Fascinating Food Facts: Want A Bite?
Facinating Food Facts
by
Marjorie
Dorfman
According to Victorian philosophy, everything that has ever lived leaves a trace of its essence in the ether of the air, which comprises our universe. The ubiquitous cosmos of food and drink is no exception. It is so vast that as ingesters and imbibers we usually don’t get caught up in the history of what we are eating and drinking. This is largely because we are too busy eating and drinking to think about where our food and drink originated. Here are some interesting tidbits on a few everyday comestibles that you might not know or have even thought about.
Garlic: Contrary to the most sincerely told wives tales, the wondrous, smelly face of garlic was known for centuries before it dangled from the necks of hapless souls warding off vampires along the misty back roads of Transylvania. Although it is not certain when garlic was first discovered, as early as the 8th century BC it was growing in the gardens of Babylon. Chinese scholars wrote of it as far back as 3000 BC, and garlic was so prized in China that lambs offered for sacrifice were seasoned with it to make them more pleasing to the gods. By 1000 AD, garlic was grown all over the known world.
In ancient Greece, Hippocrates used garlic for treating infections, wounds and intestinal disorders. Roman legionnaires attributed their courage and stamina to garlic and took it along with them as they conquered the world, thus spreading its use and cultivation, like bad rumors, everywhere they went. The Egyptians worshipped garlic. According to ancient papyri, workers building the great pyramids were given garlic daily (as well as onions and radishes) to help increase their vitality. Unfaithful husbands would chew on a clove or two on their way home from visiting their mistresses so that their whole body was infused with the odor, insuring that an alert Egyptian wife would be unable to detect another woman’s perfume.
Corn: Indian corn, also known as maize, dates back more than 8,000 years. Native Americans in their development of corn as a food staple created a remarkable breeding system. To accommodate every climate, length of growing season, altitude and soil type, a specific variety of corn was grown. These included hominy (large, hard kernel), flint corn (hard), dent corn (soft) and flour corn (soft). Some types ripened early and some did not, and all of them were grown in a variety of colors.
Maize was known to the Incas centuries before Christopher Columbus set his brave Italian footsies upon the New World. He marveled at the lush vegetation and infinite variety of strange plants that grew wild on the new continent. Perhaps he realized soon after this that the plants, along with most of the native population, did not care to be discovered. Be that as it may, early American settlers learned quickly how to grow and eat corn. One of their earliest dishes, soup porridge, which was adapted from a native-American dish, combined New World hominy corn and beans with Old World root vegetables and preserved meats.
Mustard: The oldest condiment known to the human race is mustard. (It pre-dates hotdogs, baseball games and most delicatessens.) Its true origins are lost to the mists of time, but the first recorded use of mustard as a flavoring dates back to ancient Egypt where seeds were found in the tombs of pharaohs. Prepared mustard was also known in the Roman era when seeds were blended with wine to create culinary sauces. Conquering legions spread the use of mustard (in between spreading garlic and rumors).
Like garlic, mustard in ancient Greece was at first considered to be a medicinal plant. In the sixth century BC, Greek scientist, Pythagoras, used mustard as a remedy for scorpion stings. (It is not known what the scorpions used.) Later, Hippocrates utilized the condiment in a variety of medicines and poultices. Mustard increases blood circulation, and hence the use of the “mustard plaster”, which is a dressing used to bring increased blood flow to inflamed areas of the body. They were often applied to “cure” toothaches and a number of other ailments.
Prepared mustard, as we know it today began in Dijon, France in the 13th century and is credited to the efforts of one man, Jean Naigeon. However, the monasteries of the region probably developed the art of mustard making much earlier. The term Dijon Mustard refers to this recipe and not to the city itself.
Root Beer: The history of root beer cannot be told without reference to pharmacist, entrepreneur and unabashed recipe thief, Charles M. Hires, who was the first to commercially bottle the strange concoction. According to legend, on his honeymoon on a farm, the landlady served the couple her magnificent homemade tea. Somehow Hires cajoled the lady into giving up her recipe, which called for 26 roots, berries and herbs and was very similar to a native-American recipe. Hires packaged the mix and sold it at his very own pharmacy, calling it Hire’s Herb Tea.
The tea was an instant success with housewives who only had to boil the ingredients, strain them and add sugar as opposed to gathering the roots, barks, berries and occasional rosebuds as they may have found them. Carbonated water, which had been invented much earlier in England, was considered healthful and many pharmacies had soda fountains to dispense it. Hires soon added his special tea to it and thus entered the portals of food and drink immortality. His success was indirectly fostered by the Temperance Movement and ladies who would ordinarily be chopping up saloons with hatchets remained calm and at home as they supped on Hires delicious, extraordinary brew.
So whether you are more comfortable deflecting vampires, cutting the mustard, cracking corn with Jimmy or simply enjoying root beer, you will never look at these comestibles in the same way again. And well you shouldn’t. Next time you are about to eat or drink one of them, give them a respectful salute. They won’t thank you for it and everyone in your proximity will be convinced you are out of your mind. Do it anyway. And enjoy yourself…whatever and whenever you eat and drink!
Internet Sources:
Zimmerman, Kathleen, “History of Garlic Around The World”, (http://www.garlicfestival.com/Rx/worldhistory.html) The Story of Corn: History Detective,” (http://www.campsilos.org/mod3/students/c_history.shtml) Trowbridge, Peggy, “The History of Mustard as Food,” http://homecooking.about.com/od/foodhistory/a/mustardhistory.htm Bellies, Mary, “The History of Root Beer’” http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_root_beer.htm
Fascinating Food Facts: Want A Bite?