Humans began to raise cereal crops, plants belonging to the family of grasses, at the dawn of civilization. Indeed, theory has it that grain-growing was at least partly responsible for civilization itself; the labor of growing and tending a crop was too great for a lone individual, but the harvest could support expanding populations. Wild grain fields sprang up around 8000 B.C. in the Middle East, where people aggregated to exploit them. Over the millennia that followed, barley, wheat, and rice came under cultivation in Europe and Asia, maize in the Americas. Cereals are first in importance in the human diet, as an efficient source of carbohydrate energy. In terms of their protein profile, they generally lack only one amino acid, lysine, which can be found in legumes or in meat. So suited to sustaining life are cereals that they can compose from 25 percent to 90 percent of a balanced diet (with the remainder supplying vital trace minerals and vitamins, as well as the missing protein).
The term cereal itself deserves a closer look; its supermarket definition as a cold breakfast food (rather than its botanical definition as a grass-family plant) is very recent in origin. Eating “cereal” (typically processed oats, wheat, corn, or rice) for breakfast was an American fashion popularized in the late 19th century. Before that, breakfast—at least for those who could afford it—revolved primarily around eggs and meat. Food reformists such as Sylvester Graham, C. W. Post, and John Henry Kellogg believed that a grain-based diet was physically and even spiritually nourishing. Post’s Grape Nuts (1897) and Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (1898) were early entrants in what is today a $7 billion-a-year industry.
Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is among the most ancient of cereals, possibly preceding even rice. Barley grew wild throughout Mesopotamia; Neolithic peoples discovered that barley malt—dried, roasted grain—could be soaked and fermented to make beer. Though never a primary crop, it was important enough to be featured on coins in Greco-Roman times. Today, it is primarily used for animal feed and beer distillation.
Maize/corn (Zea mays) In most countries the crop is called maize; in the United States it is known simply as corn (Other English-speaking countries describe their primary grains—be they wheat, rye, or barley—as corn.) The descendant of a wild grass called teosinte, corn originated in Mexico as early as 5500 B.C. The protective husk that surrounds the kernels prevents it from self-sowing, and thus wherever corn is grown, it is grown by human stewardship. Corn is likely to have arrived in the Old World on Columbus’s return voyages, although there are other theories. It was being cultivated widely in Europe and Africa by the late 16th century; indeed, its success in Africa led to a population explosion that sustained the slave trade for years.
Economies that depend on maize as a primary staple crop run the risk of epidemics of pellagra, or niacin deficiency. But the historical Mayan preparation of maize soaked in lime renders niacin available; this process is called nixtamalization.
Today a number of species of corn are cultivated: dent corn for cattle, flint corn, popcorn, and the familiar sweet corn. Cornmeal and cornstarch and any number of other industrial products are derived from the plant.
Oats (Avena sativa) came into cultivation relatively recently—about 1000 B.C. in Europe. Like rye, oats thrive in cool climates. Though highly nutritious (with all the protein of, and more fat than, wheat), they are poor in gluten and make poor bread. When not used for animal fodder, oats are commonly ground into oatmeal, which can them be boiled for a porridge or baked into oatcakes; Scotland, Ireland, and Russia all have a long history of cooking with oats in this manner. In the United States, “rolled oats”—processed and flattened to cook more quickly—were developed by the Quaker Company during the late 19th-century cereal craze, and continue to be a popular breakfast option.
Rice (Oryza) Rice, which grows in innumerable varieties, has been cultivated in Asia since at least 2500 B.C. It is the “staff of life” of the Eastern hemisphere just as wheat and corn are in the West; after wheat, it is the second most cultivated grain in the world. The labor-intensive rice crop played a major role in the formation of early human settlements and civilization, since constructing its terraces and irrigation channels required extensive cooperation. Rice
underpins many subsistence economies, so crop failure can result in disaster. During the green revolution of the 1960’s, the International Rice Research Institute concentrated on producing a number of high-yield rice hybrids, called “miracle rices.” These had the effect of erasing famine for some years in developing economies; on the other hand the high-input practices associated with the hybrids often damaged the native ecological balance. Like wheat, rice has a number of derivative products that are important throughout the world, such as rice vinegar, rice wine, and rice noodles. Specialty rices important in international cuisine include basmati, jasmine, japonica, and arborio. North American wild rice (ZizAnia aquatica), an aquatic grain, is unrelated to Eastern rice.
Rye (Secale cereale) Much hardier than its relative, wheat, rye flourished throughout the Middle East and Europe in soils too poor or cold for wheat (it has been called “the wheat of Allah”—a divinely-sent crop for hard conditions). Rye spreads like a weed wherever wheat and barley are grown; mixed crops of wheat and rye (called maslin) were common in the Middle Ages. As a cold-climate crop, rye traditionally has predominated in Russia (in traditional black bread), Germany (in pumpernickel), and Scandinavia. In the United States, the rye bread (commonly flavored with caraway) of Eastern Europe came to be a staple of Jewish delicatessens.
Wheat (Triticum) Wheat, a descendant of wild grains, was domesticated as early as 7000 B.C. in the Middle East, and over time became the dominant cereal crop of Western cultures. As with rice, its cultivation played a vital role in persuading humans to forgo a nomadic hunting lifestyle for a settled, agricultural one. Wheat is highly nutritious and a good source of protein (it contains nearly all the essential amino acids), though somewhat laborious to harvest. The wealthy prized its relatively light-colored flour (“wheat” has the same roots as “white”), a prejudice that persists today in the bleaching and refinement of all-purpose flours. Just as fertility and harvest rites from ancient Mesopotamia to medieval Europe centered on the success of the wheat crop, bread too serves as a near-universal symbol of sustenance. In times of hardship only aristocrats could afford wheaten bread (others relied on “lesser” grains like rye and barley).
Triticum aestivum is the most commonly cultivated wheat; cultivars are divided into hard and soft wheats. Hard refers to high-protein wheat, good for forming gluten, the strands of protein that create the texture of well-made bread. (The high protein content of wheat makes it superior among grains for leavened bread.) Soft refers to wheat low in protein, more suitable for cakes and pastries. A particularly hard type of wheat, durum, is essential for milled pastas.
Wheat arrived in the New World with the Spanish explorers and quickly took to the fertile farmlands of North and South America. Today, the United States and Canada are among the world’s largest wheat producers. Wheat is the largest grain crop in the world; close to 2 billion metric tons are harvested annually.
The term fruit can be confusing. Botanically speaking, a “fruit” is the structure that develops from a plant’s ovary, providing nutrition and shelter for its seeds. By this definition, eggplants and tomatoes are fruits, just as apples and oranges are. But when speaking of fruit, we tend to mean sweet, succulent, often aromatic fruits suitable for dessert. Fruits have always held a special allure for humans, dating from prehistory when they may have been the only dietary source of sugar available. Nutritionally speaking, fresh fruits and vegetables are abundant in vitamins and minerals and absolutely essential for vitamin C. Two great families of fruit—the Rutaceae (including all citrus fruits) and Rosaceae (including apples, peaches, plums, etc.)—predominate heavily in a typical modern Western diet.
Apple (Malus) Surely the most storied of fruits, from their fabled role in the garden of Eden to the golden apples that started the Trojan war, apples originated in the forests of Alma-Ata (“father of apples”) in Kazakhstan. They were known to humans as early as 6000 B.C., were later prized by Egyptians, were cultivated in the Greco-Roman empire (which perfected grafting techniques), and are now grown in temperate zones throughout the world.
Apples must be cross-pollinated by different varieties to bear fruit; as a result the seeds of each apple are genetically different. Should these seeds be planted, no two trees would bear the same fruit. Early orchardists therefore learned to propagate their trees by grafting apple branches onto selected rootstocks, essentially the same practice used today. American apples, however, enjoyed a biodiversity boom, thanks to John Chapman (1774–1845), “Johnny Appleseed,” who scattered apple seeds across the Ohio Valley in the 19th century, allowing the wild forms to crossbreed and produce new varieties.
Apple varieties are divided into “dessert apples” and “cider apples.” Cider apples may be bitter or sour, but their complexity benefits the resulting alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage. (What Americans call hard cider is simply called “cider” by everyone else; what Americans call cider, others call juice.) Hundreds of varieties of dessert, or “eating,” apples exist, though aggressive marketing has elevated the Red Delicious, Granny Smith, and McIntosh to supremacy in the U.S.
Bananas and plantains (Musa) are members of the same species. The term bananas refers to the sweet dessert fruit, plantains to the starchy, only faintly sweet fruit used extensively in cooking. Bananas—and particularly plantains—are ancient tropical staples, referred to in origin myths across the Pacific. Once they were introduced to the islands of the Caribbean by Spanish explorers, they established themselves so quickly that subsequent generations of newcomers mistook them for native plants. Consumption of bananas in North America began in the mid-19th century, and bananas became extremely popular when the United Fruit Company began to import them from Jamaica in 1885, later spinning off the internationally recognized brand Chiquita.
Blueberries and cranberries are heath shrubs belonging to the vaccinium family, native to the Americas. They were gathered wild by Native Americans across the present-day United States. They were not brought into commercial cultivation until around 1910, when a New Jersey botanist developed a variety with plump and almost seedless fruits. Highbush blueberries (V. corymbosum) have a somewhat larger fruit; lowbush blueberries (V. angustifolium) have more in common with small wild blueberries. Blueberries have received considerable attention in recent years for their antioxidant properties; they are also an excellent source of vitamin C.
Different species of cranberries existed in the New World and the Old, among them the Swedish lingonberry. Native North Americans gathered the American cranberry (V.macrocarpon), and used it and other berries in the jerky-like, long-storing food called pemmican. The pilgrims who crossed the North Atlantic in the 17th century found the American cranberry to be much larger than its European counterparts, and benefited from its high vitamin C content. The roast turkey of an American Thanksgiving is invariably served with cranberry sauce or relish, commemorating the discovery of this important native food. Cranberries, which favor highly acidic, boggy conditions, have been grown commercially in the United States, especially in Massachusetts, since the mid-19th century.
Cherry Cultivated cherries are of two types, the sour (Prunus cerasus) and the sweet (Prunus avium); both originated in western Asia. They made their way across the Mediterranean, arriving in Europe about the first century A.D. Combined, there are over 1000 varieties. Their uses are distinct: sweet cherries most often are eaten fresh or in desserts; sour cherries become preserves or liqueurs (though there are some uses for the sour cherry as dessert fruits as well). The most popular sweet cherry is the Bing cherry, named by an Oregon orchardist for his Chinese foreman.
Even more so than the plum blossom in China, the cherry blossom is a central symbol in Japan, where it is cultivated ornamentally rather than for fruit.
Dates (Phoenix dactylifera) The dates borne by desert date palms are among the earliest domesticated fruits. The wild palms came under human cultivation in the Indus Valley by 4000 B.C. Sugars account for up to 54 percent by weight of a fresh date’s nutritional content; consumed with milk for protein, the date constitutes an important staple food. Most dates are imported from the Middle East and North Africa. Though commonly enjoyed fresh where they are grown, most dates are matured and dried for shipping worldwide.
Figs (Ficus carica) The cultivation of figs may have begun in Egypt; figs appear in the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh (3000 B.C.), and by Greco-Roman times were certainly well established. Each fig is made up of about 1,500 minuscule fruits or “drupelets” that form the fleshy interior of the fig. Pollenization in a majority of varieties depends on a tiny insect, the fig wasp, which lives inside the fruit and travels between trees in the course of its own life cycle. Figs, which grow in warm (but not tropical) regions worldwide, are sold fresh, dried, and canned.
Grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) resulted from the refinement of the pomelo (Citrus grandis), brought to the Americas in the 1700’s by an English sea captain. Grapefruit became a popular breakfast item during the 19th century, eventually making its way to Europe in the 20th century. Ruby red grapefruit developed from a freak mutation in Texas around 1929; tangelos resulted from a
cross between grapefruit and orange. A compound present in grapefruits is medically unusual: it affects the uptake of certain drugs by inhibiting a human digestive enzyme, with the result that grapefruit juice is counterindicated in some prescriptions.
Grapes (Vitis) Wild grapes abounded in the Black Sea region long before human civilization. By 3000 B.C. they were being cultivated by Sumerians. Vitis vinifera was cultivated throughout antiquity for table grapes and especially for wine. In the 16th century wine grapes traveled to the New World, where they joined the native Concord grape, V. labrusca, which was mostly eaten fresh or preserved (grape jelly is still made from Concord grapes). American table grapes are dominated by the mild-flavored Thompson seedless variety. Dried grapes are called raisins or, in the case of the Zante variety, currants (confusingly, as fresh currants belong to a completely different family).
Lemon (Citrus limon) The lemon was first cultivated in India. Like the orange, it traveled on the heels of Arab exploration, reaching Europe around the ninth century (though some accounts argue it was known to the Roman empire as early as the first century A.D.). Lemons certainly traveled with Columbus and his successors, and were well established in the Americas by 1700. Lemons have an exalted place in the history of scurvy; the age of discovery was nearly over before seamen were finally persuaded that lemons, with their high vitamin C content, were the cure for a disease that plagued every sustained maritime voyage. The British navy required ships to carry lemon juice rations for its sailors around 1800 (the juice was often added to rum rations), and scurvy essentially vanished. The spread of lemons to California was prompted by the Gold Rush of 1849, as miners lured to new territories scarce in food combated scurvy problems of their own.
Although its juice is too acid to appeal as a beverage, the lemon has practically innumerable culinary uses, ranging from marinades and dressings to lemonade, baked desserts, and complementing fish. Meyer lemons (a cross between a lemon and a tangerine) are milder and sweeter, and popular with confectioners.
Lime Limes accompanied lemons and oranges in their spread from Indochina first to Europe and later to the New World. The original lime (Citrus aurantifolia) is the small, astringent fruit called key lime in the U.S.; key limes are little cultivated here except in the Florida Keys, for the dessert called key lime pie (made with ordinary limes elsewhere). The lime more commonly seen in the supermarket is the Persian lime (Citrus latifolia) a cross between the key lime and the citron, which was developed in Europe about 1920. Limes, which would ripen to yellow, are typically picked green to avoid confusion with lemons.
In the mid-19th century, limes replaced lemons in the conquest of scurvy (although they are less potent a source of vitamin C than lemons), gaining British seamen a new sobriquet: limeys.
Orange (Citrus sinensis) Oranges were first grown either in the Indus Valley or in China, and were of two varieties, the sweet and the sour. The sour orange (Citrus aurantium) traveled farthest first, accompanying Arab conquests; it was introduced in Sicily around the eighth or ninth century. The sweet (Citrus sinensis) did not follow until as late as the 15th century. But within a hundred years, citrus trees were being widely planted in the Spanish New World, and they have flourished in the Americas since. Today, Seville or bitter oranges are grown mainly in Spain for marmalade, which Britain imports in great quantities. The sweet orange, once an expensive rarity found in European Christmas stockings, became a common treat once refrigerated railcars made it more accessible to the public in the 19th century. Today, the orange enjoys global popularity and is the most important fruit worldwide for juice. The method of producing orange juice from frozen concentrate was perfected in the United States in 1945.
A number of United States relatives of the orange are popular as dessert fruits: blood oranges, navel oranges, tangerines, clementines, and mandarin oranges among them.
Papaya (Carica papaya) The papaya is native to the Pacific islands, where inhabitants introduced it to European explorers in the 1800’s. It now grows in tropical regions worldwide. Aside from the fruit’s sweet and faintly scented flesh (often eaten with lime for acidity), papaya plants contain a digestive enzyme, papain, which tenderizes meat and is used in industrial food processing.
Peach (Prunus persica) Peaches are an Asiatic fruit, cultivated in China from 2000 B.C. on. They arrived in Europe with the Greeks and Romans, and in America with the 16th-century Spanish explorers. Varieties are divided into freestone (softer flesh, pit removed easily) and clingstone types (pit closely adhering to firmer flesh, especially suited for canning). Nectarines are a smooth-skinned variant of the peach, and apricots (Prunus armenica) are a close relative
with a very similar history. Apricots, nectarines, and peaches require very particular growing conditions; most U.S. varieties are grown in California. Apricots are particularly versatile, and are widely sold as a dried fruit as well as in preserves and jellies.
Pear (Pyrus communis) originated near the Caucasus, like apples, and rapidly spread east and west. At first pears were prized above apples, both in China and in the Greco-Roman empire. Like the apple, pears left to propagate by seed produce wildly different offspring; this is just what happened in colonial America, where pear seeds were planted and developed into a multitude of varieties. Today, commonly marketed pears include the Bosc, Anjou, Seckel, and Bartlett. The round, crisp Asian pear, a close relative, is also becoming popular.
Pineapple (Ananas comosus) Despite its striking success as a Hawaiian commodity, the pineapple is not native to the Pacific islands. It originated in Brazil, where Columbian-age explorers were introduced to it and in turn brought it to Europe. Like the papaya, pineapple contains a tenderizing enzyme, bromelin.
Plum (Prunus domesticus) Plums are the hardiest and most widespread of the stone-fruit trees, and thrive on every continent except Antarctica. Though the most common plums here are the red to blue-violet Burbank plums, thousands of varieties—especially European, Asian, and native American in origin—exist. Sloes, damsons, and greengages are among them. In China, the plum blossom is one of four sacred flowers (lotus, chrysanthemum, and peony are the others).
Dried plums are called prunes, and are so laxative in effect that prune juice is often prescribed medicinally.
Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) and blackberries (Rubus ulmi-folius) are fruit-bearing brambles native to the cooler regions of Asia, North America, and Europe. They have been cultivated since at least the first century B.C. Raspberries were particularly dear to the Greeks (they were said to take their color from the blood of the nymph Ida, who pricked herself while feeding them to the infant Zeus). Red raspberry leaf tea has been used as a strengthening tonic by pregnant women for centuries. Raspberries occur in colors ranging from yellow to red, purple, and black; the last appear similar to blackberries but are structurally different. American hybrids developed from the raspberry include loganberries (1881) and boysenberries (1920’s).
Strawberry (Fragaria) Before human cultivation, strawberries grew wild in both Eurasia and the Americas. In early modern Europe, they were considered a symbol of the Virgin Mary. Most of the original Old World strawberries are small, and some are intensely sweet. The modern supermarket strawberry (F. ananassa) descended from two American varieties, F. virginiana and the Chilean pineapple strawberry (F. chiloensis), which occurred on opposite coasts of North America. They were brought together by chance in 18th-century France, and the popular resulting hybrid dominated the market thereafter (though gourmands still hunt out the tiny fraises de bois). Strawberry fruits are exceedingly susceptible to disease, which growers try to discourage by placing clean straw beneath the vines (hence the name).
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Tomatoes may have been grown in Mexico as early as 1500 B.C., and remained there until the time of Columbus. Upon their arrival in Europe, they were at first treated as a botanical curiosity, unlike any other vegetable or fruit. And as members of the deadly nightshade family (like potatoes), tomatoes had to overcome intense suspicion before they were considered generally edible. But once they were finally adopted into the cuisines of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and, to a lesser extent, France, they became a new staple crop; and they have not been abandoned, since they are a valuable source of vitamins A and C.
Vegetables have been crucial to the human diet longer than any other food—from before the cultivation of cereal crops, even before the refinement of hunting techniques. Vegetables tend to be the stems, leaves, or roots of plants. Different systems of classification apply; in the supermarket, we tend to speak of “root vegetables” and “leafy greens.” Growers classify vegetables by their families: the Brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower), the Solanaceae or nightshades (tomato, potato, eggplant), the Cucurbits (melons and squashes), the Alliums (onion, garlic, shallots). Many consider legumes (such as peas and beans) separate entirely, as they are distinct in their protein-rich nutritional value and broad application both dried and fresh; they are included here for ease of reference.
Avocado (Persea americana) Avocados are native to Latin America and the Caribbean. Though known to other cultures since the Spanish conquest, they first gained commercial
popularity in the 19th century; now they are cultivated in regions as far flung as Israel and Australia, as well as in the Americas. Unlike any other tree fruit, they ripen only off the branch (the tree itself chemically inhibits ripening). They contain more fat than any other vegetable or fruit and are the principal ingredient in guacamole.
Beans (Phaseolus) The term beans loosely refers to plants cultivated for their edible seeds or pods, most commonly members of the Phaseolus or Vigna families. The green or haricot bean and its varietals (Phaseolus vulgaris) are the most commonly eaten fresh beans.
The only cultivated bean in Europe prior to the age of discovery was the broad bean, the fava bean (Vicius faba), which was widely cultivated throughout the ancient Middle East and the Greco-Roman empire, despite the fact that a small minority of people are lethally allergic to favas.
Perhaps the predominant cultivated bean worldwide is the soybean (Glycine max). Widespread throughout Asia, the soybean has been a major staple crop since the third millennium B.C. Nutritionally, soybeans are even more impressive than wheat and rice; they contain 35 percent protein and a complete complement of amino acids. The diversity of derivative soy products—ranging from soy oil, soy sauce, and miso to bean curd, tempeh, and black beans—is probably rivaled only by that of corn.
Beets (Beta vulgaris) Beets evolved from a wild root found on Eurasian seashores. The beet was originally grown only for its greens, but beetroot began to find favor in the first century A.D. (although it wasn’t until the 17th century that the familiar red beet was developed). Today the leaves and especially the root are used throughout Europe and North America; beetroot is the principal ingredient in borscht, the beet soup of eastern Europe. Sugar beets, a subspecies of beet, are the second most important source of sugar (after sugarcane) in the world. Swiss chard is a member of the beet family whose leaves strongly resemble beet greens, though they tend to be used more like Brassica greens in cooking.
Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) Cabbage is the oldest of the cultivated brassicas; some accounts place its origins in the Mediterranean, but others report that it was cultivated in China during the Zhou dynasty (500 B.C.). Cabbage thrives in cooler climates; it has been a Russian staple, for example, for at least three centuries. Its cooking odor emanates from an unusually high quantity of sulfurous compounds (as well as the isothiocyanates, or mustard oils, present in varieties like mustard greens). Common varieties include the hardheaded white or green and the red cabbage, as well as the sweet, wrinkle-leaved savoy cabbage. Cabbage’s relatives are legion; they include broccoli, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts.
This extended family of brassicas are also known as cruciferous vegetables, after the small flower in the shape of a Greek cross that they bear.
Carrots (Daucus carota) originated in Afghanistan, but were common in both East and West. They traveled to the Americas with the Spanish conquest. They belong to a family of plants (Umbelliferae) better known for its herbs—dill, parsley, cilantro, caraway. The familiar yellow-orange variety developed in 17th-century Holland but did not become popular in the United States until after World War I, when servicemen became familiar with its uses in European cookery. A wild version (Daucus glochidiatus) grows in Australia and is used extensively in aboriginal cooking. Carrots are high in beta carotene, the vitamin A precursor.
Chili peppers (Capsicum) All the pepper species—sweet or hot—were cultivated in South America from earliest recorded history. The confusion between the hot or sweet pepper fruits (Capsicum species) and the peppercorns used for black pepper (Piper nigrum) dates from the spice-obsessed Columbus, who hoped his sponsors would consider the new “peppers” as valuable as the old. A global trade in peppers quickly ensued; Spaniards brought them to East Asia via the Philippines, while the Portuguese brought them to India and Southeast Asia. By the end of the 16th century, peppers were being cultivated wherever the climate was warm enough, from equatorial Africa to the South China Sea. Though they quickly became staples of some cuisines, like those of India and China (especially the Szechuan region), Europe was slower to adopt them. Ottoman Turks brought the red pepper to Hungary, where its dried and powdered form became the popular condiment paprika.
The heat of chili peppers derives from the alkaloid known as capsaicin, and is measured in Scoville units. A sweet red pepper registers 0; a jalapeño 2,500–5,000; and a Scotch bonnet or habañero 80,000–300,000 Scoville units.
Eggplant (Solanum melongena), known as aubergine in
England, is a native of tropical Asia, and gradually traveled the Silk Road to reach western Europe around the 15th century. Some eggplants actually look very like eggs—white and ovoid—though the most familiar supermarket variety, the globe eggplant, has glossy purple-black skin.
The seeds of mature eggplants are somewhat bitter; salting before cooking is thought to draw out the eggplant’s native alkaloids and reduce its bitterness. Eggplants, sometimes called “poor man’s caviar,” have little flavor of their own (or nutritive value), but their creamy flesh readily absorbs oil, which helps saturate the eggplant with the flavor of other ingredients.
Garlic See “Onions.”
Ginger (Zingiber officinalis) Gingerroot is a tropical rhizome that has been used for thousands of years and probably originates in Southeast Asia. It can be used fresh, dried, powdered, or candied, and has powerful preservative and antiscorbutic properties. Like black pepper, it was a valuable cash commodity in the medieval spice trade. Portuguese explorers brought ginger to the New World in the 15th century, and it became the first spice to be grown successfully in New World. Jamaican ginger is considered particularly fine in flavor. Though ginger is primarily used fresh in Eastern cuisines, in Europe and the Americas its dried form predominates as a baking ingredient (and as a legacy of medieval spice habits). Ginger beer, ginger ale, and candied ginger are also popular ginger products.
Lettuces (Lactuca) Lettuces were known in ancient Egypt and grew wild in the Mediterranean, but were probably first cultivated by the Greeks; the Romans were inveterate salad eaters. They were long considered cooling and medicinal; the milky fluid or latex at their cores had narcotic properties which were later largely bred out. Like so many other crops, lettuce came to the Americas with the Spaniards. Although lettuces are sometimes shredded and cooked in Asian cuisines, they are almost invariably served raw, as salads, in the West. There are hundreds of varieties: Loose leaf, oak leaf, red, and green lettuces; “butterhead” lettuces like Bibb and Boston; “crisphead” lettuce (Iceberg); and “cos” lettuce (Romaine).
Melons (Cucumis melo) probably originated in the wild in the Middle East or West Africa, and were not extensively cultivated until late in the first millennium A.D. The sweet melons familiar today were probably developed in medieval Europe. While cantaloupes or muskmelons, honeydews, and watermelons are popular in the United States (and watermelons are an important source of portable water for African desert farmers), a number of nonsweet melons and gourds are eaten in Asia; e.g., the Chinese bitter melon, winter melon, and fuzzy gourd. Cucumbers are also members of the genus Cucumis, and thrive in similar conditions of abundant light and heat.
Olives (Olea europaea) are among the most ancient of food crops; wild olive trees were frequented by humans as much as 10,000 years ago. Olive trees traditionally signify peace, and in Greco-Roman times were said to have been a gift of the goddess Athena. The trees, which can live for hundreds of years, thrive in all the temperate regions of the Mediterranean, as well as in California (where they are mainly cultivated for table olives rather than oil). Olives (which are berries rather than fruits) have an unusually high fat content and have been prized for their oil for millennia. Olive oil is sold in a variety of grades: virgin or extra-virgin oil comes from the first pressing of the olives (extra-virgin denotes a lower acid content). “Cold-pressing” means that the oil has been pressed at a temperature lower than 100 degrees F. More heat yields more oil, but of an inferior quality. The lowest grade of oil was once called “pure olive oil,” but now simply is referred to as “olive oil.”
Table olives. Raw olives contain bitter glucosides, which are removed by curing (for table olives) or pressing (for oil). Table olives can be brine-cured or lye-cured (the most common methods), dry-cured, or sun-cured; they may or may not be fermented afterward.
Onions (Allium genus, Allium cepa). The term onion can be used generally, to refer to the edible Allium genus (garlic, shallots, chives, etc.), or specifically, to refer to the common yellow or white globe onion, Allium cepa. Originating in Central Asia, onions were esteemed in ancient Egypt (they were a staple food for pyramid laborers in 3000 B.C.) and widely eaten in Greece and Rome, and later throughout Asia; for some sects in India, they were considered too sacred to eat. Columbus brought them to the Americas in 1493; today they are grown worldwide.
Most alliums release volatile disulfides to greater or lesser degrees, when cut. Cut onions release allicin, which causes eyes to tear, although chilling them or rinsing them reduces the effect (and the substance is neutralized entirely in cooking).
The pungency of garlic (Allium sativum) comes from another disulfide. Garlic itself is integral to any number of
world cuisines, and has important antifungal and antimicrobial properties; but no one can know whether its health-bestowing effects or its powerful odor gave rise to its reputation as a shield against evil spirits.
Other common cultivars are leeks (Allium porrum), shallots (Allium ascalonicum), and chives (Allium schoenophasum). All onions belong to the same family as the ornamental lily.
Peas (Pisum sativum) and lentils (Lens culinaris) are among the oldest of cultivated plants, dating back as far as 8000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Until the modern era, peas were mainly used in their dry form, as a long-storing, valuable source of protein and carbohydrate. (They are still primarily used this way in India, for example, where few meals are complete without a serving of dahl.) Dried peas were a staple food in medieval Europe (as in “pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold”). Eating fresh green, immature peas came into vogue only in the 18th century, and today even the pods of many popular peas are eaten, e.g., sugar snaps and snow peas.
Potato (Solanum tuberosum) Grown in Peru since 3000 B.C., the many species of potato remained in the New World till the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries. Once brought back to Europe, they were stigmatized as a possibly toxic food for the poor. But frequent famines soon made this easily grown staple crop more attractive; heavy promotion by argiculturalists such as Antoine Parmentier (who had witnessed potatoes eaten in Prussia with no ill effects) and the French aristocracy also helped. By the early 19th century Irish farmers had learned that a single acre of potatoes could feed a family of five; with milk, it made for a nutritionally complete meal. A population explosion ensued, which made the potato famines of 1846 and 1848 especially disastrous and prompted mass emigration.
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) originated in Nepal and spread eastward to China and westward to the Middle East before arriving in Europe in the 11th century. The early 20th-century cartoon character Popeye propagated the notion that spinach is a good source of iron. But spinach contains a high quantity of oxalic acid, which inactivates iron; in fact, spinach is not as rich an iron source as comparable greens like kale. Still, its tender texture, brilliant green color, and delicate flavor make it a popular ingredient for salads, sautées, and soufflés.
Squash (Cucurbita) Varieties are commonly divided into “summer” squash and “winter” squash. Summer squashes, like crooknecks and zucchini, have thin skins and light-colored flesh. Winter squash, like butternut, acorn, delicata, and all pumpkins, have thick rinds and generally deeper orange flesh. The cucurbits are native to the Americas, where they were grown for human consumption since at least 10,000 B.C. Native Americans learned to grow them in tandem with ecologically complementary beans and corn (the “three sisters”). They arrived in the Old World with the returning Spanish explorers.
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatis) and Yam (Dioscorea) Frequently confused, the sweet potato and yam are two entirely different species, though both are starchy tubers. The true yam is very ancient; it could have originated in the Jurassic period, before Asia and America split. It can be found throughout both continents. Starchy and bland, the yam is valued more for its hardiness and storage properties than its delectability; West African and Caribbean cuisines make use of it (as well as the sweet potato, confusingly). The South American sweet potato, on the other hand, was embraced by Spanish explorers for its superior flavor, and brought back to Europe for cultivation. They also brought it west to the Philippines, whence it spread to East Asia. Unlike the yam, the sweet potato does not store particularly well.
Most “yams” sold in U.S. supermarkets are actually sweet potatoes. Boiled, mashed, candied, spiced with nutmeg or cinnamon, or even baked in pies, they are among the more popular root vegetables.
Taro (Colocasia) Like the sweet potato, taro is a starchy root crop grown in all of the world’s tropical regions. Though relatively insignificant in the North American diet, it is a staple in island nations from the West Indies to Japan and Hawaii. Lighter in texture than a potato, the taro root is low in protein and slightly sweet; it is used to make the paste known as poi in the South Pacific, as well as being useful for food starch (like arrowroot and cornstarch), mashes, and chips.
Turnips (Brassica rapa) and Rutabagas or Swedes (Brassica napobrassica) were originally Central European root crops; the swedes are milder and larger than the turnips. Since turnips and their kin grow even in poor soil, they often served as a subsistence crop (during the potato famine, many Irish suffered bloating and malnutrition from subsisting on a turnip-only diet). The root and especially the greens are pickled in the Middle East and East Asia.
Generally speaking, herbs are the dried leaves of food plants used for flavoring. The two great families of culinary herbs are the loosely termed carrot family (Umbelliferae) and the mint family (Labiatae).
Carrot-family members, or umbellifers, are easily distinguished by their feathery leaves and umbrella-shaped crowns of seeds. The ones most commonly used are parsley (Petroselinum crispum), cilantro (Coriandrum sativum), dill (Anethum graveolens), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), lovage (Levisticum officinale), and chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium).
Mint-family members tend to have squarish stems and distinctive two-lipped flowers; many have strongly scented leaves. Among them are the many species of mint (Mentha spp.), especially peppermint and spearmint; oregano (Origanum vulgare), marjoram (Origanum marjorana ), rosemary (Rosmarinum officinale), basil (Ocimum basilicum), savory (Satureja hortensis), winter savory (Statureja montana), thyme (Thymus vulgaris), lavender (Lavandula vera), and sage (Salvia officinalis).
Two notable herbs not belonging to either family are tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus) and sorrel (Rumex scutatus).
Herbs have a long history of medicinal use, which could be said to have peaked in medieval Europe. They had any number of uses, ranging from mild sedative effects (e.g., (chamomile and hops) and sore-throat cures (hyssop) to drawing out fevers (feverfew) and strengthening nerves (rosemary). Today, though the scientific establishment tends to decry them, herbs are still used freely (and with varying effectiveness) as medicines—in Latin American botanicas, in Chinese pharmacies, and on the herbal supplement shelf of many ordinary supermarkets, where anyone can find echinacea or St. John’s Wort. Others are simply enjoyed as herbal teas, such as lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) and lemon verbena (Aloysia citriodora)
Spices are any part of a plant other than the leaves used for flavoring—seeds, berries, hulls, roots—usually dried for storage and sometimes ground to a powder. For centuries, pepper, cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg-mace were grown only on the so-called Spice Islands of Southeast Asia. Via the Silk Road, Arab traders brought them to Europe and the Middle East, where they became valuable commodities (black pepper was even used as currency). A collapse in Silk Road trading led to the great European sea voyages of the 15th–16th centuries, bound for routes to the Spice Isles. Da Gama found his way around Africa, securing a spice monopoly for the Portuguese. The Dutch East India Company assumed control, followed by the British East India Company, whose trade first in spices and later in tea would support an empire.
Black pepper, called the “king of spices,” has without question always been the fulcrum of the trade (red peppercorns and white peppercorns are merely the unfermented and hulled forms of the same berry), especially when it centered in the Spice Islands. A number of spices—cumin, caraway, juniper, bay, mustardseed—grew closer to home, from the European perspective. Allspice was discovered in the Americas, as was the tropical orchid vanilla.
Saffron, native to West Asia, is the most expensive of spices, as hours of labor are required to strip millions of saffron crocuses of their three tiny central stigmata that make up the coveted spice.
Humans cannot live without salt (sodium chloride), a vital nutrient. Fortunately, salt deposits are abundant (sodium is the sixth most common element on Earth). Prehistoric evidence shows that humans first followed animal trails to salt licks, before learning to mine rock salt and evaporate it from brine; even the earliest civilizations knew that salt could be used to preserve food and improve its flavor. In Greco-Roman times, salt’s value was so universally recognized that it was commonly used for money (hence salary, from Latin salarium, salt). Because its purity linked it with the divine, salt took its place in innumerable religious practices—whether it is used to “kosher” a chicken or to bind a newlywed couple together. Today, salt comes in many forms, from common table salt and sea salt to gourmet varieties like fleur de sel, black lava salt, and Maldon crystals.
The two most familiar edible classes of fungi are yeasts and mushrooms. Yeasts, microorganisms that inhabit the air everywhere, have been used—knowingly or not—to ferment beverages, leaven breads, and age cheeses since as early as 3500 B.C.
Mushroom reproduction is famously complex. The few species that can be commercially cultivated, are, and in copious numbers—especially button mushrooms and shiitakes. Others (such as the chanterelle, the hen of the
woods, the blewit, the puffball, and the black trumpet) are gathered in the wild by amateur mycophiles for whom the uncertainty of the hunt only adds to its allure. The risk of a lethally toxic misidentification is small—but real enough that most mushroom foragers place a high value on experience, information, and reasonable caution.
Mushrooms (and “toadstools,” their poisonous equivalents) grow everywhere, though especially in the Northern hemisphere. The first agriculturalists were slow to embrace mushrooms. Lacking chlorophyll, leaves, and roots, parasitic mushrooms feed off dead or living matter. Their mysteriously rapid appearance after rains and their occasionally fatal toxicity were additional deterrents, and they did not become a commonly accepted food until around 900 B.C. in China. Their nutritional value (high in potassium and protein) and exceptional range of flavors ultimately made them an irresistible food source, and today mushrooms form a prized part of cuisines the world over. A few species are especially notable.
Button mushrooms The white common button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) accounts for more than 80 percent of mushroom sales in the United States (where per capita mushroom consumption in 2009 totaled 3.7 pounds). A brown-skinned variation of A. bisporus, the cremini, and its mature version, the portobello, are increasing in popularity. Also widely popular is the closely related but more flavorful A. campestris, or field mushroom, also known as champignon de Paris.
Ceps, cèpes, or porcini mushroom (Boletus edulis) are among the most sought-after mushrooms of all, the boletes. Dried, fresh, or pickled, boletes are hunted furiously in Europe during their brief summer season.
Morels (Morchella) Succulent, veined, and hollow, morels range from yellow to gray to black and are generally the first mushrooms be found in the spring, especially around neglected orchards.
Truffles Prized since Greco-Roman times, truffles are generally the costliest of fungi, commanding prices that average out at about $100 per ounce—a little less for the white truffle (Tuber magnatum) than the black truffle (Tuber melanosporum). Buried deep beneath the roots of oaks and nut trees, truffles are famously difficult to find and virtually impossible to propagate; truffle hunters use specially trained dogs in place of the pigs who traditionally hunted truffles. The costly whole truffles are typically shaved onto a prepared dish. Truffle shavings and truffle oil (oil in which truffle has been steeped) are more economically accessible ways to enjoy it.
Shiitakes (Lentinus edodes) Shiitakes, or black mushrooms, are the fungus most widely used in Asia, as both medicine and food. Shiitakes are thought to confer a number of health benefits, from bolstering the immune system to lowering cholesterol. Sold fresh or dried, they have become one of the most widely available “wild” mushrooms in recent years, as cultivation has grown more reliable.
Whether eaten raw, cooked, cured, or smoked, pickled, or fermented, the 20,000 species of fish in the world’s oceans provide about 15 percent of the protein in the world’s diet. Ninety million metric tons of fish were captured in 2009, and about 55 million tons were farmed (China leads in both categories).
Fish have been eaten by humans for at least 100,000 years. Preservation techniques—drying, smoking, salting—have been used since at least the Mesolithic era.
For thousands of years the basic techniques—spear, line and hook, and net—remained the same, changing mainly in scope with the modern era. The most ancient, dedicated fish-eating cultures included Egypt, Japan, and China; in Polynesian and Pacific island culture fish was the principal protein. Around the second millennium B.C., Cretan civilization was based on the sea, but it later abandoned fish consumption; Greeks probably started fishing again around 500 B.C. and became leaders in the craft. Romans, who inherited the tradition, kept live fish in great enclosed vivaria; Roman cuisine depended heavily on garum and liquamen, fermented fish-based sauces.
Around the third century A.D., fish came to be viewed as a symbol of Christ for mainly acronymic reasons: the Greek word for fish, ichthys, corresponded to the first letters of the inscription “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior” in Greek.
Medieval religious tradition, with its complex system of feast and fast (or meatless) days, promoted more extensive fish consumption in Europe, especially during Lent. (To this day, the custom of fish on Fridays prevails in Christian nations too numerous to mention.) Herring—salted, pickled, or marinated—dominated the fish market.
Fish farming, or aquaculture, has been practiced since at least 1000 B.C., though it has never approached the
scale at which it is pursued now. While aquaculture relieves some of the burden of overfishing of wild species, concerns about pollution, the use of antibiotics, and the possible escape of genetically engineered species surround large-scale hatchery operations.
Fish species are often divided between freshwater and saltwater: common freshwater fish found in rivers and streams include bass, trout, and catfish; common American ocean fish are cod, bluefish, swordfish, and grouper. Some species are anadromous (spawning and breeding in freshwater, but growing to maturity in salt). The best known of these is the salmon; others are shad and sturgeon.
Overfishing is a common problem and has endangered a number of species. The most notable recent cases have been swordfish, “Chilean sea bass” (Patagonian toothfish), and sturgeon (the source of caviar). The top 10 species of fish consumed in the United States in 2002 were shrimp, canned tuna, salmon, pollock, tilapia, catfish, crab, cod, clams, and pangasius.
Cod (Gadus) Prolific, easy to catch, and wide-ranging, the cod has played a large role in human history. Dried cod supplied Viking voyages to North America. Basques fished for cod off the legendary Grand Banks of Newfoundland from 1000 to 1500. Later competition between English explorers, the German-based Hanseatic League, and the Basques ended in the Cod Wars of the 1530’s.
The English colonies developed a close relationship with the cod, especially in Massachusetts, where it was very abundant, and where colonists grew so rich from it that an honorary cod sculpture was hung by the statehouse. Dried or salted, cod can be stored practically indefinitely, has good flavor, and provides an invaluable source of protein for many poor economies. In the 19th century, cod preserved by refrigeration gave birth to a whole new industry: the fish-and-chips shop. By the mid-20th century Europeans were so voracious for cod that a second set of Cod Wars began; it had to be brokered by NATO to provide a solution to the overfishing. Taken in sum, cod is probably the most important fish food in modern history. Small cod are called scrod. Cod-liver oil is a rich source of vitamin D.
Pollock (Pollachius virens). Also called saithe or Boston bluefish, the cheap and abundant pollock is commonly used for frozen or fried fish (though rarely labeled as pollock in those applications). Its bland white flesh is a fair substitute for cod, though grayer and not as fine.
Salmon The Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) and Pacific salmon (Oxyrhyncus spp.) are separate species, though both are anadromous (ocean fish that travel to freshwater to spawn). The wild Atlantic salmon in particular has suffered serious population decline owing to habitat loss, and to the extent that farmed fish account for the majority of Atlantic salmon on the market. Aquaculture has made salmon an affordable luxury for thousands of households, but has been the target of especially intense criticism in recent years because of the use of pesticides, concentrations of waste, and pollution hazards of some salmon farms. A number of fisheries, notably in Alaska, have taken steps to adopt sustainable cultural practices. Fresh and smoked salmon command the largest part of the salmon market, with canned salmon placing a distant third.
Tuna (Thunnus) Although tuna is found almost everywhere, it is most popular in North America (in canned form) and Japan (as sashimi). Tuna is a warm-blooded fish that swims constantly to replenish its oxygen stores; it can reach speeds of up to 55 miles per hour, and eats one-tenth its own weight daily. The most important type of tuna is albacore or longfin tuna, which has a lighter-colored meat than other tuna and is the most prized for canning (though yellowfin tuna was successfully popularized when albacore stocks began to diminish in 1926). Bluefin tuna is most popular eaten fresh.
Dolphin-safe is a term commonly heard in the tuna industry. Dolphins run with yellowfin tuna (less so with albacore), and in the mid-1950’s tuna boats, alerted to the presence of tuna by the dolphins on the surface, began to catch tuna using encircling nets. Millions of dolphins were killed in the process; in the 1980’s consumers protested with a tuna boycott. A U.S. law enacted in 1990 helped to reduce the death rate of dolphins, permitting the term dolphin-safe to be used only by companies that eschewed the nets and embraced a set of “dolphin-safe” fishing standards.
Shellfish The term shellfish is generally understood to include any aquatic animal with a shell. Crustaceans, which have a hard outer skeleton, include lobster, crab, and shrimp. Hinged and two-shelled bivalves include oysters, scallops, clams, and mussels; they are one class of the soft-bodied mollusks (the cephalopods, squid, and octopus are shell-less mollusks.) Shellfish, a good source of protein and readily available on most seacoasts, have been eaten since prehistoric times. Shrimp ranks high among the top
sea foods eaten globally, whether fresh, dried, or as a paste.
Shellfish—especially bivalves—act as natural filters and can be frighteningly efficient disease vectors in contaminated waters, for organisms like the lethal Vibrio bacterium or sewage-borne coliform bacteria. Algae bloom—natural, but toxic to humans—occurs each year during the so-called red tides, at which time it is also unsafe to eat shellfish. (The dictum about eating oysters only in months including the letter “R,” however, has to do with the oyster’s breeding season rather than tide-borne plagues).
Shellfish cultivation has met with increasing success, particularly in the case of freshwater mussels. Oysters have been cultivated since Roman times.
Hunting for food, one of the first recognizable human skills, predated even the use of tools. By 75,000 B.C., Neanderthals had established successful hunting techniques. For millennia human omnivores foraged for plant foods, and fished and hunted for whatever animal prey was sufficiently slow, small, or easy to outwit. Wild cattle and pigs began to appear around 10,000 B.C., and the first goats were domesticated. Following the dawn of agriculture, the domestication of animals by humans took off rapidly.
Chicken The origins of Gallus domesticus are obscure, but chickens were probably domesticated for their meat and eggs in Southeast Asia by 4500 B.C. Easy to raise, mild-flavored, and invaluable for their eggs, chickens have historically been accepted in nearly every meat-eating culture. Most species of chickens were spring-hatching, making “spring chicken” a seasonal luxury. In the mid-19th century, breeds that laid eggs year-round were popularized in the West.
In the 1950’s medical advances introduced a drug to defeat coccidiosis, a disease afflicting large flocks of chickens. The battery system of cages was invented, and soon chicken became less expensive than beef. Today, typical commercial chickens reach maturity in 42 days.
Present-day concerns about poultry are those typical of the livestock industry: the use of hormones and antibiotics, confined living conditions, contaminated feed. Hence the abundance of alternatively raised birds and eggs on the market: “organic,” “cage-free,” “free-range,” “raised without antibiotics.” However, not all of these terms are legally defined.
The most common poultry disease is salmonella, which can flourish in imperfect processing environments but is killed at cooking temperatures exceeding 165 degrees F.
The latest news-making poultry threat is avian flu, a highly contagious disease which can be contained only by slaughtering whole flocks and which during 2004 ravaged the poultry industry in Asia.
Historically, ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) and geese (Anser anser) enjoyed some of the popularity of chickens as small family livestock, though they were never as reliable egg producers, and more difficult to feed. Sales of goose and turkey in particular tend to peak during the holiday season.
Turkey (Melleagris gallopavo) Wild turkeys originated in the Americas—they were certainly bred by the Aztec—and they were brought back to Spain in the 15th century with Columbus. They gained instant popularity in Europe, were widely bred, and came back to the Americas with the English colonists who settled Virginia (presumably unaware that turkeys were already there). Although turkey probably was eaten, as the legend has it, in Massachusetts at the first Thanksgiving in 1621, roast turkey didn’t become a Thanksgiving tradition until the mid-18th century.
Today’s commercial turkey is typically of the breed known as “broad-breasted white”—with white plumage rather than the colored feathers of folk tradition, and a breast so enormous that a mature turkey can scarcely walk; breeders rely on artifical insemination. However, some small producers are responding to consumer’s demand for wild or heritage-breed turkeys.
Beef and Veal Today’s cattle are descended from two strains, Bos taurus and Bos indicus, of the Middle East’s ancient wild auroch. Humans prized the auroch from at least 6500 B.C. for its meat, milk, hide, and draft power. Oxen, castrated cattle, were pulling primitive plows by 4000 B.C. Bos taurus and the plow disseminated westward across Europe, developing countless breeds. Bos indicus, the humped zebu, radiated across Asia.
The “sacred cow” is no mere idiom; bovines were associated with deities from the earliest times, when their horns were thought to reflect the curve of the crescent moon. The earliest religious prohibitions against eating beef probably arose around 600 B.C.
Each wave of New World colonization starting with Columbus brought European cattle. Semiferal Spanish cattle populated Mexico and traveled north. Docile northern European dairy cattle arrived in the cold Northeast and traveled west. By the early 19th century, huge herds of
mixed wild cattle—notably the Texas longhorn—were roaming the plains, and soon dominated the entire frontier economy. In the 1870’s, refrigeration turned the beef industry into a nationwide, year-round industry centered in Kansas City and Chicago.
Game generally refers to any fish, bird, or animal that is hunted rather than farmed or cultivated (in a sense, all animals eaten by humans were once “game”). Common game animals eaten today are likely to be deer (venison), rabbit, and pheasant. The wild boar, once popular prey, has largely been supplanted by readily available pork products. Some traditional “game” birds or meats—like duck, or less commonly ostrich or bison—now are bred on farms.
Goat (Capra hircus) The goat was almost certainly the first animal to be domesticated by humans, in the Middle East around 9000 B.C. Goats, like the sheep that soon followed them, could forage on poor land unsuitable for cattle. They came to the Americas with Columbus and became popular herding animals throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.
Today, goat meat remains particularly popular in regions where grazing land is scarce, as in parts of Africa and Asia. In North America and Europe, goats are tended mainly for their milk, which is used to make a number of notable yogurts and cheeses.
Lamb and Mutton (Ovis aries) Like goats, sheep thrive on nonarable land, and were domesticated early in the Middle East. They were useful for wool, for meat, and for sacrifice (as is evidenced widely throughout the Judeo-Christian tradition). Mutton and lamb are the principal source of protein in the Middle East and North Africa, much as beef is in North America. In Australia and the Americas, wool is more important than meat in the sheep industry. But sheep are valued worldwide for their milk, yogurt, and cheese (notably Roquefort).
Pork (Sus scrofa) Wild hogs may first have roamed the Middle East or Southeast Asia; in any case, pigs were being raised for food in China by 4300 B.C. In many ways, the pig is the ideal barnyard animal for meat: it breeds fast (producing litters of 10 after four months of gestation), it grows fast (reaching maturity at six months), it has a sweet and mild-tasting flesh, and it is famously unfussy about what it eats.
This last trait may have to do with some of the strong prejudices against the pig. In a number of societies, garbage-eating pigs were an early sanitation measure; some early civilizations even used them to dispose of human waste. Judaism and Islam both have strong, specific injunctions against the eating of pork that date from the seventh century B.C.
Cultures that embrace the pig as food, on the other hand, embrace it wholly, from snout to hoof. It would be hard to imagine European cuisine without its cured pork products, from Westphalian ham to prosciutto and sop-pressata. Dependency on the pig has historically been even greater in China, where the word for “meat” and “pork” is the same.
The major health hazard associated with eating swine is trichinosis, caused by the trichinella worm. This is generally avoided by cooking pork to an internal temperature of 140 degrees F, which kills the organism.
Sometime between the domestication of sheep and goats (10,000 B.C.) and the domestication of cattle (6500 B.C.), Sumerians discovered the art of dairying. The technique of cheese making was probably honed on goat and sheep milk, and transferred to cows once they had been reliably doemsticated.
Whether a culture was more likely to drink fluid milk or eat solid cheese could well have had something to do with climate. In the warm Mediterranean, perishable milk could not have been stored for long; cheese would have been one feasible means of storage. Greeks and Romans enjoyed a wide variety of cheeses, but considered milk the drink of “barbarians” to the north. By 1000 B.C., dairy products were known throughout Asia.
Climate may have encouraged a sharp division between milk-drinking and non-milk-drinking peoples, but the split was also biologically enforced. Most humans lose the ability to digest milk sugar (lactose) after toddler-hood. Northern Europeans, however, somehow avoided lactose intolerance; they could and did continue to drink milk into adulthood. Where the Europeans went, milk drinking followed; thus it is easy to forget, in a former colony like the United States, that milk-drinking is actually a minority practice around the world. Outside of Europe, yogurt and cheese tended to prevail in dairying regions; lactose breaks down in the fermentation process that produces these foods, making them more stable.
Today, the most popular bovine breed for dairying is the Holstein, followed distantly by Jerseys, Guernseys, Brown Swiss, and a few others. Other dairy animals used worldwide include goat, sheep, and yaks.
Butter Butter could be called a cream product, rather than a milk product. Churning cream drives out water, milk sugar, and some protein (these products are the “buttermilk”); the resulting solid mass, which is at least 80 percent fat, is butter. Some butters are inoculated with specific bacteria to enhance the butter’s flavor. These “cultured” butters are popular throughout continental Europe. Most butter sold in American supermarkets is uncultured, or “sweet cream” butter. Both types of butter may be sold salted or unsalted. “Clarified” butter, like the ghee used throughout India, is pure butterfat that has been melted and drawn off from whole butter; clarified butter has a higher smoking point and a much longer shelf life than ordinary butter.
Cheese Cheese is a prehistoric product, thought to have been discovered by humans transporting milk in pouches fashioned from animal stomachs. The enzyme in the stomach linings, rennet, would have curdled the milk, eventually turning it into cheese. Modern cheese manufacturing depends on the same principle: controlled curdling, assisted by the introduction of select bacteria for flavor, followed by forming and aging.
Various livestock other than cows provide milk for cheese, if not for fluid consumption. Goats produce the various types of chèvre (which is merely French for “goat”); sheep produce Pecorino and Roquefort; water buffalo produce mozzarella.
“Raw milk” cheeses are not heated after the curds have formed; soft raw milk cheeses include Camembert, and Brie. Hard raw milk cheeses include Emmental, Parmesan, and Gruyère. U.S.D.A. regulations do not allow the importation of raw-milk cheeses aged less than 60 days, owing to health concerns. Artisanal cheese farms have also sprung up in the United States to try and circumvent the import ban.
Milk Milk is a whole food, completely capable of sustaining infant life on its own; it is also a perfect haven for bacterial pathogens. Thus, finding a way to preserve fluid milk (other than transforming it into butter, cheese, or yogurt) has been a priority wherever it is drunk. The earliest methods involved drying milk to a powder and rehydrating it. The industrial revolution introduced refrigeration, which helped expand milk into a national industry. Today, most milk found at the supermarket has been subjected to the heat treatment known as pasteurization. A temperature of at least 144 degrees F kills most of the bacteria in milk and extends its shelf life. The “shelf stable” or UHT (ultra high temperature) milks sold in unrefrigerated cartons have been heated even further; they can be stored unopened at room temperature, though their flavor is somewhat affected.
Because it is expensive to produce, bulky to transport, and highly perishable, fluid milk has always been a challenging commodity to produce and regulate in the United States; its price is highly volatile. For this reason, political controversies over milk price-supports versus free trade have characterized the industry for decades. Market intervention has gradually fallen out of favor, and the last 20 years have seen an increasing concentration in the milk industry (as elsewhere in food) in favor of larger producers. Small dairy farmers have struggled to survive by forming cooperatives and producing value-added commodities like cheese, yogurt, and ice cream; others have simply shut down.
The other major controversy in the milk industry is the use of rBST or rBGH (recombinant bovine somatotropin or bovine growth hormone), a hormone that increases milk production up to 15 percent. Many in the industry embrace the increased yields; in fact, as many as 30 percent of U.S. dairy cattle receive the injections. But public advocates contend that rBST is dangerous and cruel for animals, which suffer reduced life expectancy, lameness, mastitis, and other health problems. They also argue that rBST, which profoundly affects the bovine endocrine system, makes milk unsafe for human consumption.
Yogurt After cheese, yogurt is probably the world’s most important fermented milk product. Lactobacillus bacteria convert milk sugars into lactic acid, which gives yogurt its tangy or sour taste. This makes it more digestible for the lactose-intolerant, and extends its shelf life. For long an exclusively Asian product, yogurt enjoyed a sudden rise to popularity in the West in the 20th century, as the health benefits of its live cultures began to be recognized. In 2009, U.S. yogurt consumption was about 11.5 pounds per capita, compared to six times that level in Western Europe.
Chocolate The tropical cacao plant (Theobroma cacao) is native to Central America (though it may have grown wild in the Amazon) and may have been cultivated there as early as 1000 B.C. Cacao beans served as currency; the chocolate drink made from cacao was bitter, and important in
ceremonial rites. The fall of the Aztec to Cortés introduced Spaniards, and later the rest of Europe, to chocolate, which was consumed copiously as a sweetened beverage. Not until the early 19th century were the complex processes that result in cocoa powder and bar chocolate perfected in Europe. Today, U.S. per capita chocolate consumption averages a bit over four pounds per year.
Coffee (Coffea arabica). Coffee is said to have been discovered in the ninth century A.D. by a goatherd from Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) who observed his goats dancing after eating the berries. Quickly recognized as a stimulant and an aid to thought and conversation, coffee was popularized and cultivated throughout the Middle East for centuries. In Arabic cultures, it became the social beverage of choice, since alcohol is prohibited to Muslims. In the 17th century, it arrived in Europe and soon enjoyed wide acceptance.
Coffeehouses have always seemed to be hotbeds for intellectual theorizing and political unrest. The 16th-century Turkish government banned the sale of coffee, and 18th-century European monarchs monopolized or taxed it beyond the reach of common people. Enlightenment thinkers would not do without it, and the French and American revolutions are reputed to have had their starts in coffeehouse brainstorming. The most recent surge in coffeeshop activity began in the 1990’s, when Starbucks led the nation into a specialty-coffee craze. Although the frenzied pace of expansion appeared to have deflated with the tech bubble economy, the stores and their specialized drinks remain popular.
Despite the rise in coffee drinking, the cost of coffee has been kept so low that independent growers have scarcely been able to survive in recent years. The “fair trade” movement has been especially active in trying to ensure that coffee growing remains an economically viable profession for small farmers. Other terms used in the industry are shade grown and organic, which indicate that growers have used ecologically sustainable methods in the production of coffee.
Tea Though it had been known for centuries, tea first became popular around A.D. 600 in China and Japan. Tea slowly made its way west with the Turks, but not until the mid-1700’s was it introduced into the new coffeehouses of Europe. It rapidly became an obsession in Britain and Russia. The British East India Company amassed a global fortune in the tea trade, and, during its heyday, tea became a symbol of British colonialism. (The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was an open revolt that helped set the stage for the American Revolution.) The company’s efforts to force China to trade tea for opium led to the ill-fated Opium Wars of the mid-1800’s—and the company’s dissolution.
We tend to think of nuts as shelled tree seeds, even though the peanut, for example, is a legume and the pine nut a naked seed. All nuts are a valuable source of energy: high in protein and fat, and some carbohydrate. The earliest Homo sapiens stored nuts, supplementing hunting and fishing, by 38,000 B.C. Today, nuts are generally viewed as a snack or “dessert” food rather than a primary source of nutrition; nevertheless, their popularity is such that in the United States alone, consumption reached 3.04 pounds per capita in 2002–03 (not including peanuts).
A number of nuts commonly eaten today arose in the New World; the best-known “nut,” perhaps, being the peanut of South America. Originating in Brazil, the peanut (Arachis hypogaea) has become the most popular nut in the United States, at least partly because of its popularity in the form of peanut butter. (Americans alone eat about eight pounds of peanuts a year). Other South American native nut trees are the cashew (Anacardium occidentale ) and the brazil nut (Bertholettia excelsa); walnuts (Juglans regia) and pecans (Carya pecan) are North American in origin.
Among the oldest Old World nut trees are almonds (Prunus dulcis) and pistachios (pistacia vera). With their starchy interiors suitable as a flour substitute, chestnuts (Castanea sativa) were once a staple food in the Mediterranean. Other important Mediterranean nuts are hazelnuts or filberts (Corylus) and pine nuts or pignoli, which help give pesto its distinctive taste and texture.
The best-known tropical nut is the macadamia (Macadamia integrifolia), which originated in Australia. Transplanted to Hawaii in the late 19th century, macadamias throve to the extent that they are now the state’s third most important crop. Candlenuts (Aleurites moluccana), similar in flavor to macadamias, are widely used in Southeast Asia.