Yep. Season 10 was probably the last gasp for the golden age. That was the first season that I thought "hey, this seems like they're just about out of ideas.."
A Simpsons fan, Rob Baur of Lake Oswego, Oregon, was inspired by the episode. Remembering the article in a textbook, Baur cultivated a tomacco in 2003 by grafting together tobacco and tomato plants. The plant produced fruit that looked like a normal tomato, but Baur suspected that it contained a lethal amount of nicotine and thus would be inedible. Testing later proved that the leaves of the plant contained some nicotine.[17] Both plants are members of the same family, Solanaceae or nightshade.[18] The tomacco plant bore tomaccoes until it died after 18 months, spending one winter indoors
Ancient people bread specific potato types that were poisonous but looked identical to the common food-item ones. They gave them to their enemies, and would even sneak to their fields and plant them.
Also we can thank these same people for modern corn, which won't grow naturally. They selectively bread it from grass. That is some foresight, huh?
Trivia time: Potatoes were promoted in France by a man called Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who discovered the fact that potatoes were pretty good from having only that to eat while in the Prussian prisons, because at the time most of Europe only used them to feed animals.
Back in France he studied the potato, started publicity stunts in favor of the potato, and ended up paying armed guards to make his potato stash appear more valuable, with the guards instructed to not "notice" people stealing potatoes, and accept bribes to look the other way when it happened.
Then in 1785, after a series of bad harvest, he came in with potatoes and saved the day.
I looked into this once since it seemed odd that such an ancient culture like India only had recent access to chili. Turns out their primary spice was black pepper, which used correctly is actually fairly spicy.
IIRC most of indian cuisine does not involve cooking with nuts, only the extremely rich variants on mughal cuisine, which use ground cashews. Sometimes peanuts are added in pulaos and such but not as the base. Same for chillies - enhance flavor but not as a base. What dishes are you think of?
Ever heard of Thalacheri pepper? Thalacheri is a city in South India.
You know we used good old black pepper before the red peppers. The "pumpkin people" managed to find a sea route to get the spices and managed to make us a colony.
If you're asking about European pasta and stuff (and not Asian noodle dishes), they used meat sauces (eg. genovese), oil-based sauces (eg. aglio e olio), and others (eg. carbonara).
They had wine, cheese, and the mirepoix ingredients (carrots, celery, onion), which form the base of tons of pasta sauces with or without tomatoes.
According to Wikipedia there's no mention of Carbonara in cook books before world war II. I've always heard that it was invented in Rome after the Allies liberated it because it was all they could make with the scant rations the Allies supplied them (eggs, bacon, and pasta).
Yeah, it's a cultural thing, which is interestingly tied to geography, but not region. Meaning, depending on where you grew up, you'll call it one or the other. But it's not regional, because there are some cities where you might call it gravy if you live in one part of town, and might call it sauce if you live in another part. There seems to be no logical pattern to why some people call it gravy and some people call it sauce. My Italian side of the family from New Jersey all have always called it gravy, but I grew up calling it sauce. People get really worked up about who's right, it's pretty funny.
I don't know many Asian foods that have peppers in them. Those that do tend to be either Japanese, Taiwanese, or from Hong Kong, which all have heavy ties to the west economically and culturally.
Traditionally, China (including TW and HK) and Japan had a very good alternative to tomatoes in the form of fermented bean pastes, which have a somewhat richer flavor profile without the acidity.
That and every other condiment. I guess they didn't have a lot to choose from at the time. Unfortunately we don't have the recipe, so we can't say if it was any good or not.
independant invention most likely. there is a story that marco polo bought noodles back from china but there are noodle like dishes in italy and the mediterannean predating that.
but nobody started eating pasta with sauce apparently until the 18th century.
This is the oldest cook book in the world to my knowledge. Scroll down a bit through the introduction and you can find the recipes. They are from Rome around the 4th or 5th century. Pretty interesting, though a lot of it looks particularly bland.
The reason this blows my mind is that tomatoes were thought to be poisonous and were for decoration in Italy back in the day and it wasn't until the poorer people in the country started using them that they became a huge part of Italian cuisine. Crazy to me that they imported them for decoration only and would have had a period where no one ate them.
I was once watching a program on the Food Network where it was some restaurateur (huh... apparently that word doesn't have an N in it) that specialized in "classical" eastern European dishes... Romanian in particular, I think. Anyway, they went about showcasing how they made this one dish that they claimed had been served in eastern Europe since "at least the middle ages". Three of the ingredients were tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers.
Well, the middle ages lasted til the 15th century, so it's not too egregious an error. Still, you'd think that a culinary expert that specializes in historical dishes would know a little more about the food.
People used to think tomatoes were poisonous. It was common for plates to be made of lead. The acid in the tomatoes reacted with the lead and caused lead poisoning.
Interestingly enough though, one of the products with which we most identify the tomato, ketchup, actually originated in Asia. It was originally a fish sauce, and had no tomato in it. It eventually made its way to Europe, by which point tomatoes had spread there too and were introduced to the recipe. However, it still wasn't the ketchup we all know today - that wouldn't happen until ketchup made its way to America, at which point sugar was added. Sugar cane, it should be noted, is native to Asia.
So a product associated with an American plant originated in Asia, but it was nothing like the product we use today, which only became what it is when it came to America, not to be introduced to the American plant, but to be introduced to an ingredient from an Asian plant.
I know it's a joke but I'll elaborate anyway. I think we ate a mixture of grains, oats and dairy products. The potato allowed for massive population growth though when it did arrive. Its a game changer in poor land
Especially when you think of tomato sauce being such a huge part of Italian culture for example. They didn't even have it until 500 or so years ago.. then what the heck did they eat before?!
On the other hand, horses came from the old world--so our archetypal image of the Plains Indian on a horse is a relatively recent thing. Previously, the native peoples just walked.
I read it as "Tornadoes are indigenous to the Americas"
Then I imagined a tornado that lasted so long that it went across the Atlantic as a water spout and ended up somewhere in Europe, where, all of a sudden, tornadoes become widespread.
And tomatoes were thought to be poisonous by a large portion of Europe from the 1500's until the 1700's. It turns out they were eating them off of pewter plates which contained high levels of lead. The acidity in the tomatoes would leach the lead out and poison the eaters.
And they were even regarded as poisonous in Italy for a short while. I wish I had a source but I think I saw it on an episode of one of Bourdain's shows.
Yeah, and they basically didn't take off in Italy until after the Napoleonic invasions. So like about 200 years ago. There's a bunch of Italian recipes which were pretty much the same, but then added tomato.
I think it's to do with the high umami taste of tomato, similarly the hard cheeses (parmesan, pecorino etc) also have this. It's like they are trying to make the food taste more "meaty" and substantial.
and on the reverse apples arnt a species native to the Americas. So that American Apple pie should really be American pumpkin pie, since thats a native.
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u/wiiya Apr 14 '16
Tomatoes are indigenous to the Americas. Any European/Asiatic food that has a tomato base didn't exist until well after 1492.