The encounter between the Old World and the New was one of the most extraordinary occasions of change in the history of human food. The discovery of America in 1492, which took place precisely in the course of the search for a new route for spices, was the beginning of an interesting process of exchange of food products, techniques and cultures. Today it is difficult, for example, to imagine Mediterranean cuisine without tomatoes.
The entry of American foods into Spanish cuisine is a complex story, as each of them has its own particular trajectory and meaning. Products of enormous nutritional importance, such as corn and potatoes, had a very difficult and late incorporation. On the other hand, others were highly appreciated from the beginning and enjoyed great success, such as beans and peppers, spread among the popular classes, and turkeys and chocolate, the privilege of the powerful.
The pineapple that saved an ocean
An interesting case is that of American fruits, which were so attractive to the Spaniards who consumed them in America, but which could not be grown in Spain and, furthermore, could only be transferred canned, with very notable exceptions.
Fernando el Católico was surely the first person in Spain who tasted the American pineapple, with great pleasure, according to Pedro Mártir de Anglería: “Another fruit, says the undefeated King Fernando who has eaten brought from those lands, which has many scales, and in sight, shape and color resembles pine cones; but in the softness to the melon, and in the flavor it surpasses all orchard fruit; because it is not a tree, but grass very similar to thistle or acanthus. The King himself grants him the palm ”.
Fernando the Catholic.
Years later, the American pineapple was also offered to Carlos V, according to José de Acosta, but the emperor, more cautious than his grandfather, settled for smelling it and did not want to taste it: “The Emperor Don Carlos was presented with these pineapples , that it should not have cost little to bring it from the Indies in its plant, that otherwise it could not come: the smell praised: the taste did not want to see how it was “.
The different attitudes of both sovereigns towards the pineapple foreshadow the future positions of society towards the new products from America, which oscillated between curiosity and suspicion.
Read also
When two food systems meet, a dialectic of attraction and rejection comes into play. Attraction for the new, which involves expanding and diversifying traditional resources and leading to researching products, acclimatizing and cultivating them, trading with them, integrating them into culinary uses. But, at the same time, suspicion, sometimes even rejection, towards what is unknown and potentially dangerous, which belongs to a different food system and does not know how to integrate into one’s own.
Kings chocolate
Another product destined to enjoy enormous prestige was chocolate. Pedro Mártir de Anglería considered it “a drink worthy of a king”. Chocolate was from the beginning in Spain, as it had been in America, a prestigious drink. The Spanish royal house was its first consumer. The chocolate destined for the royal family was a gift sent by the viceroys of the Indies.
Good proof of royal appreciation is that it appeared in the trousseau of infantas when they married and marched to other courts. Through two Spanish infantas, Ana, wife of Louis XIII, and Maria Teresa, wife of Louis XIV, chocolate was introduced into the court of France. It was also part of the luggage of the Infanta Margarita, sister of Carlos II, when she married Emperor Leopold I and went to the court of Vienna.
Aztec woman pouring chocolate.
In Spain, chocolate would become a social phenomenon, a sign of identity of the modern age. It was a true passion, which encompassed all of society. As its price was high, not everyone could enjoy it regularly, but the fans jumped any barrier. It became the star product for breakfasts and snacks, the star of treats and refreshments.
Spanish chocolate was made by mixing ingredients from the New World with others from the Old World. It basically consisted of a paste of cocoa, sugar and cinnamon, with other spices and aromas, thickened with corn flour and dissolved in water. It was very sweet, very thick and very hot. It was eaten accompanied by bread, croutons, cakes, which were dipped in chocolate, and to finish a glass of fresh water was drunk.
Well spiced dishes
Other American products were very popular, such as bell peppers and paprika. Very red and spicy, they were used as a substitute for oriental spices. Columbus discovered the pepper already on his first trip. On January 15, 1493, he wrote in his diary: “… there is also a lot of axi, which is his pepper, which is worth more than pepper, and all people do not eat without it, they find it very healthy …” .
The chili quickly replaced the pepper, which had been one of the great claims for the American adventure, since gold and spices were the two main products sought by discoverers, conquerors and merchants. The parallelism between oriental and American pepper will become a constant in the chronicles of the Indies.
Read also
The spicy varieties of pepper spread very early in Spain due to their advantageous price compared to that of pepper imported from the East. Nicolás Monardes, the famous Sevillian doctor and botanist, confirmed its diffusion: “I do not want to stop saying about the pepper that they bring from the Indies, that it not only serves medicine, but is excellent: which is known throughout Spain, because it is not There is no garden, no orchard, or pot that does not have it sown, because of the beauty of the fruit it bears. […] They differ in that those from India cost many ducats, this does not cost more than planting it … ”.
Although it took longer to catch on, the tomato was also hugely successful. Initially it was a decorative plant, later it was incorporated into salads, but in the 18th century it was consecrated as a sauce and accompaniment to all kinds of dishes.
Ketchup
In Spain, the first tomato sauce recipes were published in the Pastry art, by Juan de la Mata, whose first edition was made in 1747. It included two variants. “Tomato sauce a la Española: After roasting three or four tomatoes, and clean of their pellegiro, they will be chopped on a table as often as possible: put in their sauce boat, add a little parsley, Onion, and Garlic, also minced, with a little Salt, Pepper, Oil, and Vinegar, all well mixed and incorporated, can be served “.
De la Mata continues: “Another way, roasted, cleaned, and chopped the Tomatoes, in the said way, will be mixed with a little Garlic, Cumin, Oregano, Salt, and Pepper, also ground, and everything will melt with a little broth of the pot, and four drops of Vinegar, with which it will be served hot ”.
The tomato and the pepper became already from the 18th century not only in everyday foods, but also in identity factors of the Spanish cuisine.
The triumph of the turkey
Just as there were many plants that passed from the New World to the Old, there were few animals. The only one important for food was turkey, which acquired a prominent role on European tables. The iguana, for example, so valued by various American peoples, would be dismissed by the Spanish.
The turkey’s success was overwhelming, both here and in other European countries. The Spaniards who lived in America immediately integrated it into their diet. It was quickly introduced to the peninsula, and cookbooks immediately incorporated it.
Read also
Appears in the Cookery Art Book, by Diego Granado, whose first edition dates from 1599. Francisco Martínez Montiño, chief cook of the court, in his prestigious Art of cooking, pastry, biscuit and canning, from 1611, also cites turkeys. Mention two recipes, roast turkeys and turkey patties, and also show how to carve them. It also gives a recipe for the traditional sauce for roast turkeys. When presenting menus for the big holidays and for various times of the year, mention roasted turkeys with their sauce, new roasted turkeys with their sauce, hot roasted turkeys, turkey patties and turkey patties in white dough.
The turkey appears in the Castilian literature of the Golden Age. It has the great honor of being the only American product cited by Cervantes in the Quixote. In chapter XI of the first part, in the episode of the goatherds, Sancho Panza mentions it as a paradigm of a quality table: “… I know much better what I eat in my corner without gimmicks or respect, even if it’s bread and onions, than the chicken bucks on other tables where I am forced to chew slowly, drink little, clean myself often, not sneeze or cough if I feel like it, or do other things that loneliness and freedom bring with them ”.
Don Quixote’s first outing.
The prestige he achieved in European gastronomy gives an idea of the attention that the famous Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin paid him in his Taste physiology, in the first third of the 19th century, where he stated that “the turkey is surely one of the most beautiful gifts that the new world has given to the old one.”
By the back door
Corn and potatoes, two products of great nutritional value, were very poorly received in Spain. They began as animal food, and their incorporation into human consumption was late. They were trying to turn them into bread, but they could not compete with wheat. When they entered the food system, they did so for lack of other grains, in years of subsistence crises, and they began to spread among the poorest people. Its acceptance was forced by necessity, and it would only advance in the dramatic circumstances of the War of Independence, in which hunger forced to eat whatever food was available, overcoming all prejudice.
Since 1492, a large number of products crossed the Atlantic in both directions, changing the American and European diet, and that trip gradually extended to Asia and Africa, until creating a globalizing experience that reached, in one way or another, all the planet.
This article was published in issue 635 of the magazine History and Life. Do you have something to contribute? Write to us at [email protected].
–
