Historical Research: Food

[3113]

Don't know if this has been posted before, but there's a great historical research site for food. They answer questions, and have a cool timeline. Food Timeline.

 

[OnlyByMoonlight]

Thanks, thats really cool.

 

[al_Ussa]

Actually pretty cool.

Also, thought I'd rub it in that coffe, ice cream and yoghurt are all Arab inventions.

I've heard it claimed that Lebanon is actually NAMED after yogurt (either because it was invented there, or because the snow on the mountains looks like yogurt), but I've always taken that to be an urban legend.

Also Lebanon invented hummus.

 

[R. Richard]

A great source! The only problem is that my anti-virus software won't let me into some of the links.

 

[al_Ussa]

A great source! The only problem is that my anti-virus software won't let me into some of the links.

I skimmed through it. The links are actually all to different sites. They aren't hosted at the same place.

 

[TE999]

Tortillas were first made in 6,000 BC?

No wonder they were so tough to chew at lunch.

 

[jayce1066]

Fascinating. Thanks for posting that.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Actually pretty cool.

Also, thought I'd rub it in that coffe, ice cream and yoghurt are all Arab inventions.

I've heard it claimed that Lebanon is actually NAMED after yogurt (either because it was invented there, or because the snow on the mountains looks like yogurt), but I've always taken that to be an urban legend.

Also Lebanon invented hummus.

Huh! Mediterranean cuisine as a whole was an Arab invention and thus, by derivation, so was French. Personally, I love Moroccan food.

 

[al_Ussa]

Huh! Mediterranean cuisine as a whole was an Arab invention and thus, by derivation, so was French. Personally, I love Moroccan food.

Eh... the Turks, Greeks and Jews have a big impact on the east. A lot of desserts like loukoum and baklava date back to the Ottomans.

As for the French I'm not actually sure how much influence they had on Mediterranean food as a whole. They were in North Africa for a long time but the food is much more Arab and Berber than French imo.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Eh... the Turks, Greeks and Jews have a big impact on the east. A lot of desserts like loukoum and baklava date back to the Ottomans.

As for the French I'm not actually sure how much influence they had on Mediterranean food as a whole. They were in North Africa for a long time but the food is much more Arab and Berber than French imo.

No, no. Other way 'round. French cooking was just as unimpressive during the Middle Ages as British. The French couldn't cook their way out of a boiled cabbage until Henry II married Catherine D'Medici. She arrived in Paris and was appalled by the food so she sent home a letter to Daddy demanding that he send her some good Northern Italian cooks. That's the start of French cooking and it is established historical fact. Now, where did the Italians learn to cook? From their neighbors across the Mediterranean. The fact that the Moors ruled Sicily and southern Italy for centuries didn't hurt, either.

My opinion is that everything would have been fine around the Mare Nostrum if the Ottoman Turks hadn't shown up. Primitive sorts, the Ottomans.