by Dan Jurafsky
dialects from Sicilian (schibbeci), to Neapolitan (scapece): Michel (1996), 41; D’Ancoli (1972), 97; Aprosio (2003), 405. These sources and others suggest that the Catalan is the likely source.
a Catalan cookbook from the first half of the 1300s: Santanach (2008), 68–69.
In Muslim regions like Baghdad or Spain, by contrast: Perry (2005).
Medieval Christians had very strict dietary restrictions: Bynum (1987), 323; Albala (2011), 15–16.
Melitta Adamson estimates: Adamson (2004), 188.
The French Cook, is divided into three sections: Scully (2006).
al-sikbj began to be transcribed as assicpicium: Martellotti (2001).
bringing words for many seafood and other gastronomic terms: See, for example, Prat Sabater (2003).
“dusted fish”: Mu’affar (dusted fish), which appears in the thirteenth century in an Arabic cookbook written in Andalusia. Perry (2004).
Gutiérrez de Santa Clara: Santa Clara (1905).
Peruvian historian Juan José Vega: Vega (1993), 158.
Diccionario de la lengua española: The Diccionario de la lengua española, 22.a edición, the Royal Spanish Academy, gives the etymology for cebiche as “Quizá del ár. hisp. assukkabá, y este del ár. sikb.”
Southern Barbarian Cookbook: “Southern Barbarian” was the term used at the time in Japan for Europeans. The Southern Barbarians cookbook, called in Japanese Nanban ryôrisho, is described in Chapter 4: “The Barbarian’s Cookbook” of Rath (2010).
Fish dish: Rath (2010), 106.
tenporari, the name of a related dish: Rath (2010), 106.
This word is likely a borrowing of the Portuguese noun tempero: Irwin (2011), 34–35, and also the OED entry for tempura.
Manuel Brudo, a Portuguese crypto-Jewish doctor: On Manuel Brudo, the Portuguese crypto-Jew who had lived in England, see Roth (1960). The origin of the pescado frito variant seems to have been a fish dish called mu’affar in Muslim Spain, which appears in the thirteenth century in an Arabic cookbook written in Andalusia. Charles Perry (2004) tells us that the name mu’affar originally meant “dusted fish.” Further details on the relationship to Jewish food are in Marks (2010), “Peshkado Frito,” 454–56.
her recipe for battered and fried fish: Glasse (1774), 378.
The Jews Way of preserving Salmon: Image courtesy Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Library.
“Confined as the limits of Field Lane”: Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, Chapter 26, “In which a mysterious character appears upon the scene,” paragraph 2.
“impregnated with the scents of fried fish”: Endelman (2002), 152.
1846 A Jewish Manual: Montefiore (1846).
“Jewish” fried fish, by contrast: In her recipe for “escobeche,” this same cold, fried, battered fish is simply soaked in vinegar with onions and spices.
“This is another excellent way of frying fish”: Soyer (1855), 28.
Ashkenazi Jewish proprietor Joseph Malin: Shaftesley (1975), 393; Roden (1996), 113; Marks (2010), “Peshkado Frito,” 454–56.
Four: Ketchup, Cocktails, and Pirates
the large German contribution to American cuisine: For more on the influence of German food on American, see Ziegelman (2010).
Fujianese immigration to the United States has increased: See, for example, Keefe (2009).
traces of their languages in the old names of many rivers: Norman and Mei (1976), Bauer Matthews (2006).
layering local fish in jars with cooked rice and salt: The hypothesis that these rice-based fermented fish products were first developed in rice paddies along the Mekong was formulated in a number of papers by Naomichi Ishige, including some with his colleague Kenneth Ruddle. See Ruddle and Ishige (2010) and Ishige (1986).
“a Parma ham,” with a “distinct sourness”: Hilton (1993).
When the Han emperor Wu chased: This legend about the origins of fish paste come from the “Important Arts for the People’s Welfare” ( Qimin Yaoshu), written in 544 ce. The English translation, not to mention an enormous amount of further information, is from Huang (2000), 382–83. This 741-page book is the definitive work on Chinese food science and food history, and is a masterpiece drawing from Huang Hsing-tsung’s lifetime of work on food biochemistry. Huang was Joseph Needham’s secretary in Chongqing in the 1940s. For more stories about H. T. Huang and Needham, see Winchester (2008).
Fujian Red Rice Wine Chicken: Adapted from Carolyn Phillip's terrific blog Madame Huang’s Kitchen.
Babylonians had a fish sauce called siqqu: Curtis (1991); Bottero (2004), 61.
Anchovies from the gulf were mixed with salt: A very comprehensive survey of fermented fish products is Ruddle and Ishige (2005).
Fujianese traders and seamen saw some of the same factories: The hypothesis that fish sauce was a later innovation in Southeast Asia was proposed by Ishige; see Ishige (1993), 30. Huang (2000, 392, 297) gives further linguistic evidence about fish sauce’s migration up the South China coast, pointing out that the Chinese name for fish sauce, yulu (fish dew), is an innovation and not related to the names of any of the traditional Chinese fermented fish products.
Hokkien, Cantonese, and Mandarin are as linguistically different: Hokkien is a subdialect of Southern Min, a Chinese dialect of 46 million speakers spoken in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, Taiwan, and throughout Southeast Asia. Southern Min variants and subdialects are called Hokkien, Taiwanese, Teochiu, and Amoy, among other names. I use the traditional word “dialect” to describe the regional spoken varieties of Chinese although, as mentioned, they are actually as different from each other as languages.
A Chinese oceangoing junk: From Needham (1971), 405. Image courtesy of Cambridge University Press.
missionary dictionaries from the nineteenth century: Penny Silva of the Oxford English Dictionary tells me that it was James Murray, the founder of the dictionary, who first figured out this etymology when he wrote the entry for this word in the Scriptorium in his back garden in 1889. Murray relied on an old dictionary, the 1873 Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy, a Hokkien to English dictionary compiled by missionaries in 1873, which listed ke-tchup (written ) as the “brine of pickled fish.” A modern Chinese dictionary, the 1992 Putonghua Minnanhua Fangyan Cidian (Mandarin-Southern Min Dictionary), says this word (written ) has become archaic, and the Chinese character is often now used to describe completely unrelated fish. For more on Murray, I recommend Winchester (1998; 2003).
Chinese sauce-making factories: Anita van Velzen’s ethnographic research shows that until the 1950s, all these kinds of kecap were made only by ethnic Chinese families; Velzen (1990; 1992).
Edmund Scott, an English trader on Java: Scott’s memoirs make somewhat difficult reading, for the fierce xenophobia and ubiquitous violence (including torture). But also on account of his evil spelling. Scott (1606). An exact discourse of the subtilties, fashishions [sic], pollicies, religion, and ceremonies of the East Indians as well Chyneses as Iauans, there abyding and dweling. LONDON, Printed by W.W. for Walter Burre. 1606.
“the original monarch of mixed drinks”: Wondrich (2010).
“common drink”: By 1704 Charles Lockyer called punch the “common drink” of all Europeans in Asia.
The cover of Charles Lockyer’s: Image courtesy Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries.
“Soy comes in tubs from Jappan”: Lockyer (1711).
Lockyer would buy tubs of ketchup: Lockyer advised anyone who wanted to make money on soy or ketchup to bring on the outbound trip to Asia as many reusable bottles as he could save. Nice to think of bottle recycling in the time of Queen Anne.
imitating the taste of the expensive imported original: Ketchup consumers were aware of the Asian origins of ketchup; the 1785 sixth edition of Johnson’s Dictionary calls catsup “A kind of Indian pickle, imitated by pickled mushrooms,” and Hannah Glasse’s 1774 The Art of Cookery, in a recipe for mushroom ketchup on page 309, promises that the resu
lt “will taste like foreign catchup.” Worcestershire sauce, a vinegar and anchovy sauce flavored with molasses, garlic, and tamarind, was developed in the 1830s by chemists Lea and Perrin from a recipe they advertised was brought back from Bengal.
To Make KATCH-UP that will keep good Twenty Years: Eales (1742).
the household book: Hickman (1977).
Tomata Catsup: Recipe 443 from Kitchner (1817).
adding even more sugar and also lots of vinegar: Smith (1996); Wilson (2008), 204–10.
Heinz originally chose the spelling “ketchup”: See Harris (2013). You can see for yourself the recent rise in popularity of the spelling “ketchup” by using the Google Ngram viewer, which allows you to count the frequency of both words in British versus American sources over time.
bans were repeatedly rescinded: See, for example, Frank (1998), Pomerantz (2000), Allen et al. (2011).
China dominated the world economy until the Industrial Revolution: Frank (1998), 171–73.
Five: A Toast to Toast
Rakia is the generic name: Although of course spelled and pronounced differently in each language.
The original meaning of the word toast: OED entry for toast.
“sinfull, and utterly unlawfull unto Christians”: Prynne (1628).
toasts were made to the health of a lady: Colquhoun (2007), 221.
A report from the time: Richard Steele, The Tatler 31 (1709): 8: “Then, said he, Why do you call live People Toasts? I answered, That was a new Name found out by the Wits to make a Lady have the same Effect as Burridge in the Glass when a Man is drinking.”
“A Beauty, whose Health is drank”: Richard Steele, The Tatler 71 (1709).
A Carol for a Wassail Bowl: image from page 67 in Henry Vizetelly, Christmas with the Poets: A Collection of Songs, Carols, and Descriptive Verses, 6th edition (London: Ward, Lock, & Tyler, 1872).
in the apple-growing west of England: Robert Herrick’s 1648 Hesperides has the line “Wassaile the Trees, that they may beare You many a Plum, and many a Peare.”
a piece of toast soaked in cider in the trees: Brears (1993).
Wassail: Recipe adapted from the always instructive Alton Brown and from Jenn Dowds, The Churchill, and Rosie Schaap, from The New York Times. December 12, 2012.
slices of toast soaked in wine, water, or broth, called sops: Hieatt and Butler (1985), 215: sops were “generally toasted pieces of bread.”
one-pot stews called pottages: Wilson (1993), 3–19.
“wel loved he by the morwe a sop in wyn”: Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, “The Franklin’s Tale.”
Sowpes in galyngale: Recipe 133 in Hieatt and Butler (1985).
Soupes dorye: Austin (1964), 11.
the word sop, perhaps via its: OED entry for sop.
come our words supper and soup: OED entry for soup and supper.
waes hael (be healthy): See the OED entries for wassail, hale, and healthy.
in Paris at the fancy new “university”: Although I’m cheating here a bit since the word “university” only became common to describe the University of Paris a few decades later around 1200. See Mozely (1963) and Longchamps (1960).
in this same Caucasian region of modern Georgia: The hypothesis that wine was first developed in the Caucasus was first proposed by Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov. McGovern (2009), 19.
the “Noah hypothesis”: For a summary of these arguments, see McGovern (2003; 2009).
“And the ark rested”: King James translation of Genesis 8 and 9.
as early as Homer: Burkert (1985), 374, note 37: “The formula appears in the Illiad 9.177 and six times in the Odyssey.”
a libation from the first krater of wine: Burkert (1985), 70–72.
The root *g’heu (pour): Benveniste (1969), 470–80.
A 2400 to 2600 bce carving: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/me/s/shell_plaque.aspx.
Similar images of libations: Matthews (1997).
A hymn to Ninkasi: Civil (1964).
sheker similarly meant beer: Homan (2004).
infused with antioxidant herbs: McGovern et al. (2010); McGovern, Mirzoian, and Hall (2009).
the evil eye: Dundes (1981), Foster (1972).
An alembic of the Middle Ages: Figure from Louis Figuier, Les merveilles de l’industrie. Volume 4: Industries agricoles et alimentaires (Paris, France: Furne Jouvet, c. 1880).
sicera, which he defined as beer, mead: St. Jerome, Letter 52, To Nepotian: Ep. 52, Ad Nepotianum de vita clericorum et monachorum. http://www.synaxis.org/cf/volume29/ECF00005.htm.
in France the word sicera, now pronounced sidre: OED entry for cider.
the technology of distillation was perfected: Wilson (2006).
Other descendants of the word ‘araq: Arajhi, a Turkic word for distilled liquor borrowed, presumably via Persian, from Arabic, is mentioned in Chinese documents as early as 1330. See Buell and Anderson (2010), 109, 115.
found on pottery from 7000 to 6600 BCE: McGovern (2009), 28–59.
Six: Who Are You Calling a Turkey?
“introduces a full chorus of turkeys”: Edgar Allan Poe, The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in Eight Volumes. Vol. VI. Miscellaneous Essays, Marginalia, etc. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1895), 162.
the species that Native Americans domesticated: Thornton et al. (2012); Schorger (1966); Smith (2006), 8. A different species of wild turkey was independently domesticated by the ancient Pueblo peoples who built the cliff dwellings in the southern United States (Speller et al. 2010).
Cortés described the streets: Schorger (1966), 12.
8000 turkeys were sold every five days: Coe (1994), 96, quoting from Motolinía, Memorales, (Mexico City, 1903) 332.
Turkey in stews: Image used by permission of the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, ms. Med. Palat. 218, c. 312v. On concession of the Italian Ministry for Goods, Cultural Activities and Tourism. Further reproduction by any means is prohibited.
the Aztec feast in honor of a newborn child: Sahagún (1957), 121–25.
turkey moles made with chile: Sahagún (1954), 37; Barros (2004), 20.
1650 description of a Oaxacan turkey mole: Barros (2004), 22.
recipes for guisos and moles in early Mexican manuscripts: Monteagudo (2004), Laudan and Pilcher (1999).
an 1817 cookbook, whose recipe for mole de guajolote: The 1817 recipe appears in the anonymous Libro de Cocina de la Gesta de Independencia: Monteagudo (2002), 58. See also Coe and Coe (1996), 214–16, and Monteagudo (2004), 34.
Modern recipes are even more spectacular: Berdan and Anawalt (1997), 169.
the role of nuns in convents: Monteagudo (2004).
Ingredients from Rick Bayless’s Recipe: Bayless (2007), 198.
all domesticated in the New World: Smith (1997), Matsuoka et al. (2002), Austin (1988). Beans were likely independently domesticated in the Andes as well as Mesoamerica: Pickersgill and Debouck (2005).
The turkey’s trip to Europe: Schorger (1966), 4.
turkey from the mid-Atlantic trade islands: Other New World products, for example potatoes, were known to have first reached Europe in this way from the Canaries rather than directly from the Americas. Ros et al. (2007), Heywood (2012).
The trader would bring goods: Gelderblom (2004).
The Antwerp Bourse: Image courtesy Werner Wittersheim.
enabled common pricings to be established: Kohn (2003), 55.
galine de Turquie (Turkish chicken): Jacques Coeur, the fabulously wealthy French financier and trader with the Levant, sent his nephew Jean de Village to Alexandria in 1447 for an audience with the Mamluk sultan. Jean returned with gallinas turcicas (Turkish chickens). Clément (1863), 141 (footnote).
Europeans in the 1400s: Renaissance princes like Good King René of Provence bought the birds to populate their parks and menageries. And in 1491, guinea fowl were received at Marseille for Anne de Beaujeu, the sister and regent for King Charles VIII of France. See Antoine (1917), 35–50.
Portug
uese globes and nautical charts: Harley (1988), Kimble (1933).
confused in Dutch: J. Reygersbergen, Dye chronijcke van Zeelandt, 1551: “Dese schipper . . . hadde in een nieu Landt gheweest in Africa, ghenaemt caput Viride, daer noyt eenighe schepen uyt dese Landen inne geweest hadden. . . . Dit schip brochte [1528] die eerste Kalkoensche hoenderen in Zeelandt.”
French naturalist Pierre Belon’s drawing: Image courtesy Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries.
