Ketchup: Asian origins?

I'm sure you all have a ketchup pot inside your fridges. This sauce, maybe the most common sauce in the world, has a fascinating and complicated history. Some food historians agree the first clues concerning ketchup were found in Southeast Asia. Others believe that the word "ketchup" was borrowed from Chinese, too.
But, how is this possible? How could the major representative American food have its origins in China? Well, although tomato didn't arrive to China till the 16th century, Asian people used specific ingredients which flavored that condiment; by mixing these ingredients, they probably obtained a similar flavour to that of ketchup.



- What does the word ketchup mean?
When the word ketchup was established, it was referred to something very different from the bottled tomato sauce of today. In the 17th century, tomatoes were an expensive meal, and the ketchups were long-keeping, vinegary sauces flavoured with lemons, onions, and so on.

-What about American ketchup?

"The word 'ketchup' conveys an image of the thick, sweet, tomato-based condiment. Americans did not invent ketchup, which was not thick, sweet, or made from tomatoes. British explorers, colonists, and traders came into contact with the sauce in Southeast Asia, and when they returned to Europe, they attempted to mimick it. As soybeans were not grown in Europe, British cooks used substitutes like anchovies or mushrooms. British colonists brought ketchup to North Ameirca, and Americans continued experimenting, using a variety of additional ingredients, including beans and apples. The truth is that Tomato ketchup may have originated in America.

-Ketchup, catchup, or catsup?
Ketchup is among the few commonly eaten products with no agreement in spelling. Ketchup, catchup or catsup are words that continue to be used today. Some researchers have paid attention to this matter, and one of them, Isaac Riley, an American, in his book called: "The Universal Receipt Book", believed that ketchup was the correct spelling. According to him, the other two names were vulgarizations.

SAUCES: REGIONAL VARIATIONS (Part 2)

In my last post, I focused on the sauces belonging to French cuisine. In this second part I'll discuss what kind of sauces belong to other countries, such as some American and European countries appart from France, like the UK.

• Mexican sauces: these sauces, commonly known as salsas, are mainly distinguished for being spicy and hot sauces. There are many types, such as:

- Red sauce: it is a red spicy sauce that is served in Tex Mex restaurants. It is very similar to tomato sauce; it only differs in the fact that it has a stronger flavour.

- Pico de gallo sauce: it is a fresh, uncooked condiment made from chopped, tomato, onion and chilis. The term pico de gallo is Spanish for rooster break. It has that name because originally it was eaten with the thumb and forefinger, and the way it was eaten resembled a pecking rooster.

-Green sauce: this kind of sauce is very typical in Mexican cuisine. It usually contains tomatillos, jalapeños or other chiles, white onion and lime. Green sauce, or, as it is known in Mexico: salsa verde, is normally a spicy sauce, as it happens to many Mexican sauces. It is usually served with tacos, grilled pork and grilled meat.

-Wild sauce: this sauce, also known as salsa brava, is a lightly spicy sauce meda with tomato, garlic, onion, and flavored with paprika, which is a kind of spice. It is mainly applied to many kinds of meat.

• British sauces: this kind of sauces are used either on meat or on salads. There are many different sauces in British cuisine. The most well-known are:

- Gravy: it is a sauce made from the juices that belong to meat or vegetables during cooking. In the UK, it refers to an only kind of sauce, but in North America, there are many varieties within it. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with salt and caramel colouring. It is eaten with pork, chicken, lamb, etc.

As a curiosity, the word gravy is used in different cultural contexts. For example, it is used as a synonim of the word fine, in sentences like: "Don't worry, we are gravy".

As an idiom, it is included in: "gravy train", which means "lucrative effort".

-Bread sauce: it is a warm or cold sauce made with bread. It is usually served along with main meals. It has its origins in the Middle Ages; in fact, it is the only survivor of the medieval bread sauces. It normally accompanies dishes such as chicken or turkey. It is easy to prepare, and the ingredients are very straightforward.

There are many, many kinds of sauces in the world, depending on where you are. Some of them have a huge tradition behind, and, who knows? maybe some people are creating a new one while you are reading this post: the combination of ingredients is practically infinite.

SAUCES: A BIT OF HISTORY AND FRENCH TYPES (Part 1)

Today I'm going to talk about those wonderful products that enrich many kinds of meal, and that we all know: sauces. You know that there are many kinds of sauces, but do you know all the regional variations? Or, for example, did you know that the Ancient Romans used sauces? In this post, I'll try to expand your knowledge in sauces.

• Garum, a primitive sauce.

Garum was a kind of fermented fish sauce; it was an essential flavour in Ancient Roman cooking, the best condiment you could find. But they were not the creators of this sauce. Although it triumphed in the Roman World, it originally came from the Greeks, gaining its name from the Greek word "garos", which was referred to those fishes whose intestines were used in the sauce's production. Garum was prepared from the intestines of small fishes, and they also added salt. Finally, it was cured in the sun for one to three months. In the picture below you can see a recipient that served as a container for Garum.

• Etymology and explanation of the word sauce.

Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsus, meaning salted. It is a kind of liquid or semi-solid food, which is used in preparing other foods. In most cases, sauces need a liquid component, but there are exceptions where you can find more solid elements than liquid.

• Different countries = different sauces.

There are many different cultures in the world; these cultures differ in certain aspects like clothing, social manners, and: cuisine!! Depending on the country you visit, you will find many differences in the way of cooking, and, above all, many different condiments and sauces! Below you can read the main sauces that distinguish French cuisine.

• French cuisine: sauces in French cuisine date back to the Middle Ages. There were hundreds of sauces in the culinary repertory. In fact, sauces are one of the major defining characteristics of French cuisine. Here you can distinguish five "mother" sauces:

• Béchamel Sauce : It is also known as white sauce. This sauce is made by mixing butter, milk and flour; its final thickness depends on the proportions of milk and flour. It is said that this sauce is an improvement of a similar sauce, known as velouté. In addition, this sauce is used as the base for other sauces, and it also serves for some meals from Italian cuisine, such as the lasagne. In the picture below you can see the aspect this sauce presents:

• Espagnole sauce: This sauce is the basis of sauce-making in classic French cooking. It has a strong taste and is rarely used directly in food. However, as it happens with Béchamel sauce, it serves for doing many other different sauces, such as Africane sauce or Bigarade sauce. The name the sauce has is very misleading, because it has nothing to do with Spanish cuisine. It only stands for the fact that French chefs use tomatoes, which are an ingredient related to Spain. In the picture below, you can see a recipient containing Espagnole sauce.

• Velouté sauce: this sauce is made by using a mixture consisting of chicken or fish thickened with butter and flour. The term velouté is from the French adjectival form of velour, meaning velvety. It has a number of derived sauces, such as Vin Blanc sauce or Venetian sauce.

• Hollandaise sauce: it is a mixture of egg yolk and butter, along with lemon juice. Generally, it is seasoned with salt and black pepper. It is called Hollandaise because, probably, it is based on a Dutch sauce, which was very similar. This sauce is often paired with vegeables such as asparagus. As it happens with the above French sauces, it is also the foundation for many derivatives, created by adding or changing some ingredients. Some instances are: Béarnaise sauce or Dijon sauce.

• Allemande sauce: this sauce is mainly based on velouté sauce. We could say that it is a derived sauce. Allemande sauce is thickened with egg yolks and heavy cream, and seasoned with lemon juice. It is best used with eggs, poultry or dishes including bread.

As you can see, French cuisine has sauces for everyone. It is a very rich cuisine. So, what are you waiting for? I encourage you to taste these wonderful sauces. And if you want to know a bit more about sauces, just wait, because I'll continue to talk about this topic very soon...

Barbecue: origins and regional variations

Today I'm going to talk about an interesting topic that many people probably don't know. This post will deal with the different ways people use barbecues in order to roast meat in some countries. I'll also add a bit of history about the etimology of the word.

• The origins of barbecue (etimology)

The origins of the word "barbecue" are not completely clear. It is said that "barbecue" derives from the word barabicu found in the language of the Timucua of Florida( you can see this region in the picture below) and the Taíno people of the Caribbean, which entered European languages in the form barbacoa. This word is translated into English as sacred fire hole. This word describes a grill for cooking meat, consisting of a wooden platform which rests on sticks. You can see in the right picture below a pit smoker, which was the basis for roasting meat in old times.

This word, "barbacoa", and the technique it implies, moved from the Caribbean to other countries which had other languages and cultures, and these languages (Spanish, French, English, etc) adopted that word, modifying it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "barbacoa" was used in English for the first time in 1697.

• Variations of the word "barbecue" in English.

We all know that "barbecue" is the most common spelling in English, although we can find regional variations, such as: barbeque, bar-b-q or bbq. In the United States, depending on the area, "barbecue" involves different kinds of meat to be roasted.

• Regional variations of barbecue: there are several factors that make "barbecue" to be different depending on the region we are. For example, factors like the type of meat used, the different sauces or the techniques used for roasting meat. I'll only discuss some variations, concretely, those which are more interesting.

• The barbecue in UK.

Barbecuing in the UK is an activity usually done in the garden. Most popular are range-style barbecues, with wheels to facilitate moving them. Permanent brick barbecues are also common, although they tend to be more expensive. In recent times, people in such countries like the US, the UK and Ireland are organizing barbecue competitions. Some of these barbecue competitions also allow teams from Ireland and the UK to compete against each other. These competitions are a borrow from those of the US. You can see, in the following video, the way people is organized in a competition of this kind, in Tennessee, US:

The most common foods cooked on a British barbecue are chicken, hamburguers, sausages, etc. Barbecue in the UK is also influenced by traditional English, Scottish and Welsh cuisines. Overall, British barbecue is a mixture of American, Australian and Mediterranean styles. In the image below, you can see the typical permanent brick barbecue:

• The barbecue in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and Brazil.

These countries are very similar when talking about barbecue: they share the same system, called Asado. Asado is a technique for cooking cuts of meat, usually beef along with other kinds of meat, which are cooked on a grill, or open fire. There are slight variations among these regions, mainly related to the usage of different ingredients. In the picture below, you can see a typical Asado Argentino.

• The barbecue in South Africa.

The inhabitants of South Africa have an specific name for barbecue: this is braai, an abbreviation of braaivleis, the Afrikaans word for saying "meat grill". The word braai is very popular in South Africa, and it refers to a technique which is identical to that of the English barbecue. So we could say that the only difference between braai and the English barbecue is found in the name. As a curiosity, in South Africa people don't say wood for the barbecue; they say braaiwood. In the picture below, you can see a braai.

• The barbecue in Korea.

In Korea, we find a popular dish (called bulgogi) made by using a similar technique to barbecue. Bulgogi literally means "fire meat" in Korean, what refers to the technique employed to cook this dish, technique which consists of placing the meat over an open flame. Nowadays, bulgogi is served in barbecue restaurants in South Korea. You can see this dish in the picture below.

There are many other styles of barbecue in the world! Which of them would you like to taste?

Unusually shaped and giant vegetables

Today I’m going to talk about two peculiar cases in which a vegetable can grow: I’m referring to unusually shaped vegetables and giant vegetables. To begin with, an unusually shaped vegetable is a vegetable or fruit that has grown into an unusual shape not in line with its common form. Whereas some of them present a very straightforward alteration, others are admired for their amusing appearance, often representing a body part such as the nose, for example. A giant vegetable, instead, is one that has grown to an unusually large size, usually by design and by using artificial methods. Most of these maintain the proportions of the vegetable but are just larger in size; they don’t present any change in shape.

• What are the causes of this?

The main factors that cause mutations in vegetables are, on the one hand, the environmental conditions, and also de human factor, who, unintentionally, can damage vegetables during their growth, which alters their ultimate shape. In addition, when a root vegetable is growing and the tip is damaged, it can form multiple roots attached at the same point.
Giant vegetables, on the other hand, have a very different origin: they are intentionally cultivated to be of an enormous size, applying artificial selection to create large vegetables. There are five steps which you have to follow in order to cultivate a giant vegetable:

1. Choose the right seed.

You can start your own giant plantation by selecting a promising variety, like Atlantic Giant Pumpkin or Old Colossus Heirloom Tomato and then saving the seeds from your largest fruits for planting next year.

2. Give them a healthy start.

This step is referred to preparing the soil for the vegetables that are going to be cultivated, and you also have to feed the plants, because giant vegetables need lots of food. Finally, you have to choose a fertilizer that fits the kind of vegetable you’ll cultivate.

3. Water.

Water is essential to any vegetable, but giant vegetables need even more: You have to provide regular deep waterings or your fruits will either languish or split.

4. The fewer, the better.

With this step, you have to bear in mind that the more fruits in your plants, the smaller they will be. If there are too many fruits, the’ll share nutrients and they will never become giant, so think about letting two or three fruits only.

5. Keep close watch for problems.

This is the most difficult task of your farming. This step deals with checking your plants daily and correct any problems immediately: problems such as pests or diseases which can affect your plants. You also have to be patient, because they need a lot of time to finish their growth.

In addition, it is common in some countries to celebrate the diversity of vegetable shapes, with particularly unusual items being entered into competitions. Many of these are judged by the ugliness of the vegetable. In countries like UK, farmers and organisations develop competitions based on giant vegetables such as pumpkins. Here I show you an explanatory video dealing with giant pumpkins:

The origins of gin and tonic

(Left image: a Juniper. 
Right image: Flower of the Cinchona Pubescens)

We all know that, nowadays, gin and tonic is a typical mixed drink at the UK and at some other countries, but what many people don’t know is: which are the origins of, on the one hand, tonic, and on the other hand, gin?

Well, nowadays, the tonic is a normal drink, like, for example, beer or Coca-Cola, but before this, in the 19th century, it was used as a medicine (it was called quinine) to combat malaria at some tropical areas.

Quinine (from the Quechua word: kina) is a kind of curative substance which is taken from a tree called Cinchona pubescens, and its substance, quinine, was used for the purposes said before. This tree has its origins in southern America: for example in Colombia or in Bolivia, and, as an important fact, the tree is considered one of the most invader species in its environment.

On the other hand, we have the gin, the other kind of drink which forms this cocktail. This word, gin, comes from the French word “genièvre”, which means “juniper”. This word, juniper, refers to a kind of tree or bush which is grown throughout the northern hemisphere. These trees provide a fruit called “juniper berry”, which is best known for being the primary flavoring in gin (and responsible for gin's name, which is a shortening of the Dutch word for juniper, genever).

In addition, Juniper berries were recognized from ancient times as possessing medicinal properties. By the 11th century, Italian monks were flavoring distilled spirits with juniper berries. During the Black Plague, this drink was used as a remedy, but it didn’t serve.

We also have to say which is the basic composition of gin and tonic: it consists of a mixture made with gin and tonic water poured over ice. This cocktail was introduced by the army of the British East India Company in India.