the Australian name for certain CRAYFISH, notably the semi-aquatic ones of the genus Cherax, and especially C. destructor, is a version of the Aboriginal name yappée. The term is not used in all parts of Australia, nor does it mean the same thing in all the parts where it is used; but the usage indicated is heavily dominant.
The range of the yabby covers something like a third of Australia, extending north from Victoria and S. Australia. Maximum dimensions are 16 cm (6″) and 150 g (5 oz). Early settlers in Australia did not take to the yabby, although the Aboriginals could be seen eating them with enjoyment, but during the 20th century their popularity grew and they acquired a certain symbolic value. Olszewski (1980) compiled an impressive sampler of poems, cartoons, folklore, and jests to do with what he called ‘the humble yabby’.
See illustration overleaf, and also MARRON, a related species of W. Australia.
Polymnia sonchifolia, a plant of the SUNFLOWER family which is indigenous to the Andean region of S. America. It is valued for its round or spindle-shaped tubers, which are usually eaten raw, but can also be boiled or baked. They have little nutritional value, but provide a pleasantly sweet and crunchy addition to salads, with a refreshing flavour; they have been compared to apples and watermelons in this respect.
Unlike the majority of roots and tubers, but like other relations of the sunflower, yacon stores carbohydrates mainly in the form of inulin. This consists largely of fructose. Humans have no enzyme for dealing with inulin, so it passes through their digestive tract without being metabolized and, as a consequence, yacon provides few calories and may have some potential as a low-calorie sweet diet food.
In its native region the plant is a popular item in family gardens, but not common in the markets. The tubers keep very well.
In Ecuador and Peru the name JICAMA is used; but this is better reserved for the species Pachyrhizus erosus.
the male of the species Bos grunniens, belonging to the same family as the bison, cow, water-buffalo, and eland. It is the female of the species, called dri, not yak, which is the well-known source of food in TIBET and nearby mountainous regions. It is uphill work trying to persuade Europeans and Americans to use the word ‘dri’, since in the English language yak has come to mean both genders. However, one should try, since writing about ‘yak milk’ is as absurd as writing about ‘ox milk’.
Dri milk is richer than cow’s milk because it contains more butterfat. It is readily turned into YOGHURT (sho) in Tibet and one way of making butter starts with this yoghurt. When butter is made, thin buttermilk will be left over and this can be turned into a soft cheese (chura loenpa) which is much used in Tibetan cookery.
Properly the name of an edible tuber of plants of the genus Dioscorea, ‘yam’ is often used in a general sense to embrace other tropical root crops such as SWEET POTATO, TARO, OCA, etc. The wider usage is an inconvenience; all the more so since the genus Dioscorea itself comprises scores of species which are often difficult to distinguish from each other. However, one must not complain. The origin of the word ‘yam’ was such that its meaning had to be elastic. The story goes that Portuguese slave traders, watching Africans digging up some roots, asked what they were called. Failing to understand the question aright, the Africans replied that it was ‘something to eat’, nyami in Guinea. This became inhame in Portuguese and then igname in French, and yam in English.
The scientific name Dioscorea refers to the classical Greek writer on medicine, Dioscorides, and serves as a reminder that many yams have medicinal as well as culinary uses. Their reputation in making poultices is high. Some also serve as a source of steroid drugs, including a main ingredient of the contraceptive pill. An even more negative function is fulfilled by the few which produce toxins for arrow poisons, in Malaysia, and for fish poisons.
All edible yams have to be cooked before consumption, to destroy the bitter, toxic substance dioscorine which they contain in the raw state. When cooked they are starchy and bland, sometimes slightly sweet. No yams constitute a gastronomic excitement; they are just plain, filling food, providing plenty of carbohydrate and about as much protein as the potato.
In some regions yams are an important staple. This is true of Fiji and other Pacific islands; and also of Nigeria and other W. African countries, although the position of the yam there as the most popular staple food has been weakened by increased cultivation of the sweet potato.
The yam has one serious disadvantage; it extends deep underground, as far as 2 m (6′), and digging it up can be an exhausting business. Thus, although yams have been known in most parts of China since ancient times they have not been much eaten there except during famines. And, when a hardy variety of yam was introduced experimentally to Europe, to relieve the distress caused by the potato blights of the 1840s, it was grown successfully enough but failed to become popular.
Yams are so numerous that only the main cultivated species can be mentioned. Most of them are natives of the Old World, from SE Asia, nearby Pacific islands, and Africa; but there is also a small group native to S. America. Yams existed at least as far back as the beginning of the Jurassic era, when dinosaurs had not yet been succeeded by mammals and S. America and Asia were still joined. After the continents separated at the end of the Cretaceous era, the evolution of American yams proceeded separately, but they are still not much different from their Old World relatives. It is true that, as a group, they tend to produce clumps of small tubers rather than single huge ones; but they share this convenient habit with certain Old World yams. The differences between Asian and African yams, which were separated only in historic times by the drying up of the intervening land, Arabia, are also slight. The transfer of useful species by human agency has anyway confused the picture.
Even within the main cultivated species, yams vary to a remarkable extent in size, shape, and colour. The typical yam, if there be such a thing, is a large, oblong root which looks something like a mortadella sausage encased in a barklike skin. It is this sort of yam which is seen in markets in industrial countries where there are immigrants from yam-eating countries. But where yams are indigenous and widely eaten the diversity is great. Some yams produce many small tubers, no larger than potatoes. Others produce single giants. The greatest recorded weight is 60 kg (130 lb), for a greater Asiatic yam dug up in Malaysia (source cited by Burkill, 1965–6). There are intermediate sizes and shapes, including some with branching ‘fingers’ and others which first develop downwards and then curve back up towards the surface of the soil. (The diversity of shapes can be illustrated by just a few of the many Malay common names for particular kinds: peaked-cap yam, elephant’s ear yam, snake yam, buffalo-thigh yam.) The rind may be rough or smooth, pale in colour, or brown, or purple. The flesh is often white or yellow, but sometimes pink or purple, either just under the skin or all through.
Most yams keep well and were often used as provisions for lengthy sea voyages. Steaming, or boiling and mashing (or boiling and then grilling), or roasting, or frying (including fried croquettes of mashed yam) are recommended ways of cooking them. See also FOO-FOO.
Yams can be ground to make a kind of meal, which also keeps well.
Lovelock (1972) describes some unusual practices. In Fiji, the yam is ‘grown in earth that is hard and unprepared in the belief that it is a sporting sort of vegetable that likes to feel resistance before it will show its strength (and therefore grow large)’. He continues:
In the D’Entrecasteaux Islands, off the east coast of New Guinea, there lives a gloomy and suspicious people who believe that yams travel underground from garden to garden. They therefore spend a good deal of time trying to entice their neighbours’ yams into their own plots by magic; and yet are righteously indignant if someone else’s superior magic (or husbandry) produces a crop better than their own. In the neighbouring Trobriand Islands there is a much happier and more open race. These make a parade of their wealth by constructing fairly open yam-houses in order that all can see the quality of their produce, putting roots of best quality well to the fore, of course. Particularly fine yams, however, are displayed outside the stores, often framed and decorated with paint.
a name applied to several leguminous plants with swollen edible tubers. The most important is Pachyrhizus erosus, a perennial vine native to C. and S. America which has in the last few hundred years been introduced to most tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including parts of Africa, India, SE Asia, and Hawaii (where it is said to bear the name ‘chopsui potato’).
The tuber is starchy with a crisp texture and a slightly sweet taste. It can be eaten raw; or cooked, e.g. in soups; or sliced and made into chips. The Chinese include it with stir-fried vegetables as an alternative to water chestnuts or bamboo shoots. They also pickle it. In Indonesia the tuber is used in making rujak, a sharp and spicy salad in which fruits are the main ingredients.
Young pods may be eaten whole, but mature pods and the seeds within them are toxic.
The African yam bean, Sphenostylis stenocarpa, is widely known by its Hausa name, girigiri, but has many others, e.g. kulege (Ewe), okpo dudu (Ibo), and sese (Yoruba). Its starchy tubers look like sweet potatoes but taste more like ordinary potatoes. It also has seeds which are edible if soaked before being cooked. This plant has a wide distribution in tropical Africa and is an important source of starch and protein for Africans.
As explained under WINGED BEAN, the tubers of leguminous plants are generally more nutritious than other tubers.
a full-cream cow’s milk cheese first produced in 1983 in Cornwall by a couple called Gray; hence the name, which is Gray spelt backwards. Maggie Black (1989) states that it is based on a Cornish prototype of the 15th century.
A wheel of Yarg, in its wrapping of (edible) nettle leaves, usually measures about 25 cm (10″) across and 7 or 8 cm (3″) high. After being mould ripened for three weeks, it has a white and downy rind over a creamy surface area containing a moist, crumbly interior. Fat content 30 per cent, moisture content 40 per cent: so midway between the cheeses called semi-soft and those called semi-hard.
has been used in the preparation of food and drink for as long as there have been leavened bread and beer, but it was only in the 19th century, thanks to the work of Pasteur, that its nature was understood.
Even now, yeast can understandably be treated as a sort of miracle. Elizabeth DAVID (1977), in a fine account of the history of yeast in English baking, remarks that:
In Chaucer’s England one of the names for yeast or barm was god-disgoode ‘bicause it cometh of the grete grace of God’. These words imply a blessing. To me that is just what it is. It is also mysterious, magical. No matter how familiar its action may become nor how successful the attempts to explain it in terms of chemistry and to manufacture it by the ton, yeast still to a certain extent retains its mystery.
Yeast is a single-celled fungus, of which hundreds of species have been identified. Those of the genera Saccharomyces and Candida are the most useful. The single cells are very small: hundreds of millions to a teaspoonful. Instead of feeding by photosynthesis, as green plants do, they feedzon carbohydrates (and other nutrients—their dietary needs are remarkably extensive, considering how small they are) and excrete alcohol. They breathe air and exhale carbon dioxide.
Various species of yeast reproduce in different ways, some vegetative (by fission or budding) and some sexual. They survive but are inactive in freezing conditions. They grow slowly at cool temperatures; steadily at 24 °C (80 °F); and unrestrainedly at 38 °C (100 °F). They are killed by a temperature of 60 °C (140 °F).
Despite the simplicity of their structure, yeast cells can operate in alternative ways; one that suits bread-making and one that is right for brewers. Given plenty of air and some food, yeast grows fast and produces a lot of carbon dioxide. It is the pressure of this gas which makes bread rise. Only a little alcohol is formed. However, in a fermentation vat, where there is almost no air but an abundance of food in the form of sugar, the yeast cells change to a different mode, breathing little and concentrating on turning sugar into alcohol.
The same species of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, constitutes both baker’s and brewer’s yeast, and the connection between brewing and baking used to be intimate. A model of a combined brewhouse and bakehouse found in an Egyptian tomb of c.2000 BC is to be seen in the British Museum. Beer leaven, known as ‘barm’, was used for bread-making until quite recent times. The making of beer, black bread, and the alcoholic drink KVASS were traditionally linked in Russia. There are still some who believe that bread made with barm had an especially good flavour.
However, it is no longer true that the same yeast is used for brewing and baking. Many different strains of S. cerevisiae have evolved or been selected, and those which are used for brewing are different from those which best suit the bakers, and are cultured on a different substrate. The various species and strains also differ in a way which has important consequences for flavour. The complex chemical reactions which the enzymes secreted by yeast bring about in the process of fermentation include the formation of minute quantities of organic acids, minor alcohols, and esters. These affect flavour, and they vary from strain to strain. The phenomenon is particularly noticeable in wine-making, where the yeast used is generally a strain of S. ellipsoideus.
Yeasts may grow and work with other micro-organisms. In SOURDOUGH BREAD the yeast, often of the genus Candida, is the partner of LACTIC ACID-producing BACTERIA. Yeasts also work with bacteria to ferment KEFIR and KOUMISS. The manufacture of SOY SAUCE, and of the Japanese drink SAKÉ, requires the presence of MOULDS which produce sugar for the yeast to consume. Many surface-ripened cheeses are worked on by a mixed culture which includes yeast, although always in a subordinate role to moulds (as on BRIE) or bacteria (as on LIMBURGER). Yeasts, moulds, and bacteria all co-operate in the fermentation of COCOA beans, to develop the flavour of chocolate.
There are three types of commercial yeasts for baking to be had.
For use in baking the amount of yeast should not exceed the correct proportion, usually given as 1 oz of yeast for 3½ lb flour. A higher proportion of yeast leads not to greater speed but to failure. A lower proportion results in a longer proving time, but possibly in a better flavour. Dried yeast should not be used in bread recipes which call for a lot of yeast, for example for brioche dough, as they have a strongly ‘yeasty’ flavour which can spoil the finished product.
Yeasts as food. In addition to fermenting and flavouring other foods, yeasts themselves may be used as food. They contain much protein and all but one of the B vitamins (B12), and some of them will grow on the most unpromising material such as the waste products of wood pulp mills or even oil refineries. They are consequently used to provide dietary supplements for countries whose diets are deficient in protein. This is a new development, but the consumption of yeast in the form of brewer’s yeast pills and yeast EXTRACT dates back to the 19th century and these products still have a reputation as health foods. The best known in Europe, Marmite, was first marketed in 1902 in the English brewing town of Burton on Trent.
Yeast extract is not, strictly speaking, an extract, since none of the various processes used to produce it is ‘extraction’. The yeast is allowed to ‘digest’ itself with its own enzymes, breaking down its own proteins by HYDROLYSIS. It is then concentrated, and sometimes flavoured. If brewer’s yeast is the starting point, it is treated to remove its unduly bitter taste. The product does not supply complete protein, as meat extract does, but is nutritious. In its common form it is dark brown and viscous, with a strong, salty tang.
Wild yeasts are everywhere, and may intrude where they are not wanted. If a dish of sugary food, or a fruit juice, starts to taste alcoholic, they are to blame; primitive wines were (and sometimes still are) fermented by the yeasts naturally present on the surface of grapes. Wild yeasts can also induce bloating and softening in home-made pickles. But they cause less trouble than the moulds to which they are related; and the same kinds of hygienic precautions are effective against both.
Ralph Hancock
(also yeeb, ye-eb, ye’eb), the seed of Cordeauxia edulis, a small leguminous bush of hot and dry regions, notably Somalia. The National Academy of Sciences (1979), noting that this is now regarded as an endangered species, explains its usefulness:
The ye-eb is such a hardy shrub that during drought it is sometimes the only food left for nomads. Its food value has at times enabled destitute Somalis to rely on it alone for subsistence …
The seeds alone make an unusually nourishing and balanced diet. Although their protein and carbohydrate contents are less than those of most other pulses, the seeds contain both fat and sugar.
These nuts have not entered commercial trade and seem unlikely to do so, so few people outside their native region have tasted them. Some authors have suggested that their flavour and texture are comparable with those of the CHESTNUT or CASHEW nut.
is an Irish TOFFEE confection made of butter, brown sugar, vinegar, and GOLDEN SYRUP. These ingredients are melted and boiled at a temperature of 285 °C (545 °F). At this stage a quantity of sodium bicarbonate is added to the liquid causing it to foam spontaneously. This additional ingredient gives the confection its characteristic brittle and honeycombed texture. Production of the confection probably dates to the early 19th century when sodium bicarbonate was first introduced into Ireland.
The delicacy is popular in N. Ireland and has a particular association with the Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, County Antrim. Ballycastle, which is a sheep and pony fair, is held on the last Tuesday in August. Traditionally young boys attended the fair sporting delicately fashioned plaits of corn straw called ‘Harvest Knots’ in their buttonholes, designed to win the attention of the young girls. If successful they might then express their affections further, by treating their new found love to some Yellowman. A popular traditional ballad recounts:
At the Ould Lammas Fair, boys, were you ever there?
At the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, oh?
Did you treat your Mary Anne to dulce and yellowman?
At the Ould Lammas Fair in Ballycastle, oh?
Yellowman is known colloquially as yellaman in N. Ireland. For ‘dulce’, see DULSE.
Regina Sexton
The northern part of Yemen includes the highest part of the Arabian plateau with areas of the highest rainfall which comes with the summer monsoon. The terraced slopes grow principally SORGHUM, also qat and COFFEE. Wheat and maize are grown under irrigation in the high valleys. The oases of Shabwa, Ma’rib, and Nejran were once prosperous towns on the Spice Road leading to the Mediterranean.
The southern part of Yemen, formerly the British Colony of Aden, lies to the west of Oman in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the rim of the Indian Ocean.
The culinary symbol, so to speak, of Yemen is HILBEH (or hulba), essentially a fenugreek paste, often beaten to a foam. This serves as a topping for maraq, the soupy stew. (The importance of the fenugreek paste is such that the whole dish may be called hulba.) Fenugreek also figures in the S. Yemeni recipe for the spicy sauce sʾhûg or zʾhûg (in N. Yemen, this word, more often in the plural, sahâwig, means a condiment of tomato, onion, and chilli). The peasants live on ʿasîd, a sorghum porridge which they dress with spiced butter or yoghurt.
The staple grains are MILLETS; 80 per cent of Yemen’s grain production is either sorghum or broomcorn millet. Breads, besides the usual Arab pocket bread khubz (see PITTA), include the tandoor bread maluj and lahuh, a sourdough crêpe cooked on one side only—essentially the same as the Ethiopian INJERA, but made from white sorghum, a grain unique to Yemen. On festive occasions, particularly in the region of Sanaa, the meal begins with bint al-sahn (daughter of the dish) a sort of flaky crêpe pastry. The egg-rich dough is formed into very thin leaves which are smothered with samneh (clarified butter, see GHEE) and placed on top of each other in layers forming a sort of cake, and then baked. The bread is served hot from the oven with more samneh and sometimes honey.
Because of the summer rains, Yemen supports an unusually large population for the Arabian peninsula. This, and the country’s isolation from other Arab population centres (culinary influences are more likely to come from India and Indonesia, because of Yemen’s maritime tradition), have made for many distinctive features in the Yemeni kitchen. It is the only country which still regularly uses cookware carved from soapstone. Surprisingly, the frail-looking stone pans (miglâ), which rather resemble ashtrays, can survive years of hard use. Yemenis claim food tastes better cooked in stone than in metal.
MOCHA, named after Yemen’s Red Sea port, al-Makhâ, is one of the world’s finest varieties of COFFEE, which found its beginnings in the Yemen. Since shortly after the First World War, however, for various reasons production in the region of origin has been restricted. Curiously, coffee-drinking is little appreciated and in any case very few Yemenis can afford it. Instead they make qishr, a tea of ground coffee husks which has an aroma like unroasted coffee beans, possibly adding ground ginger (and sometimes cinnamon, cardamom, sugar). When real coffee is drunk it is heavily scented with cardamom and rosewater. Tea, which is sweetened with sugar (in the pot), is increasingly drunk, flavoured with the same spices as qishr.
The usual Arab hospitality prevails in the Yemen. Eating customs are that the men eat first and the women and children have their meal afterwards or in another room. Food is eaten off a cloth spread on the carpet and all the food is eaten communally from pots, platters, and bowls. Food is eaten with the right hand as in other Muslim countries.
Qat leaves, which come from the plant Catha edulis, and which are a mild stimulant, are often chewed after lunch or during the afternoon, especially in N. Yemen. They are not swallowed; instead, they are collected inside one cheek while being chewed.
Just as in western countries people may favour their ‘local produce’ or ‘produits de la région’, so do Yemenis esteem what they call baladi (i.e. indigenous) food. For certain purposes, e.g. nourishing a woman after childbirth, baladi food is obligatory.
Jews from the Yemen who have emigrated to Israel have had a considerable impact on the cuisine of ISRAEL.
a concept of Chinese philosophy which can be described as the interaction of the two basic opposing forces of the universe, namely yin (female, dark, cold) and yang (male, light, hot). The sun is the symbol of yang, while the moon represents yin. This duality is all pervasive but has acquired (possibly as a result of influences from, or transmitted through, India) a specific application to food. The necessity to maintain a balance in the body and in the diet between yin and yang is a fundamental principle, often unspoken, which underlies the planning of diets and meals for the Chinese.
Yin foods include those which have a cooling effect, watery items such as fruits, and foods of mild flavour. Yang foods, representing strength and heat, include animal foods and hot spices. It is appropriate to think of all foods as constituting a spectrum from one extreme to the other, many of them inclining only slightly in one or other direction.
There are obvious parallels between this Chinese system and the SARDI/GARMI principle of Iran and Afghanistan, and the doctrine of the FOUR HUMOURS which was most fully expressed by the classical Greek writer GALEN. Indeed, philosophical ideas embodying duality and calling for a balance between opposing tendencies seem to be almost universal.
The relationship between yin-yang on the one hand and the Chinese system of the five elements on the other is not clear. No one seems to know which came first. However, as both are elements of the first importance in Chinese thinking about the cosmos, it does seem clear that neither should be considered without, at the least, some knowledge of the other. The five elements are earth, wood, fire, metal, and water.
Cananga odorata, an Asian plant whose fragrant flowers yield by distillation an essential oil which is used for flavouring various confectionery goods and the like, and also coconut oil.
a remarkable example of a food from Asia which has succeeded during the 20th century in invading the diet of the western world to such an extent that it has become a staple.
Yoghurt is one of the fermented milk foods whose origins are probably multiple. It is easy enough to imagine how, in parts of C. or W. Asia, unintended fermentation of milk could have produced something like yoghurt, and that people would have noticed that this would keep for much longer than fresh milk, besides tasting good. There is another advantage which applies particularly to many Asians. Yoghurt is much more digestible than milk for those who suffer from LACTOSE INTOLERANCE—a common condition in Asia but rare among Europeans. The reason for this is that the fermentation which produces yoghurt converts most of the lactose in milk to LACTIC ACID.
The main role in the fermentation is always played by lactic acid-producing BACTERIA, and it is this acid which gives all yoghurts their characteristic sour taste. In many types of yoghurt the bacteria are joined by YEASTS, making the product mildly alcoholic and sometimes slightly fizzy; see KEFIR.
Yoghurt is the Turkish name for the product, long since adapted into the English language, no doubt because yoghurt reached W. Europe through Turkey and the Balkans. The original yoghurts of Turkey and the Balkans are typically fermented by two species of bacteria, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus. These are commonly employed in commercially made yoghurts in western countries, but do not produce results which taste like a farmhouse yoghurt in, say, BULGARIA. One reason, that they are not based on whole fresh milk, could in principle be surmounted. However, the other reason is that the special characteristics of the Bulgarian farmhouse yoghurt depend on certain micro-organisms which are naturally present in Bulgarian farmyards but cannot be replicated for use elsewhere.
Yoghurt can be made from many different milks; cow, goat, sheep, mare, water-buffalo, camel, and dri (female YAK). These all have different characteristics, and not only in features such as texture and flavour. Yoghurt from goat’s milk is relatively stable when used in cooking, and sheep’s milk yoghurt is also better from this point of view than cow’s milk yoghurt, but any yoghurt can be helped by the addition of a little cornflour to remain stable in cooked dishes.
In the western world, yoghurt comes in various forms (e.g. strained, flavoured, ‘live’) but it is almost always just yoghurt, whereas in the regions where it has been important for centuries, or millennia, it is also available in the form of yoghurt products. These include yoghurt drinks (see AYRAN and LASSI); yoghurt cheeses, which at their simplest are made by putting yoghurt in a muslin bag and letting the whey drip out; and various other specialities which enable yoghurt to be kept for much longer, even indefinitely. These last products include KASHK and QUROOT, and also lebne (or labne, laban), about which Furugh Hourani (1984) wrote in most evocative fashion, explaining that in Lebanon yoghurt would be transformed into lebne by straining and adding salt, and that the lebne merchant would arrive with his donkey carrying on both its sides heavy white cloth bags of lebne. What he brought was no optional luxury, it was a necessary and major item for the larder. ‘Three or four hundred kilos a year was not an exceptional intake for one family.’ Once the man and his donkey had gone,
the women and girls of the family would gather around the table which had been scrubbed like their hands and arms to remove any dirt or dust which would cause the lebne to turn bitter and disintegrate; each one would cut off a small portion from the large and solid mountain of lebne and roll it in the palm of the hands into small balls the size of a quail’s egg, though some families preferred a larger ball the size of a ping pong ball. The balls would then be placed in rows on large trays, covered with a clean cloth, and placed in a cool spot to dry for about two more days. Finally they would be put into large jars and covered with olive oil. Preserved like this, lebne lasts until the following spring or even longer if kept in the refrigerator. In the mountains of Lebanon lebne balls in olive oil are the basic diet of many families: they take their place on the table morning, noon and evening along with the equally essential olive. Spread on the paper-thin loaves of mountain bread they are carried by children going to school to be eaten on the way or during the lunch break.
The importance of yoghurt in the Indian subcontinent is comparable, and it is freely used in cookery both there and in C. Asia. Raita, the dish of cucumber in yoghurt with mint, wherever it may have originated, is now met not only in India, the Near East (it is mast-o khiyar in Iran, made with very small and almost seedless cucumbers), and the Balkans (tsatsiki in Greece). Various savoury dishes such as BURAN are widespread, but it is noticeable that in many cultures there is a sort of rule that fish must not be combined with yoghurt (a topic explored by Davidson, 1988a).
Yoghurt is generally regarded as an important health-promoting food, and has been thought to contribute to longevity, notably in the Smolyan district of BULGARIA. Maria Kaneva-Johnson (1995) provides a useful survey of the factors promoting longevity in the Balkans, concluding that the frugal diet traditionally followed up in the mountains has been important in this respect, while making clear that yoghurt is but one feature of this diet.
an ancient and once well-known English variety. Similar cheeses are made in Cambridge and Bath, both taking the names of the places where they were made. The cheeses are now almost extinct although the Cambridge variety survived into the 20th century. Generically, these are SLIPCOTE CHEESES.
The cheeses were all renetted soft cheeses with a creamy texture, with a short shelf life. They were rectangular in shape and, in their most comely form, dramatically striped. A slice of curd, coloured orange by ANNATTO, is sandwiched between two uncoloured slices to produce this effect. York was often in the past flavoured with herbs. Bath cheese has been revived in a slightly modified form, with a white mould exterior.
a huge raised PIE in the medieval tradition, which outlasted other kinds and became so popular in Yorkshire in the 18th century that pies were sent to London as festive Christmas fare. It was still being made in the closing years of the 19th century. It was one of those feats of ‘Russian doll’ stuffing which are better known as being made for Arab wedding feasts. A typical recipe is in Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery (1747). A very thick crust enclosed a turkey, which was stuffed with a goose, the goose with a fowl, then a partridge, then a pigeon. All these birds were boned. On one side of the turkey was a hare cut in pieces; on the other woodcocks, moorhens, or other small wild game. At least 2 kg (4 lb) of butter were also put in before the massive lid was closed and the pie baked. Not all pies were made with boned birds, so that some pies had to be dismantled and the various creatures removed to carve them, detracting from the pie’s appeal.
is made from an egg, flour, and milk BATTER cooked in a large shallow tin containing a layer of very hot beef DRIPPING. It is a popular accompaniment to roast beef in Britain, and the two together compose the ‘traditional’ Sunday lunch. Sometimes the batter is poured into smaller, round tins to make individual puddings but this is not the authentic Yorkshire method. Strictly speaking, the pudding, cut in squares, should be served with GRAVY before the meat, to take the edge off the appetite.
Batter puddings have a long history and exist in many forms, mostly sweet. According to C. Anne Wilson (1973) it would have been cooks in the north of England who devised the form for which Yorkshire became famous. She draws attention to a recipe for ‘A Dripping Pudding’ which was published in The Whole Duty of a Woman (1737):
Make a good batter as for pancakes; put it in a hot toss-pan over the fire with a bit of butter to fry the bottom a little, then put the pan and butter under a shoulder of mutton, instead of a dripping pan, keeping frequently shaking it by the handle and it will be light and savoury, and fit to take up when your mutton is enough; then turn it in a dish and serve it.
At this time, meat was roasted on a spit, or by suspending it from a jack in front of the fire, so the instruction to place the pudding under the meat meant that it was some inches below, not poured around the joint in the same baking tin. Hannah Glasse (1747) gave a similar recipe, calling it ‘A Yorkshire pudding’. She makes it clear that it should be brown and dry, and remarks that: ‘It is an exceeding good pudding, the gravy of the meat eats well with it.’
Jennifer Stead (1991b) discusses the origin and development of the dish. Commenting on the localized attribution of ‘Yorkshire’ attached to it, she notes that batter puddings were also known in the south of England; Yorkshire batter puddings appear to have been distinguished by their lightness and crispness. This is obtained by introducing the batter into a pan containing fat which is smoking hot, thus starting to form a crust underneath straight away; as the pudding continues to cook, the air incorporated into the batter during mixing expands, making it rise, and the fierce heat dries out the top of the pudding leaving it crunchy. Stead relates the technique to the people:
This accords with their fabled brusque temperaments: the fact that they require spanking hot fat, explosions as the batter hits it, fierce heat, and crisp results, may explain why it has often been said that only Yorkshire folk—those possessing the Yorkshire temperament—can make a true Yorkshire pudding.
Such details had not escaped Hannah Glasse, who herself came from the north of England and who said that the dripping must boil before the batter is added.
Yorkshire people frequently castigate southerners for not being able to make proper Yorkshire puddings. Stead suggests that one reason for this is that cooks in the south are accustomed to making perfectly legitimate batter puddings of softer texture, which were never intended to be crisp and well risen. She thinks, however, that the main reason may be that throughout the 19th century cookery writers (mostly from the south) misunderstood and distorted the recipes for true Yorkshire pudding. As she says: ‘it is clear that some writers had never clapped eyes on, let alone cooked, a Yorkshire pudding.’
New kitchen technology in the shape of the enclosed coal range, and later the gas or electric oven, changed the Yorkshire pudding in one essential. It was no longer possible to cook it under the roasting meat, and therefore it no longer received the juice dripping from the joint.
Yorkshire pudding was never eaten exclusively with beef. The early recipe for batter pudding mentions mutton; indeed, it could be served before any roast meat, in which case an appropriate sauce (mint, for lamb, or apple, for pork) might be served with it. Sugar, vinegar, jam, mustard, or golden syrup were other options, although the pudding was always eaten before the meat in Yorkshire, whatever was eaten with it.
For a Yorkshire pudding mixture with sausages embedded in it, see TOAD IN THE HOLE; this is but one of scores of variations on an outstandingly popular theme.
Tropaeolum tuberosum, a minor root crop cultivated since early times in the high Andes in S. America. Its history is unknown, but it has certainly been grown since early times. It is a climber and belongs to the same genus as the nasturtium, all species of which are native to S. America.
The S. American name mashua is being used to an increasing extent as the English name.
The plant produces numerous small, knobbly, conical tubers weighing up to 100 g (3.5 oz) each. The wide variations in colour (black, red, yellow, white, spotted, streaked, etc.) are signalled by many different names in the countries of origin. Cultivated varieties, now numerous, also vary widely in colour, and in flavour too. Some are strongly bitter and acid, and edible only after treatment resembling that by which CHUÑO is prepared from potato in parts of S. America. The tubers are boiled, then allowed to freeze overnight, and pounded to powder. Other kinds are mild and when boiled in the ordinary way have a flavour similar to that of JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES, but a more mucilaginous texture.
The tubers are considered a delicacy in Bolivia and Peru and have intermittently engaged the attention of European horticulturists. Vilmorin-Andrieux (1885) observed that one had to use S. American methods of preparation if there was to be any hope of enjoying the vegetable. A century later, dealing no doubt with more recent varieties, a correspondent in the Garden (June 1989) recorded growing ysaño successfully in SW Scotland:
a highly perfumed vegetable with a distinct, robust flavour, good with butter, salt and pepper, or white sauce. It is a bit like Jerusalem artichoke, but with more character. Its strong flavour also adds character to a stew. However, it is not a vegetable you would want to eat every day.
the Japanese name for a delicacy consisting of the thin skin which forms on the surface of SOY MILK when it is heated in preparation for making TOFU. These ‘skins’ are lifted off as they form, in a procedure which has been described in detail by Yan-Kit So (1992) after witnessing it being done on an artisanal scale at Hong Kong. When the skins have dried, they may be used, after being softened by tepid water or stock, as they are, or as wrappers or in clear soups. Their popularity is greatest in China and Taiwan, but the product is well known in Japan, where it is a speciality of Kyoto. Hosking (1996) observes that it is ‘highly nutritious, being the richest source of protein known (over 52 per cent). It is also high in natural sugars (12 per cent) and polyunsaturated fats (24 per cent) and therefore very high in energy.’
When the ‘skins’ are dried in a rolled up form, they may be called ‘bamboo yuba’ because of a resemblance to bamboo shoots.
The Chinese display remarkable skill in making yuba resemble meat and meat products. Shurtleff and Aoyagi (1983) explain that:
Most of these imitation meat dishes are prepared by pressing fresh yuba into a hinged (wooden or aluminium) mold, then placing the well-packed mold in a steamer until the yuba’s shape is fixed. In some cases the finished products are deep-fried or simmered in a sweetened or seasoned soy broth (in the same way the Chinese ‘whole cook’ many fish and other animals). Served at su-tsai restaurants which specialize in Buddhist vegetarian cookery, each has its own well-known name: Buddha’s Chicken (suchi), Buddha’s Fish (suyu or sushi), Buddha’s Duck (suya), Vegetarian Tripe (taoto) or Liver (sukan), Molded Pig’s Head (tutao), and Molded Ham (suhuo). The Sausage Links (enchan) are made of a mixture of fresh yuba, agar, and Chinese red fermented rice (angtsao) packed into real sausage skins.
succulent plants of the genus Yucca in the family Agavaceae, which yield various foods and beverages. The common yucca, Y. filamentosa, is also known as Eve’s thread or Adam’s needle, since both threads and needles can be made from the leaves. The spiked leaves have also given rise to the name Spanish bayonet.
Yucca flower clusters were an important vegetable in C. America and the south-west of the USA, and are still eaten (rather like cauliflower, says one author). Those of, for example, Y. glauca (soapweed yucca) and Y. elephantipes (Spanish dagger, izote) can be used raw in salads, or boiled or battered and fried. Those of Y. brevifolia, the Joshua tree yucca, are best if parboiled first, to remove bitterness.
The fleshy fruits of Y. baccata and certain other species are sweet enough to be used as a filling for pies or made into sweetmeats; and it is said that mature buds of Y. brevifolia can be roasted and eaten as candy.
Young shoots of yucca, like large asparagus stalks, can be peeled, sliced, soaked, and fried. The roots of some species such as the Joshua tree are edible.
Another feature of the roots is that they contain enough saponin to serve as a soap (amole); hence the name soapwort (cf. BOIS DE PANAMA). Saunders (1976) explains that the long-haired American Indians regarded an amole shampoo as a necessary preliminary to certain rites. He also gives a good description of Indian use of yuccas as food:
One of the most widely distributed is Yucca baccata, called by the Mexican population palmilla ancha or dátil—the former name meaning ‘broad-leaved little date palm’ and the latter ‘the date fruit’. The fruit is succulent, plump, and in shape like a short banana, and is borned in large upright clusters, seedy but nutritious. Indians have always regarded the dátil as a luxury. As I write there comes vividly to mind a chilly, mid-August morning in the Arizona plateau country, where two Navajo shepherdesses left their straggling flock to share in the warmth of our camp fire and to pass the time of day. As they squatted by the flame, I noticed that one slipped some objects from her blanket into the hot ashes, but with such deft secretiveness that my eyes failed to detect what they were. Later as the woman rose to go, she raked away the ashes with a stick and drew out several blackened yucca pods, which had been roasting while we talked. I can testify to the entire palatibility of the cooked fruit (the rind being first removed), finding it pleasantly suggestive of sweet potato. Those fruits that morning were still green when plucked. Dr. H. H. Rusby informs me that the sliced pulp of the nearly ripe pods makes a pie almost indistinguishable from apple pie.
created in 1918 as a political union of the S. Slavs, broke up in 1992 and the Yugoslavia which remains is made up of only two federal republics, Serbia and Montenegro, and two provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina, each with its own historic background and culinary heritage.
Serbian cuisine is an evolved form of Slavonic traditions moulded by the changes and influences it has experienced during the centuries of domination by Rome, Byzantium (see BYZANTINE COOKERY), and TURKEY. It is characterized by such ingredients as kajmak (clotted cream—see KAYMAK); sir, a generic name for various semi-hard porcelain-white cheeses made from sheep’s milk and kept in brine (see SYR); Kačkavalj (see KASHKAVAL), and two types of YOGHURT: the liquid jogurt prepared from cow’s milk, and kiselo mleko, the very best, luxury, sheep’s milk yoghurt.
Slatko, a popular Serbian syrupy conserve, is made with every conceivable fruit or baby vegetable, fruit peel or flower petals. In more traditional households it is still offered to the afternoon visitor with a glass of water and a cup of Turkish coffee (see GLIKO).
Vojvodina lies to the north of Belgrade and shares a border with HUNGARY and ROMANIA. The province is the granary of Yugoslavia, as well as its main sugar supplier and stockbreeder for beef and pork, and has rich freshwater fishing grounds. It is settled by Serbs and other Slavs, plus large numbers of Hungarians, Romanians, Slovaks, and Ruthenians, each speaking and reading in their own tongue. So the cuisine is variegated, as food is prepared and eaten in more than five different cultural settings. C. European influences are quite pronounced, particularly in cakes and pastries which often echo famous Hungarian or Viennese confections.
South of Belgrade, the cooking of Kosovo is quite different. Most of the population is of Albanian origin. Many Albanian families in Kosovo still live in patriarchal communities of between 50 and 90 members, where food is cooked and bread baked collectively, and eaten in intimate commensality. Meals are served out of a huge cooking pot (tenxhere) or baking pan (tavë) on low, round tables (sofër). A feature of the Albanian and Turkishzcuisines in Kosovo is that they have retained their national character virtually intact.
Montenegro (Crna Gora, ‘Black Mountain’) occupies the south-western tip of Yugoslavia. Less than 5% of its territory is touched by the plough. Along the Adriatic, the mountains are skirted with vineyards, citrus orchards, and olive groves, some of the olive trees being over 3,000 years old. In contrast, in the highlands of the interior, cultivation is limited to isolated pockets of fertile soil whose small harvests consist mainly of maize and potatoes.
Sheep are of greater importance here than cattle and, as of old, the summer surplus of milk is converted into cheese, butter, yoghurt, and clotted cream. Local specialities include pršuta, smoked mutton.
Maria Kaneva-Johnson
a distinctive CITRUS fruit which was formerly recognized as a species, Citrus junos, but is now regarded as a hybrid, possibly between C. ichangensis and C. reticulata. It is one of the most cold resistant of the citrus fruits and grows wild in Tibet and the interior of China, where there is some cultivation of it. It is more commonly grown in Japan, where the acid fruit is a popular ingredient.
The fruit is the size of a mandarin orange, bright yellow when ripe, with a thick uneven skin and paler flesh containing many pips. It smells like a lime, and has a very sharp taste.
Although the yuzu is too acid to be eaten raw, it is used widely in Japanese cookery. For example, a small piece of the zest is often added at the last moment to a bowl of clear soup. A tiny heap of finely shredded zest will be placed on top of cooked vegetables or fish, or mixed with MISO to make a condiment. Or a yuzu cup, made by removing the flesh and keeping the skin intact, is filled with miso and baked.
The juice is also used, although never to make a drink. Its aroma is thought to enhance the delicate flavour of MATSUTAKE mushrooms. Grilled or baked matsutake is usually eaten with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce and yuzu juice.
Although the ways in which the yuzu are used in Japan often correspond to the use of the lemon elsewhere, its fragrance is quite different, unlike any citrus familiar in western countries (Tsuji, 1980).
The sight of ripe, golden yuzu suggests to the Japanese mind the approach of winter. However, earlier in the autumn, green, unripe fruit is also used. In summer a single blossom of yuzu—small, white, and fragrant—is sometimes floated in a bowl of clear soup.
There is a tradition in Japan to take a yuzu-yu, that is, a yuzu bath, on the evening of the winter solstice. This is a hot bath in which several whole fruit of yuzu, usually wrapped in cheesecloth, are floated. One sits in it, enjoying the rising scent and occasionally rubbing oneself with the softened fruit.
Katsue Aizawa