Our name comes from the multicultural diversity that´s within the roots of our group,

formed by Spanish, Moroccan, French and American nationalities. The Name also

stands for the content of our blog, filled with a bunch of interesting facts and curious

information about food and both English and Spanish languages. We are conscious of

the difficulty of our task, trying to express what we want you to understand about the

concept of our title, but we will try our best in order to make you capture the essence

of our message: leaving aside all differences of race and gender, taking the best of each

culture to elaborate a diverse and universal content.

martes, 20 de diciembre de 2011

THE HISTORY OF THE CULINARY ART IN EUROPE UNTIL THE RENAISSANCE



  • The Pre-Historical Period:

- The discovery of fire and the fermentation.
- The conservation of food and drinks, traditionally perishable in short-term.
- The use of cooking utensils (flat stones, leather goatskins…), increasing the methods of cooking and reducing the burning of food.
- The apparition of salt, fat, flour and cereals (cakes).

  • Greco-Roman Period -2000/470:

- The organization of food and the cooking by mythological criteria.
- Meals ritual dimensions: Dionysian festivals (great use of wine and sexual excess).
-  Food presentation: food are chopped or pureed, but the staple is unknown.
-  Practice of diluting the wine with multiple products such as sea water, lime, resin…
- Preference for fish, shellfish and vegetables. Salted, sweet and spicy cooking.
- Pottery on the fire, it allows the apparition of two fundamental culinary techniques: soups and gruels.
- New products: beer, bread, cakes, olive oil, wine, cheese, pudding, omelet (sweet and drooling), the garum (fish sauce).

  • Middle Ages 470/1350 :

- French service consisting of 3 to 6 courses, each with a starter, main course and dessert.
- There are no plates, but the use of a thick piece of bread (the chopper), no glasses but chalices, and no forks. Instead of the knives, there were daggers or dredgers.
- The guests eat with their fingers and towel off using the tablecloth.
- The Apparition of braised cooking: meat is boiled before being roasted, which was a technical and hygienic advantage. The meat is softer, compensating its low maturation and avoiding aromatic denaturizing due to a significant microbial growth.
-  The sauces are spicy and acidic (verjuice grape) associated with egg yolks and soaked bread.
- The use of sugar and honey. No use of fat because it sets too much the volatile aromas.
- Spices have 3 functions:
Social distinction.
* Camouflage dishes.
* Prolipheratic.
Extensive use of game meat, swans, peacocks…

  •  The Renaissance xv-xvi

- The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and the arrival of new products. The use of products coming from the New World such as tomatoes, corn, potatoes, coffee, artichokes, peppers, beans, chocolate… 
- Significant Italian influence on the culinary art due to the marriage of Catherine of Medici with the future Henry II and Marie of Medici’s marriage with Henry IV. Italian influence: the apparition of the two-pronged fork, the usage of the individual plate (ceramic of Faenza), and the chalice is replaced by crystal glasses of Murano. This refined the table manners; hand washing is systematic…
-  The discovery of the Italian pasta, jellies, marzipan, ginger bread and nougat.
- Apparition of pin machines in the kitchen.



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