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frozenprocedural · 3 years

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Hot Chip Challenge

Happy birthday Dag! Here’s a quick story set in @the-spaztic-fantastic‘s “Tales of Two Cities” verse. Alarik, Neta, Dag, Jenny and Nikolai all belong to @patricia-von-arundel.

Rating: K

Jenny decided their big holiday get-together needed to be spiced up.

Quite literally, actually.

She burst into the door of her grandparents’ house, slapping two red-and-yellow coffin-shaped boxes on the kitchen table, grinning at her assembled family.

“It’s time for a challenge!”

Confused faces met her announcement, prompting Jenny to lift one of the boxes and tap the skull printed on front. “Carolina Reaper and Scorpion Chile powdered pepper on a chip. You eat it, and see how long you can go without eating or drinking anything to combat it. I think it’s high time we find out who the true ‘spice master’ is- Dag, or Mom.”

Both Dag and Elsa looked up at her with raised eyebrows, looking so similar to one another that Jenny had to stifle a laugh.

"And why exactly would we do that?" Elsa placed her chin in her palm, gazing at Jenny with narrowed eyes.

"Bragging rights. And money, or course." Jenny slapped the box back on the table and pulled out the receipt, snatching a pen from a nearby cup and drawing a vertical line down the middle, writing “Dag” on one side, and “Elsa” on the other. She then grabbed a bowl and dropped a twenty dollar bill in it. “I’m putting my money on Mom. Come on, who’s with me?” Jenny put her name under “Elsa”, and shook the receipt at the others. “Whoever wins gets the pot… or bowl.”

Eira was the first to rise, pulling out a twenty and dropping it in the bowl. She took the pen from Jenny, writing her name under Elsa’s name. Dag, who had been watching, made a sharp noise like a shriek.

“Hey! Don’t you believe in me?”

Eira patted his shoulder, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Babe, it’s not that I don’t believe in you, it’s just that I believe in Mom more.”

“Aw, it’s alright Dag, I’ll vouch for you.” Neta tossed a twenty in the bowl and put her name under Dag’s. He grinned, flashing her a thumbs-up. Anna was next, tossing her money in the bowl and putting her name under Elsa’s.

“Gotta give one to my sis. Sorry Dag, but I know Elsa too well. She’s got you beat on this one.”

Agnar followed Anna in betting on Elsa, while Iduna, Nikolai and Kristoff cast theirs for Dag. Only Alarik remained seated.

"Come on, Dad. You can break the tie here! Who's it going to be?"

Alarik shook his head, raising a hand. "I'm abstaining. Just not even going there."

Jenny huffed, but returned the bowl to the counter. "Fine, then. So, are you two in?" She pushed the boxes towards her mother and brother. Dag grabbed one, grinning at Elsa, who remained where she was.

"Come on, Mom. You're not afraid of one little chip, are you? Or should I just take the money now?"

A chorus of "oooooh"s- mostly from Jenny, Anna, and Eira- followed his statement, and Elsa stood, straight-backed and proud, reaching out to take the remaining box with narrowed eyes.

"Be very careful of what you ask for, Dag."

Jenny opened the stopwatch on her phone as Elsa and Dag opened the boxes and unwrapped the chips.

"Alright, the rules are simple. The person who lasts the longest without drinking or eating anything else wins. Ready? Go!"

For several seconds, the only sound was the crunching of chips. Dag and Elsa leaned back almost simultaneously, gazing at one another.

"It has a bit of a bite, doesn't it?" Dag's voice was conversational, but Jenny heard a slight rasp.

"It does indeed." Unlike her son, Elsa's voice remained steady.

They continued to stare at one another in silence. Dag's face had taken on a reddish tint, and he winced slightly whenever he swallowed. Elsa's features remained unchanged- Jenny thought she might be breathing a bit heavier, but it was difficult to tell.

The stopwatch continued past five minutes, then ten, and the pair remained locked in silent combat, neither so much as glancing away. Although most everyone had returned to the activities they'd been involved in before the challenge, there were several glances towards the contestants, and the air was tense in anticipation.

Just past thirty minutes, Dag gave a strangled cry. He staggered to the sink, grabbed a glass, filled it, gulping the contents in a matter of seconds.

"Mom is the winner!" Jenny crowed, holding her mother's arm in the air. Eira, Anna and Agnar cheered along with her. Neta patted Dag on the back as he refilled his water glass, giving him a sympathetic look.

"You put in a good effort there, Dag."

"You did indeed." Elsa smiled, pulling the bowl over and removing the cash, removing the bills and straightening them on the table's edge. She offered two of the twenties in his direction. "Consolation prize?"

He glowered at her over the rim of the cup and shook his head. He looked as if he might say something, but then he clamped his mouth shut and went to sit back down with Eira, automatically leaning over for a kiss. She pulled away, shaking her head.

"Sorry babe, but I am not kissing you tonight. You're the one who did the challenge. Not me."

Dag sank back into his seat amid roaring laughter. He shot Jenny a glare.

"Remind me to never accept your challenges agian."

#Tale of two cities elsarik #elsarik #dag #dag and eira #happy birthday dag!

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pixieslee · 2 years

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Consuming nutritious foods has been shown to significantly improve one's health.

But before we get into eating, we should drink a glass of water before your meal is served. Even while the components in pad Thai are typically healthful, the calories may quickly pile up. An average cup of pad Thai has roughly 400 calories, 17 grams of fat, and a lot of salt. To make up for that, I always order an additional plate of steaming veggies to mix in.

This is yet another excellent tip that will greatly assist you in practicing portion control. Water fills you up and tricks your mind into thinking you're fuller than you’re actually are. Also, it's a good idea to drink a glass of water before each meal as a general rule.

Pad Thai is one of my FAVORITE takeout dishes.

Pad Thai is a Thai dish made with noodles rice, palm sugar, tamarind, fish sauce, and crushed pepper. It is a Food with a good combination of sweet and salty, sour and spicy. It is street food at its core, but it has also been there improved. It’s a noodle bowl that I’m sure everyone has ever heard of, though not food that everyone enjoys.

It is also a dish with a wide variety of flavors, especially between America and Thailand. You will be surprised if you go to Thailand expecting food compared to what you can find in America. The problem with real pad Thai is that it is not the same as what you would find in your neighborhood or local delivery. It is not red and does not contain any ketchup. sometimes it's fun to have the filling, noodle-y goodness flavor that comes with an old or classic version of the dish.

This simple plant-based recipe for Pad Thai takes about 30 minutes to prepare.

Let's do this!

It all starts with tamarind, which gives the sauce a bright color and a Pad Thai flavor feature. Tamarind is mixed with amino acids, coconut sugar, and chile garlic sauce, lime juice, and Vegetarian Fish Sauce (optional), leading to beauty combination. Next, the bite of the tofu is slowly digested in the oil to add a delicious dose of protein (16.6 grams per serving!) At a meal. Garlic and chili flake lend a bitter taste that pops of flavor!

Happy pad Thai-ing!

#ikawbasicrush? #kasipadthainapadthaiakosayü

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sfarticles · 3 years

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Go Big With Your Burgers

Photo courtesy of America’s Test Kitchen/ Keller + Keller

Memorial Day Weekend is around the corner. Just the other day, I was thinking, the gas grill needs to be brought out from winter’s hibernation and the propane tank filled so it is ready for dad’s arrival from Florida. For three months a year, he enjoys grilling, especially those juicy burgers he makes by hand.

A couple of years ago, I found the the perfect Father’s Day gift for him, “The Ultimate Burger: Plus DIY Condiments, Sides, and Boozy Milkshakes,” by America’s Test Kitchen (2019, America’s Test Kitchen, $26.99).

Whether you want a beef burger or a cauliflower burger, are cooking on the grill or stovetop, or want to try making homemade buns and condiments, all the inspiration is in the book to achieve burger perfection.

In the “Anatomy of an Ultimate Burger,” it says, “no one element makes a burger ultimate, it’s the result of a combination of flavors and textures coming together.”

In this section, buns, sauce, toppings, cheese and the patty are discussed. I found the Dos and Don’ts of Store-Bought Ground Beef helpful. “Go Beyond Beef” introduces other burger options.

For those who want to really want to get into the “meat” of it, “Be Your Own Butcher” gives the knowledge in choosing the right cuts to create your signature blend and how to grind your meat without intimidation.

“Get Ready to Cook” ensures that every burger you make is tender and flavorful. You’ll learn how to properly grill (on a gas or charcoal grill) , shape a burger, and how to test the level of doneness. America’s Test Kitchen spent the time, often days and months, testing the recipes, the best equipment to use for burger making and the best store-bought burger fixings.

The book’s recipes don’t stop with burgers. Included are recipes for all of the trimmings; sauces, fries, potato and macaroni salads, buns, and milkshakes.

From the recipes here to pretzel buns, beer-battered onion rings, buttermilk cole slaw and ultimate cookies and Irish cream milkshakes to grilled Portobello burgers with goat cheese and arugula, and Connecticut steamed cheeseburgers (the latter two can be found at https://bit.ly/2VTJGpt, America’s Test Kitchen’s “The Ultimate Burger” will make your barbecues varied and delicious.

If you look around, burgers are everywhere. You can find local, regional and national restaurants dedicated to burgers. Some think of the hamburger as the “cuisine” of the country. Chefs have come up with creative signature craft burgers, plant-based patties and home cooks are getting into grinding their own meat.

As many know, the hamburger has roots in New Haven. Louis’ Lunch claims to be the inventor of the hamburger. Today, they are still cooked in the original vertical broilers as they were in 1900. And remember, no ketchup allowed!

Grilled turkey burgers with spinach and feta

The headnote says, “Why This Recipe Works: Ground turkey is a great neutral canvas, making it an ideal choice as the base for a burger with lots of mix-ins. We wanted super flavorful turkey burgers that take full advantage of this fact, but first we had to start by addressing the problems that plague ground turkey. Despite their popularity, turkey burgers are notorious for being bland and/or dry. This is because turkey has a mild flavor, and its leanness means it can easily dry out during cooking. We wanted to reinstate the turkey burger’s good reputation with an easy way to crank up the flavor and add some much needed moisture. We boosted the flavor of our patties by stirring some melted butter and feta cheese into the ground meat; these simple additions provided plenty of richness and flavor while preventing the burgers from drying out. For textural interest, we added fresh baby spinach to the meat mixture. Chopped dill lent a hit of freshness, and minced garlic rounded out the flavors. Be sure to use 93 percent lean ground turkey, not 99 percent fat-free ground turkey breast, or the burgers will be tough.”

1 1/4 pounds ground turkey

2 ounces (2 cups) baby spinach, chopped

2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (1/2 cup)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

2 teaspoons minced fresh dill

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon table salt

4 hamburger buns, toasted if desired

Break ground turkey into small pieces in large bowl. Add spinach, feta, melted butter, dill, garlic, and pepper and gently knead with hands until well combined. Divide turkey mixture into 4 equal portions, then gently shape each portion into 3/4-inch-thick patty. Using your fingertips, press center of each patty down until about 1/2-inch thick, creating slight divot.

For a charcoal grill:Open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (6 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, about 5 minutes.

For a gas grill: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes. Turn all burners to medium.

Clean and oil cooking grate. Season patties with salt. Place patties on grill, divot side up, and cook (covered if using gas) until well browned on first side and meat easily releases from grill, 4 to 6 minutes. Flip patties and continue to cook until browned on second side and meat registers 160 degrees, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer burgers to platter and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve burgers on buns. Serves 4

Variations

Grilled turkey burgers with miso and ginger: Omit spinach, feta, salt, and pepper. Whisk 2 tablespoons miso paste and 1 tablespoon water together in bowl until combined. Add miso mixture to turkey with melted butter. Substitute 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger for dill and 2 minced scallions for garlic.

Grilled turkey burgers with herbs and goat cheese: Omit spinach and garlic. Substitute 3/4 cup crumbled goat cheese for feta. Add 1 large minced shallot and 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley to turkey with melted butter.

Smoky grilled potato salad

The headnote says, “Why This Recipe Works: Creamy potato salad may be the classic, but we wanted a modern, summery option that could cook on the grill from start to finish right alongside some of our delectably charred burgers. For smoky potatoes with tender insides and crispy, grilled outsides, we started with halved, unpeeled red potatoes. Leaving the skins on helped the potatoes stay intact, as their firm, waxy texture stood up to the heat of the grill. Crumbled bacon was an obvious choice to add smokiness, and we found that we could infuse our salad with even more savory bacon flavor by reserving some of the fat and coating the potatoes with it before grilling. Grilling our onions with the potatoes gave them a beautiful char that heightened their flavor. Instead of a thick dressing that would hide the spectacular grill marks on our potatoes, we opted for a bold vinaigrette with a kick of chipotle to add even more smoky depth. Halving our potatoes after they cooled exposed their creamy center and allowed them to soak up the spicy, tangy flavors of the dressing. Use small red potatoes 11/2-2 inches in diameter. If you don’t have 2 tablespoons of fat in the skillet after frying the bacon, add olive oil to make up the difference.”

4 slices bacon

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

11/2 tablespoons mayonnaise

11/2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce

1/2 teaspoon table salt, divided

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for brushing

2 pounds small red potatoes, unpeeled, halved

1 onion, sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds

3 scallions, sliced thin

Cook bacon in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until crisp, 7 to 9 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate. When cool enough to handle, crumble bacon and set aside. Reserve 2 tablespoons bacon fat. (If necessary, add olive oil to equal 2 tablespoons.) Whisk vinegar, mayonnaise, chipotle, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper together in large bowl. Slowly whisk in oil until combined; set aside.

For a charcoal grill: Open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter three-quarters filled with charcoal briquettes (41/2 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, about 5 minutes.

For a gas grill: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes. Turn all burners to medium.

Clean and oil cooking grate. Toss potatoes with reserved bacon fat and remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt in bowl. Push toothpick horizontally through each onion round to keep rings intact while grilling. Brush onion rounds lightly with oil and season with salt and pepper. Place potatoes, cut side down, and onion rounds on grill and cook, covered, until charred on first side, 10 to 14 minutes.

Flip potatoes and onion rounds and continue to cook, covered, until well browned all over and potatoes are tender, 10 to 16 minutes. Transfer potatoes and onion rounds to rimmed baking sheet and let cool slightly.

When cool enough to handle, halve potatoes. Remove toothpicks and coarsely chop onion rounds.

Add potatoes, onion, scallions, and bacon to dressing and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature. Serves 4-6

Grilled bacon burgers with caramelized onions and blue cheese

The headnote says, “Why This Recipe Works: Smoky, salty bacon can take any burger to the next level, but burgers with just a few strips on top failed to deliver bold bacon flavor. Our version nixes the strips and mixes bacon directly into the burger for bacony bliss in every bite. Mixing raw bacon with raw ground beef overworked and compressed the patties so that they cooked up tough and dry, and cooked crumbled bacon — though it mixed in better — was too crunchy. For the perfect balance of bacon flavor and juicy texture, we processed raw bacon in the food processor and then cooked it briefly in a skillet. The par cooked pieces incorporated easily into the ground beef and dispersed bacon flavor more evenly throughout while the burgers stayed moist and juicy. Instead of tossing the leftover bacon fat we used it to sauté some onions, which provided salty balance to their sweet flavor. To turn these burgers into a savory showstopper, we topped them with rich and creamy crumbled blue cheese.”

8 slices bacon

1 large onion, halved and sliced thin

1/4 teaspoon table salt

11/2 pounds 85 percent lean ground beef

1/4 teaspoon pepper

4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled and chilled (1 cup) (optional)

4 hamburger buns, toasted if desired

Process bacon in food processor to smooth paste, about 1 minute, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Cook bacon in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up pieces with wooden spoon, until lightly browned in spots but still pink (do not cook until crisp), about 5 minutes. Drain bacon in fine-mesh strainer set over bowl. Transfer bacon to paper towel-lined plate and let cool completely. Reserve bacon fat.

Add 2 tablespoons reserved fat to now-empty skillet and heat over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and salt and cook until well browned, about 20 minutes. Transfer to bowl and set aside.

Break ground beef into small pieces and spread into even layer on rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with bacon and gently toss to combine using 2 forks. Divide beef mixture into 4 equal portions, then gently shape each portion into 3/4-inch-thick patty. Using your fingertips, press center of each patty down until about 1/2-inch thick, creating slight divot.

For a charcoal grill: Open bottom vent completely. Light large chimney starter filled with charcoal briquettes (6 quarts). When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over grill. Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely. Heat grill until hot, about 5 minutes.

For a gas grill: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes. Leave all burners on high.

Clean and oil cooking grate. Season patties with pepper. Place patties on grill, divot side up, and cook until well browned on first side, 2 to 4 minutes. Flip patties, top with blue cheese, if using, and continue to cook until well browned on second side and meat registers 120 to 125 degrees (for medium-rare) or 130 to 135 degrees (for medium), 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer burgers to platter and let rest for 5 minutes. Serve burgers on buns, topped with onions. Serves 4.

Recipes courtesy of ....

#hamburgers #memorial day weekend #America's Test Kitchen #grilling season

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verse50 · 5 years

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Instagram cooking anon again, I hate cooking. It translates to dirty dishes and an hour and a half of cleaning for a fifteen minute meal. I wish I didn’t, but it’s always been more of a chore than enjoyable.

I don’t cook every day. I also am 100% plant-based so that takes out messy cooking with grease and dairy. Most the meals you see are done in large batches. I save one or two servings for the week and freeze the rest for when I’m busier and don’t have time to cook. I have a freezer, a pantry, and a big spice collection. I was raised to grow, cook, and preserve my own food. Nothing was wasted or taken for granted. Anything left over was composted and returned to the earth.

It’s possible you weren’t taught how to cook or you have a really small, frustrating kitchen. I hear you. Everything I cook is very simple. You and everyone else can do it!

Some ideas:

One skillet: Prep your veg. Broccoli, green beans, zuchinni, mushrooms and onion. Can be one veg or many. Saute with s&p, garlic powder, or chili powder til there is color on the veg. Add a sprinkle of dried ginger (this won’t stand out, it enhances the natural flavor of the veg). Put in a splash of broth, up to half a cup, and put the lid on. Let the veg cook until just tender and the liquid is absorbed. Season to taste. This can be eaten as is, combined with a rice or bean, or as a side dish to an entree like lasagna or stew. The key is the ginger and the broth for flavor.

Rice: Make it in the oven or get a rice cooker. I cook brown rice in a Dutch oven. My liquid is a mix of broth and water. I add garlic, mushroom, and onion, put the lid on, let it bake. Rice comes out fluffy and delicious. I freeze it in quart ziploc bags for later use.

Salad: Make meal salads. These can be intimidating if you are used to iceberg lettuce, thick sliced cucumber, and pale tomatoes as a salad. Break everything down so it all has different textures and temperature and you aren’t fighting massive leaves into your face. Shred- your greens. Chiffonade romaine lettuce, kale, savoy cabbage, spinach. Grate- carrot, celery root, radish, beet, summer squash. Chop or slice- scallions, celery, cooked veg like squash or potato, herbs, tomatoes. Cook some veg, leave others raw. Combine with a warm carb like rice or lentils. Toss together with a dressing.

Smoothies: These are pretty easy. Plant milk, fruit, spinach (or not), spices (or not), a good carb like cooked oatmeal (or not), protein powder and it’s done. I freeze extra fruit for use later.

A sauce: So you have a carb, some salad, and cooked veg all done. You want to make it yummy. Make a sauce. Grind up an onion with spices like fresh ginger, garlic, cumin, peppers, tumeric (for Indian) or ginger, garlic, lime, chile, tamarind, cilantro (East Asian). This is your paste. You fry a tablespoon of the paste for a minute then add tomato sauce and coconut milk (Indian) or coconut milk and broth (East Asian). Pour the sauce over the carb and veg, have a salad on the side. The paste will keep in the fridge or you can freeze it. You can make any sort of sauce independently to dress up any entree.

Now that you have a good carb, salad, cooked veg, and a sauce in the fridge, you don’t need to cook for a few days. Mix and match. You don’t have to eat the same thing every day.

The cleanup part is tough, especially if you have a cramped kitchen. Clean as you go. Soak your larger pans so they are easier to clean at the end. Put on some nice music or a podcast and use that time to think and enjoy what you are doing. Say thank you for the experience and the opportunity to care for yourself, as I mentioned in this ask.

#askv

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saintedfury · 4 years

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Bouquet, chocolate, gift

VALENTINE’S DAY ALPHABET

C : CHOCOLATE. does your muse like chocolate? which one is their favourite?((Yes, she does like chocolate. She’s particular about her chocolate though. She always prefers dark over milk, she only really likes it paired with caramel or toffee (it can have other things in there as along as there’s that soft or hard sugary confection involved), and she absolutely adores chocolate with a hint of chile in it. That dark smooth sweetness with that subtle hint of smolder on the back of your tongue. It’s a glorious treat for the senses.))

B : BOUQUET. does your muse like flowers? which ones are their favourite?((Anything bright, bold, and colorful. Furia loves flowers. Sure, roses are okay, but she’d rather have something more interesting. Gerber daisies, a potted bird of paradise that she can transplant into the garden. If I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure Meryl gave her a purple chile pepper plant one year, that she absolutely loved and got a ton of use out of.))

G : GIFT. is your muse good at gift - giving or do they struggle to get it right?((Furia is good at it. Because she really doesn’t take gift giving super seriously. And she does it more than just for holidays and birthdays. If she stumbles on something that reminds her of someone they are going to receive it in a day or two. Unicorns for Sam. Exotic sweets for Eli. Recipes and treat the baker things for Skylar. The stupidest sunglasses ever for Devin (I’m pretty sure it’s not the first pair of penis sunglasses he’s ever received). Art things and photos of her graffiti for Sean. Spicy trinkets for Meryl. She gets Shaundi cute accessories, different books on philosophy for Oleg (though she always reads it first because he’ll devour it and want to talk to her about it). It’s just her way. She can spoil the people around her, and having grown up poor she does just that whenever she can.

Mind you, she knows that no individual thing can outweigh time spent with someone important, it is the way she shows people that she’s thinking about them even when they are not front and center.))

#Valentine's Day Alphabet #ashandnovels #Headcanon

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ramblingandpie · 5 years

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The First Annual Vortex Hot Wings Championship

Since Chiles and other spicy peppers aren't a big agricultural priority, it's been ages since Suvi has had something decently spicy. When The Vortex announces that they've discovered an Andromedan alternative, she jumps at the chance to joint a hot wings eating competition. Set after the game.

1448 words, rated G, Suvi Anwar/Female Ryder

https://archiveofourown.org/works/17748242

It started innocently enough, as so many things do, with an e-mail from Suvi requesting that Ryder stop by. Suvi still sent e-mails as though Ryder didn’t stop by every time she was aboard the Tempest to, if she was lucky and Suvi wasn’t in the middle of something, steal a kiss. Although they shared quarters now, they both kept unusual enough schedules that seeing each other that way was no guarantee.

Suvi held the datapad out for Ryder’s inspection. “Ryder. Can we please try to make it to this? It would mean the world to me.”

The flyer had clearly been put together by someone with no concept of design, but Ryder quickly gathered that it was some kind of eating contest. “I didn’t realize you had a competitive streak in you.”

“It’s not that,” Suvi corrected. “It’s just that even though I know they brought along the materials to grow it eventually, capsaicin isn’t a priority right now due to its low nutritional value. Researchers found a plant on Havarl that has a similar effect on humans, and found a way to distill it so that it’s only mildly toxic.”

“M-hm. So. You’re only going to poison yourself a little bit this time?”

Suvi scoffed. “Ryder, so many things we eat are poison! Capsaicin itself is very much an irritant. Botulism has medicinal applications. Don’t get me started on alcohol.”

“Okay, so you want to join this eating contest because you just want to try it? I’m pretty sure we can arrange for that any time. I am the Pathfinder, you know.”

Suvi scowled. “I don’t just want to try it, Ryder. I want to enjoy it. Do you know how long it has been since I’ve had good spicy food?” Ryder shrugged. “Not since we left the Milky Way. No, I don’t want to eat it. I want to indulge in it.”

Ryder sighed. Suvi so rarely asked for things, and this was clearly important. “We’ll be there. Go sign up.”

Suvi beamed. “Thank you, Ryder.” Ryder kissed Suvi’s forehead. Truthfully, she would do just about anything to get Suvi to smile like that.

***

The contest took place at The Vortex. The rules were simple. Nothing to drink, and they would bring out progressively spicier wings for the contestants. A large pitcher of beer and a full cup of beer were placed before each participant, and when they drank, they were out.

They started with eight people. By the third wing, half had folded. This was clearly not for amateurs.

Liam put an arm around Ryder’s shoulders, clinking his beer mug against hers. “She’s really going for it, isn’t she?” he said.

“She sure is,” Ryder replied, taking a sip of her own drink.

Suvi had not even broken a sweat, and was smiling as she graciously accepted the fourth plate. It had two wings that were coated in an unnaturally bright purple sauce. The contestant to her left took one bite and began coughing almost immediately; he chugged his beer and left the table, head hanging down in defeat. The woman to her right was beginning to sweat and turn pink.

Suvi closed her eyes and clearly savored the first bite. She finished both wings, and then licked her fingertips clean. As she waited for the next set, she gave Ryder a double thumbs-up. The bar was too loud for them to hear each other over the heckling and whooping of the crowd. They hadn’t even been able to get a spot very close to the table, as the event had turned standing room only.

Lexi sighed. She had insisted on coming along just in case the initial evaluations were incorrect about the toxicity levels. “I don’t understand it, Ryder. Alcohol, at least, I can understand. Why this?”

PeeBee shrugged. “Lighten up, Lexi. Some people just like to live dangerously. Though I’d never expect that of Miss Obsessed-With-Rocks over there.” She jerked a thumb in Suvi’s direction. “I’m just disappointed it doesn’t work on us. Anan said it just tastes like wet grass to us.” She grimaced as she said it. “Yuck.”

Ryder laughed. “If Suvi is right, we should have actual oldschool hot sauce in another two or three years, once they’re able to get a good crop of chiles grown.” The entire ride from Eos to the Nexus had involved being regaled with information about growing cycles different peppers.

“That sounds amazing,” Liam said. “I mean. Great that we have something in the meantime, but I don’t know if I could get over the color.”

There was a deep, rumbling sound from Jaal. “I have seen you eat purple foods many times, Liam.”

“But they’re not supposed to be spicy!” Liam protested. “Purple foods are sweet, like grapes and plums and Kool-Aid.”

“I think this is something about humans I will continue to not understand,” Jaal concluded.

Up at the table, the number of competitors continued to dwindle.The contest quickly came down to her and one other by the sixth plate, a clearly stubborn woman whose hair clung to her forehead from the sweat. Suvi was beginning to get a little tinge of pink to her cheeks.

They set the seventh plate down. Suvi paused and took several deep breaths. Her competitor looked at the plate, a little green at the gills.

Suvi picked up the wing, closed her eyes, and took a tentative bite just as the other woman ran from the table in the direction of the restroom.

The bar broke out in cheers and hollers so loudly that Suvi dropped the wing right back onto her plate.

“We have a winner!” Dutch announced, stepping beside her. “Suvi Anwar, your Havarl Hot Wing Champion! Suvi, stand up and greet your adoring crowd!”

She froze as if in shock. “But I-” she gulped. “I haven’t finished this plate yet. And it is really, really good!”

***

Back on the Tempest later, Suvi and Ryder managed to both have simultaneous downtime. Ryder had already told SAM to go to standby so that they could celebrate.

“I just kept trying to close my eyes so I could enjoy it and not pay attention to the others,” Suvi said. “I didn’t even mean to win.” She set the small makeshift trophy down on Ryder’s desk.

“But you did,” Ryder said. “And I hope that satisfied your craving.”

“Oh, it did!” Suvi said, a broad grin on her face. “It’s not quite the same flavor profile, but definitely hits the same points. And Dutch said he’d keep a note of the last one I had so that he can make me a batch special anytime.”

Ryder smiled. “Good. Then you’ll need to actually take some downtime in order to get them.”

Suvi blushed. “I know it’s important. I’m working on it.”

Ryder shrugged. “No worries. But come here. Let’s enjoy this moment to celebrate.”

Suvi walked over to where Ryder sat on the bed. She straddled Ryder’s lap. “Is this what you had in mind?”

“Something like that,” Ryder said, and leaned forward for a deep kiss.

The next few seconds were bliss, until Ryder pulled away. “Oh my god, oh my god Suvi, I love you but I have to stop. SAM?” she called.

“What’s the matter, Ryder?” Suvi stepped away, eyebrows furrowed with concern.

“Oh my god it burns. SAM, fix it. Fix it please.”

It took a brief moment for the realization of what had happened to dawn on Suvi, and in that moment, Ryder’s face went from a grimace to calm.

“Too much for you, eh, Ryder?”

Ryder’s words came out slowly and awkwardly. “Ip’th nop bunny.”

SAM began to speak from Ryder’s desk to explain. “In order to numb the heat and pain receptors, Ryder, I had to numb your entire mouth. I recommend keeping it numbed for several hours so that the reaction can run its course.”

Suvi began to laugh.

“Ip’th nop bunny!” Ryder repeated.

“It’s kind of funny,” Suvi said, as she sat next to Ryder and wrapped a hand around her waist.

Ryder leaned her head on Suvi’s shoulder. Suvi stroked Ryder’s hair. “Feels okay, now, though?”

“Yeth.”

“Good. I’m sorry I laughed.”

“Ip’th othay.” Ryder paused. “Ip ith pind ob bunny.”

Suvi giggled. “Maybe we’ll just call it an early night, then, hm? Give you a chance to heal up.”

Ryder sighed.

Suvi continued. “And. I promise that I won’t eat them unless I know you’ll be busy.”

“Pank yuu.”

“You’re welcome, love.” Suvi ran a hand through Ryder’s hair. “Besides. It’s good to know the great Pathfinder has weaknesses. Who knew you could defeat the Kett but can’t take on a plate of spice?”

#mass effect #mass effect andromeda #suvi anwar #fic #my fic

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aestheticvoyage2019 · 5 years

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Day 126: Monday May 6, 2019 - “Garden Harvest”

The new month is bringing some harvest to my garden and the hours of watering and poking around and loving and sending good vibes into my plants are just now starting to pay off. Those garden tomatoes taste and look so beautiful! Picking spinach from dirt to mouth, and wondering when I should pick that big pepper out front and center. Soon tomatoes will be coming out of our years as little green ones have sprung up all over. I took some inventory and amongst the tangled up plants sprawlin out all over the boxes - its hard to keep track of everything thats actually grown - but here is what Ive got going as of today:

Big Box -> 3 Big Tomato plants in cages, 4 cucumber plants coming on, 1 big zucchini squash, a bunch of lettuce/greens/basil, 1 clump of Red Onions, 3 stalks of Corn, 2 Yellow Bell, 1 Green Bell, 3 jalapeno, pepper, 1 Red Chile, 1 sweet bananas, and 7 Tomato plants from starts that are going to need to start paying rent.

In the small front box -> 5 tomato plants, 1 box of Spinach, 1 box Sweet Peas, 1 Cubanelle Pepper, 1 Sweet Banana Pepper, 2 boxes of Tomatos from seed, mint, 2 succulents.

Song: Jompson Brothers - Barely Alive

Quote: “The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. ” ― Michael Pollan

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opinionsbykimberly · 5 years

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The Impact of the Potato and Tomato on European Demographics and Culture

Introduction:

When you think of European cuisine what comes to mind?

If you’re thinking of the United Kingdom, dishes like bangers and mash, mashed potatoes, and Shepard’s pie might come to the forefront of your memory.

If you head across the channel to France, dishes like gratin dauphinois and ratatouille are rather famous.

In Spain, you have dishes like pa amb tomaquet, gazpacho, and pisto.

Then of course there is Italy where you have pasta with a Marinara or Bolognese sauce, and of course the world-famous pizza.

If one where to travel into the eastern European, you’d see a cuisine which includes cabbage rolls (often coated with tomato sauce), perogies, and olivier salad.

While these items might only be a small selection of European cuisine, it is likely that you’ve at least heard of some of these dishes, if not all of them. However, these dishes also tell a very different story. It would seem that the tomato and potato hold a very important role within European cuisine. This is especially fascinating considering that both of these foods are indigenous to the American continents, meaning that they did not come to Europe’s attention until 1492. In fact, it wasn’t until the late 17th/early 18th century that these foods, along with other new world crops such as corn, chilis, bell peppers, cacao, sunflowers, and sweet potatoes, were widely consumed.

This means that prior to 1700, European cuisine was radically different than what we are used to today with many dishes, we classify as traditionally European, either not existing or existing in a radically altered form.

The goal of this blog is to examine how the potato and tomato entered into Europe and how it spread throughout the continent to hold dominance within its culture and cuisine.

To do this, this blog will be divided into four sections. The first, will examine how the potato entered into Europe and how it spread after initial contact. The second, will examine how the tomato entered and spread through Europe. The third, will examine the impact of the potato upon European diet and society. And the fourth, will do the same for the tomato.

How the Potato Reached Europe:

As mentioned, the potato is indigenous to the Americas, more specifically South America being grown in a region that is currently split between modern day Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. It had been grown here for quite sometime with archeology evidence pointing towards controlled cultivation since between the 8th and 5th millennia BCE.

Europeans first came in contact with the potatoes in 1532 when Spaniard Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru, learning of it from local Amerindians. Within three decades, the vegetable had spread throughout Spain’s American holdings, and by 1573 we have the first evidence of the potato in Europe, when a hospital in Seville, Spain bought some for their garden. From Spain it then migrated to the Spanish controlled regions of Italy by 1586, England by 1596, and Germany by 1601.

It’s important to mention here that the early adoption of the potato was not as a food staple but rather as an object of curiosity for botanists and the earliest use of the potato was for decoration rather than cuisine.

There were three key factors which led to a general unease towards the potato as a food item.

First, was that the potato was miscategorized as a species related to the nightshade family which was notoriously poisonous. This misconception was made due to the dominate school of botanist thought in the period, which was deeply rooted in the old (Roman and Greek) ways of thinking. This meant that there was a lot of issues when trying to reconcile new-world plant species into the old systems of thinking, with many being wrongfully compared to old-world species.

Second, the appearance of the potato created an unfortunate association between the plant and the skin of lepers.

Lastly, the newness and foreignness of the species create a general suspicion and apprehension towards the plant. One trait which was met with a great degree of suspicion was the fact that potatoes didn’t require seeds to been grown, a first for European agriculture.

This suspicion was eventually overcome towards the end of the 17th century, but even into the 18th century there was a great deal of controversy and criticism leveled at the potato.

In Denis Diderot’s Encyclopedias (1751-65), he describes the potato as something that… “cannot be regarded as an enjoyable food, but it provides abundant, reasonably healthy food for men wo want noting but sustenance.”

While this does display a dislike for the taste, it also shows that the misconception of it being poisonous had been overcome by this point.

Another critic of the potato was England, where it was denounced as an agent of Roman Catholicism, with the slogan “No Potatoes, No Popery!” being used in 1765.

However, even with its critics, the adoption of the potato as a food item could not be stopped. As early as the late 17th century, there is evidence of widespread cultivation and eating of potatoes in Ireland, Spanish Netherlands, and the Alsace region of France.

By the early 18th century it had been adopted within England and Scotland, and by the mid-18th century had arrived in Scandinavia.

By 1744, we have the first widespread adoption of the potato in Germany, when Frederick the Great of Prussia ordered his peasantry to eat it in order to alleviate a famine at the time.

In France, the adoption of the potato was spearheaded by a single gentleman by the name of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier. Parmentier was a veteran of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and during the conflict was captured by the Prussians, who fed him little beside potatoes. After the war he dedicated his life to the vegetable, doing everything in his power to promote it. Some of his most high-profile publicity stunts included:

1) An all potato banquet for an international gathering of high society;

2) Persuading the king and queen of France to wear potato blossoms on their outfits; and

3) Planting 40 acres of potatoes on the edge of Paris in order to encourage the poor to steal them and plant them for themselves.

By 1775, France was in the perfect position to adopt the potato, as this was the year where the price controls on grain were lifted, leading to the rapid increase of bread prices, leaving room for the potato to really shine as an alternative staple in French diets.

From Europe, the potato was then spread across the rest of the old world via colonial trade networks and mariners. It arrived in China by the 17th century via the Dutch, it was introduced to India by the 17th century by the Portuguese and British, and had reached Ethiopia by 1858 via the Germans.

By the end of the 18th century, the potato was a well-established staple of European diets with anywhere between 10-30% of the population solely consisting on them within the Netherlands, Belgium, Prussia, and Poland, and 40% of the population in Ireland.

How the Tomato Reached Europe:

Much like the potato, the tomato originated in Peru and Ecuador, before spreading outwards across the Inca, Aztec, and Mayan empires. Prior to the Columbian exchange it had become a very important part of the Aztec diet and was grown extensively throughout Mexico.

It is in Mexico where Europeans first come in contact with the fruit. This was once again led by the Spanish when Hernan Cortes captured the city of Tenochtitlan in 1521, noting the importance of the tomato within the local Nahua diet and culture.

The tomato was eagerly adopted by the local Spanish settlers, and by 1571 it was well documented that the tomato, along with chilis, were being used extensively by the Spanish population in Mesoamerica.

The first tomatoes to enter the old world did so in the mid-sixteenth century, when they entered through the port of Seville in Spain. From here the Spanish then moved it across the globe via their colonial system, moving them first to the Caribbean, then their European holdings (Southern Italy and Flanders), and eventually into the Philippines and Asia.

However, much like the potato, the early adoption of the tomato in Europe saw it used primarily as a botanist curiosity and not as a source of food. This is once again because of the botanist mindset of the period. In 1544, Italian Scholar Pietro Andrea Mattiolo compared the fruit to aubergine, a toxic member of the nightshade family. This perception was reinforced by the works of Italian, Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1572, and English surgeon and herbalist, John Gerard in 1597.

Along with this, the tomato was burdened by 5 key characteristics which made it difficult to adopt into European diets. These were, its foreignness in appearance and taste, strange consistency and texture, acidic taste when green, soft texture when ripe, and its tendency to disintegrate during the lengthy cooking times of Renaissance cuisine.

On top of this, there was also the problems of 16th century medical literature, which viewed vegetables as bad for someone’s health.

One quote comes from 16th century Castilian Doctor, Nunez de Oria.

“However, let us not quote examples from distant lands, but look instead at our own country, where we see from experience that those who eat salads and vegetables have all the colours of the rainbow in their complexions and faces. I do not say this to stop people having salads, but so that they do so in moderation, and make them from hot and cold vegetables, so that they temper each other.”

While this was a general warning against the danger of vegetables there was also direct criticism leveled at the tomato.

For example, Flemish physician, Rembert Dodoens made this warning in 1583, “Some eat the fruits prepared and cooked with pepper, salt and oil. However, they provide little bodily sustenance, and this is itself noxious and pernicious.”

However, even against the overwhelming warnings of the 16th century medical community, there is evidence of the consumption and cultivation of the tomato during this time. The first evidence of it being consumed dates back to 1608 in Spain when the Hospital de la Sangre, in Seville, ordered some for their kitchen.

By the early 18th century, the tomato had overcome its stigma and was being widely consumed and cultivated across the Mediterranean. This claim can be supported by the account book for the college of Corpus Christi in Valencia which started the cultivation and consumption of tomatoes in 1746 and by physiocrat, Jose Antonio Valcarcel who reported the widespread cultivation within the region by 1765.

By the end of the 18th century, the tomato was being widely grown and eaten throughout the Mediterranean, while it maintained its status as a botanist curiosity in Central and Northern European.

The Potato’s Impact Upon Europe:

In 1853, Andreas Friederich erected a statue of Sir Francis Drake in the town of Offenburg, Germany. In one hand Drake wields a sword, in the other he grips a potato plant. At the base of the statue is a motto which reads, “disseminator of the potato in Europe, in the year of Our Lord 1586. Millions of people, who cultivate the earth, bless his immortal memory.”

Now, it’s important to note that Sir Francis Drake had absolutely nothing to do with the movement of potatoes into Europe. However, his statue does show us how important the potato was to the continent.

The potato effectively doubled the food supply of Europe, producing more calories, vitamins, and nutrients per acre than any other staple crop. It also contained vitamins which could not be easily found in any foods indigenous to Europe, such as vitamin C.

A family of 6-8 individuals could subsist off the potato yields of a single acre and the diary of a single cow for their annual needs. In comparison, that same family would require 2.8 acres of barley, 3.2 acres of oats, or 3.4 acres of wheat just to make up the same caloric intake, and that’s not even factoring in the crops needed to make up the missing vitamins these other staples failed to provide.

The potato could also be used as an animal feed, which helped increase the population of cattle, pigs, and chickens across Europe, contributing to increased meat production and far greater quantities of fertilizer.

Between the year 1000-1700, the population of the world grew from 300-600 million people while the urban population stayed stable, making up about 2% of this figure. Between 1700-1900, the population then exploded from 600-1600 million, while the urban population grew from 2-8%. Of these second figures (1700-1900), 25-26% of the population growth, and 27-34% of the urban growth can be directly contributed to the widespread adoption of the potato. Just think about that for a moment, the adoption of a single crop was responsible for a quarter of the Industrial Revolution’s population growth and a third of its urbanization.

London, Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Moscow, these cities would be a shadow of their current shelves if it were not for the potato.

And while the potato did revolutionize food across the entire old world, Europe proved to have the ideal soil and climate for the species, blowing away the rest of the world in potential yields.

Prior to the introduction of the potato, the traditional food systems of Europe could not reliably feed it. Between 1500-1800 there were 40 famines in France, and between 1523-1623 there were 17 national famines in England. Yet, the potato offered a solution. To quote Belgian historian Christian Vandenbroeke, “for the first time in the history of western Europe, a definitive solution had been found to the food problem.”

That is…until 1845.

To begin to understand what happened in 1845, we must first understand two things, P. infestans and guano.

P. infestans, also known as potato blight, is a fungus native to Peru which prays upon the potato and tomato. Prior to 1845, it had remained in Peru where a natural genetic resistance had mostly limited the impact of the fungus upon crops.

Guano is bird shit. To put it more kindly, it’s the dried remains of bird urine. While an absolutely revolting substance, guano has the very important characteristic of having incredibly high nitrogen content, one of the macronutrients vital to the growth of all plants, potatoes included. So, prior to the advent of artificial fertilizer, guano was imported into Europe to help fertilize crops, something that was becoming increasingly important as the heavy cultivation of potatoes absolutely devastated the nitrogen content of European soils.

Now where did Guano come from? Well a wide variety of places, however the chief producer was Peru.

So, we have both the killer of the potato and the fertilizer needed for potatoes within close proximity to one another, and every day more and more ships were making the voyage to ferry guano to Europe.

In 1845, P. infestans came along for the ride.

It landed in Antwerp in the summer, before hopscotching to Paris by August, and doing a tour of the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and England in the coming weeks.

Finally, it reached Ireland.

As mentioned, the Irish diet was heavily dependant upon the potato with 40% of the population subsisting on nothing but potatoes for every meal.

Within 2 months, 0.5-0.75 million acres of Ireland’s 2.1 million acres of potatoes were gone. In 1846, this figure worsened, as it did in 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, 1851, and 1852. For 7 straight years the situation worsened and the impact upon Ireland was devastating. Due to the famine, the British government’s unwillingness to combat the famine, and the enclosure of lands used to cultivate alterative crops by the English aristocracy (who shipped their products to England) 1 million Irish people died with another 2 million fleeing the country.

To put this into perspective, it took until the 1960s for Ireland to recover half of its pre-famine population, and modern Ireland is the only country to have a smaller population today than it did 150 years ago.

The horrors of P. infestan and later Leptinotarsa decemlineata (the Colorado potato beetle) birthed the modern petrochemical industry, as scientists and industrialists raced to find a way to profit from the protection of the potato. In the 1880s, it was discovered that a combination of copper sulfate and lime would kill P. infestans, while a combo of arsenic and copper would do the same for L. decemlineata.

However, the battle against parasites is still with us to this very day. For example, in 2009, nearly the entire potato crop of the American East Coast was destroyed by parasites.

The Tomato’s Impact Upon European Cuisine:

While the tomato’s impact on European demographics is nowhere near as great, the introduction of this fruit radically altered European cuisine.

Nowhere is this more pronounced than within Italy.

For example, prior to the 19th century most Italian staple dishes did not exist. Pasta and pizza were very different, being topped with a combination of olive oil, anchovies, and cheese. It wasn’t until 1889 that the dish we call pizza really came into existence, when Raffaele Esposito invented the Margherita pizza in honour of the queen of Savoy. To put that into context, the country of Canada is older than pizza.

You can actually see the impacts of Spanish colonialization upon Italian cuisine, with the southern half of the country having a rich history with the fruit. This is due to Naples being a part of the Spanish crown from between 1504-1714, meaning that it had better access to Spanish colonial goods, and by 1548, the first tomatoes entered Italy.

The first tomato sauce originated in Italy in 1692 and was described as being done in a “Spanish style”, showing the Spanish influence of this period.

Meanwhile, in Northern Italy there was a wariness towards the fruit, which stems from many of the reasons stated earlier in this paper. However, along with this, the tomato also had a reputation for poisoning the aristocracy and wealthy echelons of society. This happened due to the use of pewter plates by the wealthy elite, which had a very high lead content. The acidity of the tomato would erode the pewter and mix lead into the food, giving the people unfortunate enough to eat off these plates a bad case of lead poisoning.

In Spain, the tomato was being consumed by the colonial populace all the way back to the 16th century, when Spanish cuisine was blended together with the local Amerindian foods. This mostly took the form of blending chilis and tomatoes together to create a sauce, which was described as having the ability to “enhance the flavour of almost all dishes and foods” by naturalist Francisco Hernadez.

Beyond Spain’s colonial holdings, the adoption of the tomato was a bit slower in uptake. Yet even in Europe the tomato was being eaten as early as 1583, when it was combined with pepper, salt, and oil. More complex dishes came out of this and by the 18th century the tomato was being consumed rather commonly throughout much of Spain.

By the 18th and 19th centuries the tomato had exerted it dominance on southern European cuisine, being cultivated and consumed throughout the entire Mediterranean. The tomato’s impact upon local foods can not be understated as this fruit managed to completely alter a major aspect of the region’s cultural image (food) within a relatively short period of time.

Conclusion:

In Marialuz Lopez-Terrada’s paper, The History of the Arrival of the Tomato in Europe, he discusses how the introduction of American plants radically altered European cooking and eating habits, medical products, drugs, poisons, gardens, wood types, pigments, solvents, and greatly expanded the catalogue of other useful materials. In other words, Europeans were able to extract a great deal of benefit from the Americas, often to the detriment of local Amerindians. Nowhere is that more pronounced than with the adoption of the potato and tomato.

The potato originated in the Andes of South America, before arriving in Europe by 1573 when the Spanish introduced it to the continent. Throughout the next few centuries the plant spread throughout Europe, though largely in a gardening and ornamental role. The adoption of it as a food was hindered by its exoticness, lumpiness, and misconception that it was poisonous. However, throughout the 17th and 18th century, widespread culinary adoption began to blossom and by the end of the 18th century somewhere between 10-30% of the population was living off a diet of just potatoes within Germany, Poland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The tomato also originated within the Andes, before migrating to the Mesoamerican region of the Americas via pre-European trade networks. Like the potato, it was introduced to Europe via the Spanish and was largely kept as an ornamental plant, and had to battle its own stigmas related to its unhealthiness, poisonous, and ill-fitted nature for European diets.

The potato revolutionized the European food supply. For the first time ever, Europeans had a staple crop which provided the entire macro and micro nutrient needs of the population, including a desperately needed and easily accessible source of vitamin C. At the same time, the potato allowed for farmers to produce three times as many calories per acre compared to more traditional staples such as barley, oats, and rye. These two characteristics allowed the potato to effectively end famine within Europe for a nearly a hundred years, and was responsible for 25-26% of population growth and 27-34% of urban growth between 1700-1900. However, the potato eventually ran into pests and disease which shattered its stability, and in an effort to protect it, the modern petrochemical and fertilizer industries were invented.

Meanwhile, the tomato completely changed southern European cuisine. Pasta and tomato sauce, pizza, salsa. None of these would exist to a European palate if it were not for the Columbian exchange and the introduction of the tomato into Spain and Italy. While the impact on demographics from this are nowhere near as pronounced, the impact of the tomato was massive upon the region’s culture and cuisine.

In closing, the potato and tomato might be common nowadays, to our diets, but its important to examine where these foods came from and how they spread to hold such an important role within our society. Three hundred years ago, Ireland didn’t have potatoes, Italy didn’t have tomatoes, Switzerland didn’t have chocolate, and Spain didn’t have chilis.

Bibliography:

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (NA). Tomato. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/plant/tomato

Lopez-Terrada, M. (NA). The History of the Tomato in Europe: An Initial Overview. Traditom. Retrieved from: http://traditom.eu/fileadmin/traditom/downloads/TRADITOM_History_of_the_arrival_of_the_tomato_in_Europe.pdf

Mann, C.C. (2011). How the Potato Changed the World. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-potato-changed-the-world-108470605/

Monaco, E. (2016 Jan 9). How the Tomato Transformed the European Diet. Epicure & Culture. Retrieved from: https://epicureandculture.com/tomato-transformed-european-diet/

Nellino’s Sauce Co. (N.A.) Pomodoro! The History of the Tomato in Italy... and its Way to My Kitchen. Retrieved from: http://nellinos.com/the-history-of-the-tomato-in-italy.html

Nunn, N. & Qian, N. (2010). The Potato’s Contribution to Population and Urbanization: Evidence From An Historical Experiment. Harvard. Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20110705043431/http:/www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/nunn/files/Potato_QJE.pdf

PS. If you liked this please follow for more history blogs. Also I have a Ko-Fi

#History #Food #Potato #tomato #Colonization

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