wars have an interesting way of revealing cultural stereotypes. </p>
<p>Countries often propose tariffs not on the most valuable items in their trading relationships – since that would be painful to them as well – but rather products iconic of national character. A good example of this came in the European Union’s retaliation against U.S. steel tariffs. Among the US$3.3 billion in goods it <a href="http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2018/march/tradoc_156648.pdf">slapped a tariff</a> on in May were Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Kentucky bourbon and Levi’s jeans. </p>
<p>Now, American ketchup is being targeted, both by the EU and Canada. The United States’ northern neighbor <a href="https://qz.com/1318475/the-full-list-of-229-us-products-targeted-by-canadas-retaliatory-tariffs/">imposed</a> a 10 percent tariff on the product in July, while the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e3f9b700-809b-11e8-bc55-50daf11b720d">EU has suggested</a> it would be a part of the next round of retaliatory tariffs, which could go into effect <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-19/eu-is-said-to-prepare-car-tariff-retaliation-before-trump-talks">within weeks</a>. </p>
<p>The EU’s threat is mostly symbolic because it is already a significant producer of ketchup – including by American brands like H.J. Heinz – and imports very little of the tomato condiment from the U.S. Canada, however, as recently as 2016 <a href="https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/usa/show/210320/2016/">imported</a> more than half of all the ketchup American companies send abroad. </p>
<p>In either case, at least part of the reasoning behind using it as a weapon in the growing trade war seems to be that ketchup, also spelled catsup, is one of those products that sounds distinctly American, poured generously on burgers and fries at baseball parks and Fourth of July barbecues across the U.S. </p>
<p>But in fact, the irony is that this ubiquitous condiment is anything but American in its origins or in those nationalities that love it the most. As a <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ken-albala-204565">historian of food</a>, I see it as a truly a global product, its origins shaped by centuries of trade. And different cultures have adopted a wide variety of surprising uses for the condiment we know as ketchup today.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228666/original/file-20180720-142432-8diifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/228666/original/file-20180720-142432-8diifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228666/original/file-20180720-142432-8diifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228666/original/file-20180720-142432-8diifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228666/original/file-20180720-142432-8diifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228666/original/file-20180720-142432-8diifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/228666/original/file-20180720-142432-8diifi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some people even put ketchup on their pizza.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pizza_s_ke%C4%8Dupem.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/Dezidor</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The origins of ‘ke-chiap’</h2>
<p>Although ketchup is <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ketchup">defined</a> by Merriam-Webster as a “seasoned pureed condiment usually made from tomatoes,” in the past it has been concocted from a wide variety of ingredients. </p>
<p>China – another country with which the U.S. is in the middle of a serious trade spat – <a href="http://andrewfsmith.com/books/pure-ketchup">was likely the original source</a> of the condiment with something that sounded like “ke-chiap.” It likely originated as a fish-based sauce <a href="https://www.history.com/news/ketchup-a-saucy-history">many centuries ago</a>, a condiment akin to the many fermented sauces one finds throughout southeast Asia. It was primarily used as a seasoning for cooking. </p>
<p>From there it made its way to the Malay Peninsula and to Singapore, where British colonists first encountered what locals called “kecap” in the 18th century. Like soy sauce, it was deemed exotic and perked up what was a comparatively bland British cuisine, such as roasts and fried foods.</p>
<p>English cookbooks of the era reveal how it was soon transformed into a condiment made with other bases such as mushrooms or pickled walnuts, rather than only fish. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_compleat_housewife_or_Accomplished_g.html?id=XvMHAAAAQAAJ">E. Smith’s “Compleat Housewife”</a> includes an anchovy-based “katchup” with wine and spices, more akin to Worcestershire sauce than what we think of as ketchup. </p>
<p>A more significant transformation took place in the early 19th century in the U.S. when it was made with tomatoes, sweetened, soured with vinegar and spiced with cloves, allspice, nutmeg and ginger – pretty much the modern-day recipe. </p>
<p>The first published recipe for tomato ketchup was written in 1812 by Philadelphia scientist and horticulturalist James Mease in his “Archives of Useful Knowledge, vol. 2.”</p>
<h2>Heinz makes it ‘American’</h2>
<p>Heinz, the American company perhaps most associated with ketchup, <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/seeing-is-believing-the-story-behind-henry-heinzs-condiment-empire/">didn’t get into the game</a> until 1876, seven years after Henry John Heinz set up the company to sell horseradish using his mother’s recipe. After his initial company went bankrupt, he launched a new one and began bottling tomato “ketchup,” spelled that way to distinguish it from other catsup brands.</p>
<p>From here, ketchup took on a uniquely American character and began its career as not only a universal condiment but a mass-produced brand-name article of trade that could last indefinitely on the shelf, be shipped around the world and used in ways never imagined by its creators. </p>
<p>Like so many other products, it became emblematic of American culture: quick, easy, convenient and too sweet but also adaptable to any gastronomic context – and a bit addictive. Ketchup became the quick fix that seemed to make any dish perk up instantly, from meatballs to scrambled eggs.</p>
<p>In a sense, it also became a “mother sauce,” meaning that one can concoct other sauces with ketchup as the base. Barbecue sauce usually uses ketchup, as does cocktail sauce for shrimp, with the addition of horseradish. Think also of <a href="https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/russian-dressing-51182860">Russian dressing</a> or <a href="https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18542/thousand-island-dressing-ii/">Thousand Island</a>. Or consider various recipes that are often ketchup laden, like <a href="https://www.thewholesomedish.com/the-best-classic-meatloaf/">meatloaf</a> and <a href="https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/thai-sweet-chili-ketchup.html">chili</a>.</p>
<h2>How the world consumes ketchup</h2>
<p>While ketchup is indeed an American staple – <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/02/248195661/ketchup-the-all-american-condiment-that-comes-from-asia">97 percent of households</a> have a bottle on hand – it’s very popular around the world, where the condiment is used in a lot of surprising ways. </p>
<p>Although practically sacrilegious in Italy, ketchup <a href="https://www.foodbeast.com/news/think-about-ketchup-on-a-pizza/">is often squirted on pizza</a> in places as far flung as Trinidad, Lebanon and <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-07-02/news/9103160121_1_pan-pizza-poland-limited-menu">Poland</a>. Similarly, ketchup is even used as a substitute for tomato sauce in pasta dishes in countries such as in Japan, which created a catsup-based dish called <a href="https://www.thespruceeats.com/spaghetti-napolitan-japanese-ketchup-pasta-2031629">spaghetti Napolitan</a>.</p>
<p>In the Philippines there’s a <a href="http://www.foodrepublic.com/2015/09/02/banana-ketchup-the-philippines-answer-to-a-lack-of-tomatoes/">popular banana ketchup</a> that was invented when tomatoes ran short during World War II but otherwise looks and tastes like tomato ketchup. In Germany the local favorite is a <a href="http://currywurstmuseum.com/en">curry powder-spiked ketchup</a> that goes on sausages sold by street vendors everywhere. </p>
<p>Without doubt the most intriguing recipe comes from Canada, where people enjoy <a href="http://www.kraftcanada.com/recipes/great-canadian-heinz-ketchup-cake-193998">ketchup cake</a>, a sweet red frosted layer cake that is much better than it sounds. </p>
<p>The modern variety of ketchup even returned home to China to become the base of many Chinese or perhaps more properly Chinese-American dishes like <a href="https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/01/sweet-and-sour-sauce.html">sweet and sour chicken</a>. Ketchup is sometimes a stand in for tamarind in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/padthai_67953">pad thai</a>. </p>
<p>But the best recipe comes from my father who once told me that during the Great Depression people without money would ask for a cup of hot water to which they would add some free ketchup and have a meal of tomato soup.</p>
<h2>Ketchup lovers today</h2>
<p>Today, the U.S. is the biggest exporter of ketchup and other tomato sauces by country. In 2016, it exported $379 million worth, or 21 percent of all trade in the product category. While only 1.9 percent of that – $7.3 million – <a href="https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/export/usa/show/210320/2016/">went to Europe</a>, a whopping 60 percent – $228 million – was exported to Canada.</p>
<p>Heinz is among the <a href="https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/ketchup-market">biggest producers</a>, with a market share of 80 percent in Europe – via <a href="https://www.kraftheinzcompany.eu/news/the-largest-ketchup-factory-in-europe/">factories</a> in the U.K., Netherlands and elsewhere – and 60 percent in the U.S.</p>
<p>Put together, however, Europe actually <a href="https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/visualize/tree_map/hs92/import/all/show/210320/2016/">exports</a> the most ketchup, with 60 percent of the global trade – including countries not in the EU. </p>
<p>What does all this mean for the tariffs? Since the EU produces plenty of ketchup within the bloc, its proposed tariff will probably have very little impact. For Canada, however, the effects could be more complicated since it’s unclear whether it can supply enough ketchup domestically or from other countries to meet high demand.</p>
<p>Whether Canadians will find an alternative for Heinz remains to be seen. But what is clear is that while the signature bottle proudly bearing the number 57 may be quintessentially American, its roots are global and its progeny likewise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99812/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ken Albala does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Canada recently slapped a tariff on US exports of the tomato-based condiment, and the EU plans to do the same, perhaps on the notion that it’s distinctly American. In fact, ketchup’s origins are global, as are its fans.
Ken Albala, Professor of History, University of the Pacific
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.