I was recently in the Colonial
Williamsburg Governor’s Palace kitchen and while there a small school group
came in and had some questions they needed answered to help them with their
school projects. One of the students
kept asking about the Native People’s influence on the Governor’s diet and/or
on the diet of some of the lower classes in Virginia. This got me thinking of all the possible
influences that there might be from back in the 18th century and all
the way up to modern day cuisine. With my research, the following are just a
few of the ingredient influences that I found interesting.
When Columbus set sail in 1492, he
was looking for a quick and easy route to the Orient and all the riches that it
offered. He actually landed on what we
now know is the Caribbean and even though it was not his intended target, the
two huge land masses he discovered were completely new and just as lucrative as the Orient in a different
way. However, the Spanish failed to
realize that what Columbus thought were non-connected villages on scattered
islands were actually large organized, social groups that were in control of
both North and South America. These
cultures had diverse foods and customs that the Spanish found odd at first but eventually
grew to love.
One example of food influence and
change because of this exploration is pineapple. It was one of several foods that Columbus
found in the Caribbean that he and his crew really enjoyed. Columbus encountered the pineapple on the
island of Guadeloupe in 1493 and called it “pina de Indes” or “pine of the
Indians”. The pineapple was consumed by
the natives raw and in its pure state with nothing added. It became a new food in Europe when Europeans
took this pineapple and added sugar or fried it in a batter.
Columbus saw several other foods
that were new to him but these foods were most of the time trade foods that
were not native to the Caribbean but from Central and South America. One of these foods was the tomato. The tomato at that time was sweet and
primarily yellow. The native people ate
the tomato crushed up in stew. The first
European recipe for tomato is found in an herbal medicine book written in 1544
by Pietro Andrea. (It may seem a bit odd
to us but all food was considered medicinal at that time.) It calls for the tomato to be cooked like
eggplant, fried in oil (most likely olive oil) with salt and pepper.
Cortes was the first to truly
venture past the Islands and into the mainland.
When Cortes and his men landed in what is now Mexico, he was confronted
with what we now consider chocolate. The
Aztecs drank a chocolate drink which contained Chile pepper, vanilla and honey
and with corn added to thicken it. This
was served cold in goblets. It is said
that Montezuma and his court drank fifty cups of chocolate a day. The Spanish took chocolate back to Spain and
Europeans adapted it by adding milk, cream or wine along with sugar to make
something similar to what we would call hot chocolate today.
As the Spanish moved further into
South America and towards the Andes Mountains, they encountered the Incas and
more interesting foods. The most
interesting and possibly influential of all would be potatoes. Today potatoes are eaten everyday by billions
of people in many forms and that shows the influence of the Incas. One of the most popular Incan methods of
preparing potatoes was to let potatoes sit out for days allowing them to rot. They were then stepped on to remove the skin
and consumed raw or added to stews. Food
historians believe it was the constant stream of soldiers going into the region
during this time and bringing the potatoes back to Spain and planting them that
caused the spread of their use. The most
popular recipe for Europeans was to roast them along with their meat.
In both North and South America,
corn was the principle part of the diet of the Native peoples. Nutritional Anthropologists believe that corn
was an accident. They believe that some two
types of grains were grown close together and eventually became what we now
consider corn. Corn never took a real
foothold in Europe. It was considered to
be fit only for the poor and animals. Also
in America, it is not until the early to late 19th century that corn
is considered more refined. It wasn’t
until the invention of baking powder and baking soda that cornbread could truly
be enjoyed. Until then, cornbread was
incredibly dense and heavy.
We seem to be especially reflective
at this time of year, Thanksgiving. It causes
us to look back at what the first Thanksgiving dinner table may have looked
like. We may think of all the things we
eat and their origins. Maybe this year,
give a little thought and some thanks to exploration, discovery and the
contribution of the New World and its people.
