Pear, rocket and walnut salad.
Pear, walnut, Parmigiano, arugula, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. All household staples, which at my place get thrown together on a weekly basis.
Given human ingenuity I would imagine this salad, or some version of it has been eaten since at least 1000AD.
Pear: These are sensitive to carbon dioxide, so they don't keep as well when sealed in plastic bags. Some of their scent comes from ethyl decadienoate.
Walnuts: The most important is the Persian walnut, which is found growing in the wild in SE Europe and Asia. It's easy to see how this became so popular and valued. A big, beautiful shell and an intricately convoluted, oil rich, nut inside.
So esteemed there was once a Roman tradition of throwing walnuts at weddings, ouch!
Arugula: aka Rocket. Add heat and all the bitterness is lost. A native to the Mediterranean and consumed for thousands of years before becoming every TV chefs favoured salad leaf. They are loaded with aldehydes including almond-essence benzaldehyde.
Parmigiano: The man made ingredient of the salad, and not surprisingly the youngest. From my reading, Monks were making this style of cheese as early as 1000AD.
Lemon: May have originated in Northern India and thanks to the Arabs it found its way into Europe as early as the 1st century AD. There are apparently frescos in Pompeii showing things other than enlarged penises (they're the only ones I remember), they show lemons. Ergo lemons where in Italy by 70AD.
Olive oil: I have an olive tree at home. I periodically think about harvesting all the olives to make my own oil. This always seems like a good idea till I recall the cost of the equipment (several thousand dollars) and the fact that I might get 100mls of oil from all the fruit my tree can produce in one year. . .
Salt: I once had a patient who had Addison's disease. Her body could not make any cortisol or aldosterone. One consequence was a huge loss of sodium. Prior to treatment, and when I was not giving her enough medicine she would eat (literally) a kilo of salt every month.
Pepper: The first known consumer who we can name was Ramses the Second. He had a couple of peppercorns inserted up his long crooked nose, soon after his death in 1213 BC.
References and recommended reading.
1. Alan Davidson. The Oxford Companion to Food
2. Harold McGee. On Food & Cooking
3. Jack Turner. Spice a history of temptation.
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1 comments:
My comment on olive oil applies to this post.
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