The peanut, an identity crisis!

If you were a nut allergic person, would you eat “peanuts” or not? According to their name, you definitely shouldn´t but, as every name you will find in this blog, it is misleading. Let´s know the reason for this identity crisis!

Peanuts take their name from their resemblance to peas in a pod. However, for a proper classification of this food, we must first know the differences between a legume and a nut. At first sight they are not very obvious, as both of them consist of a simple dry fruit carried inside a pod or shell, but looking carefully at the details, you can prove that these two groups have significant differences.

In the strict botanical use of the term, nuts usually have only one seed (on rare occasions two), whereas legumes frequently contain multiple seeds. For instance, it is not uncommon for a pea pod to contain half a dozen peas. In addition, nuts are always indehiscent, that is, they won´t open on their own. In contrast, the majority of legumes are dehiscent, meaning that they open naturally along a seam on two sides. Again, the pea pod is an obvious example of this. Another difference is that the seed of a nut is never attached to the ovary wall, while legumes often contain seeds attached to their pods. And finally, nuts grow on trees, that´s why they are sometimes referred to as “tree nuts”, whereas legumes grow on bushes or underground.

Looking only at these common distinctions, it is still unclear whether a peanut is a legume or a nut, since it has characteristics of both legumes and nuts: it contains two seeds (as a legume), the pod is indehiscent (as a nut), the seed is not attached to the ovary wall (as a nut), and it grows underground (as a legume).

However, if we take into account a nut in culinary terms, it is any large seed which is used in food and comes from a shell. This definition is not exact because this way, we are considering nuts many of the foods that aren´t technically nuts, such as drupes, almonds, cashews, corn nuts, pistachios, and, of course, the peanut.

So while their physical structure resembles more closely that of the legumes, their use in diets and cuisines resembles more closely that of the nuts. We could say then that the peanut is a unique member of whichever family it belongs to, and we cannot exclude it from belonging to either, though many scientists affirm that peanuts are in fact legumes, despite the word “nut” is in their name and they have some similarities with nuts, because if you are nut allergic you can eat peanuts, unless you are also allergic to them.

In conclusion, a pea is a legume, a nut is a nut, and the peanut's identity crisis is readily apparent in its name, so for everyday use it's probably easier just to go with the broad culinary definition of a nut and leave it like that!

Hope you enjoyed it!

PD: Here it´s the nut consumption chart, so you can see how important knowing all this is.

 

What about eating a toad in a hole?

What would you think if we suggested you to have TOAD IN THE HOLE?? You would definitely think that we are crazy and a little bit disgusting, wouldn´t you? But no worries!! We don´t have such bad taste, as what we are offering you is a typical English dish.

A Toad in the Hole is a delicious and tasty British delicacy, and, as a matter of fact, it doesn´t have a single piece of this reptilian, as the main ingredient here is a very simple one, sausages! These sausages are made of pork, and are baked in Yorkshire pudding batter, to be exact.

Why naming it Toad in the Hole? This name was given to this plate during the nineteenth century, and the reason why they named it this way is quite simple: People at those times took a glance at this dish and thought that it had a resemblance to a bunch of toads submerged in mud. You can give your opinion by checking the photographs!

Some curious things about this plate would be that its initial recipe did not consist of sausages, as pieces of any sort of meat could be used. Another thing would be the fact that this traditional British, which was created in 1851, was created by an Italian cook called Charles Elmé Francatelli.

A final advice: although many people haven´t tasted this delicious dish because of its name, do not hesitate in trying it, because this plate won´t croak!!

The turkey..bird or country?

What do you think first when I say “turkey”? Do you think in the country or in the bird which is typically on Thanksgiving? Well, what I´m going to talk about is the connection that seems to be between the dish and the country. Which name was created first?

To begin with, it is believed that this bird was introduced to the Mediterranean in ancient times and was known to the Greeks and Romans. This bird seems to have disappeared from Europe and was reintroduced from West Africa by Portuguese traders at the end of the fifteenth century. If this bird was from Africa, why was it called "turkey" in English? Probably because it was introduced to England by the so-called "Turkey merchants" who came from the Ottoman Empire. on Thanksgiving? Well, what I´m going to talk about is the connection that seems to be between the dish and the country. Which name was created first?

It's likely the first bird called "turkey" in English wasn't the familiar Thanksgiving fowl (Meleagris gallopavo), but a smaller domesticated bird originally from sub-Saharan Africa: (Numida meleagris), which we now call the Guinea fowl.

Meleagris gallopavo was introduced to Spain from America some time between 1498 and 1526, and thence to England between 1520 and 1541. There were some different names for the turkey in Spanish, but the one that finally caught on was pavo, which originally did refer to the peacock. To differentiate it from the turkey, the peacock is now called pavo real in Spanish (which could be translated into "royal turkey").

In Portuguese, the bird is called peru, despite the fact that the bird was not introduced to Peru until after the Spanish conquest. The most reasonable explanation for the association is that the bird became popular in Portugal shortly after Pizarro conquered Peru in 1532, and the Portuguese made a natural assumption.

Let's talk about the country. Turkey was named for the Turks, which means "a citizen of the modern state of Turkey" or more broadly, "an individual of the Turkic-speaking people." The real question is the origin of the name Turk. The word is essentially the same in many languages, including English, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian (Farsi). It probably comes from some Turkish root. There are two different roots, the first means "strong" and the second "the people".

There are a couple of other theories of how the country got its name, both wrong. The first one claims that the country was named after the first leader of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. But like most Turks, Mustafa didn't have any surname at all until 1934, when he chose Atatürk ("Father of the Turks") for himself. Another theory explains that the English named the country after the bird. But the country was already called "Turki" or "Turkeye" in English by 1275, hundreds of years before the bird was known in the Old World.

English is not the only language that incorrectly associates the turkey with Turkey. Welsh borrowed the English usage and called the bird twrki. But it is interesting that many other languages incorrectly associate the bird with other countries. In many languages (including Turkish and French), the bird is called by names indicating it's from India. This may derive from the confusion between the East Indies and West Indies that was rampant in those days.

In conclusion, there is not a clear fact that helps us to develop a theory. There are many contradictions but it seems that the bird was named in that way in English because of its introduction in Great Britain by the Turkish. I hope it can help you.

Podcast

Hello, my name is Maria José and this is an interview for our blog, in1bite.blogspot.com. We are in the University of Seville with an American girl who is studying here and we would like to ask her some questions about Spanish cuisine and how it differs from the one of her country.

First of all, where are you from?

I´m from the United States, from the state of New Hampshire, in a small town called Rollinsford, it´s about an hour from Boston.

Ok, I´m Sara. When you were there, did you often cook at home or was your mother who did it?

When I was in the United States, my mom cooked most of the meals but I also cooked quite a bit with her.

Ok, so we imagine you do the same here.

I actually don´t cook here, I live with a Spanish woman and her father and she doesn´t like me to be in the kitchen, she doesn´t want me to cook any food, she prefers to do it herself so, although I eat Spanish food, I haven´t had the opportunity to cook any myself.

Ok. Hello, I´m Jesús Gómez and but then, what do you do now, going to restaurants?

I eat most of my meals with my house mom, but I do go out to restaurants sometimes too, but it´s very expensive, so I prefer to eat in the house.

Ok. As you know, olive oil here in Spain is very used to prepare food. Are you getting used to it and its taste?

Yes, we have olive oil in the United States too. We don´t eat it as much as we do here and I love it, so I´ve had no problem getting used to it on a regular basis.

Ok. I´m Lola and are there many differences between the food you were used to eat there and the one from here?

Yes, one of the main differences is the meat. We eat a lot of chicken in the United States, and here it´s mostly ham. I´m not used to eating ham products in general.

Ok. Which is your favourite Spanish dish?

My favourite is espinacas con garbanzos. (Laugh)

Ok, and do you use the internet to learn about Spanish gastronomy?

Yes, I use the internet and I´m also taking a class that´s teaching me quite a bit about the history of it.

Hello, my name is Pablo Sheahan. After having shown you our blog, what do you think about it? 

I really like it. I think it´s very simple, to the point and easy to understand.

Good. Do you know some food´s name we could add in it?

Well, one food would be hamburgers. They´re very popular in the United States and the origin of them actually doesn´t make any sense ´cause we use cow products rather than ham products to eat them.

Hi, I´m Pablo. And finally, if you could take a representative food of Spain to your country, which one would you carry?

I´d probably take jamón ibérico. (Laugh) I think it´s easy to transport and it´s very typical of Spain.

Thank you so much! 


Thank you!

The Egg Cream: neither eggs nor cream.

Apparently, the egg cream is a beverage whose name fits perfectly to it, but when I explain its etymology, we’ll realize that this name has little to do with it!! The Egg Cream consists of chocolate syrup, milk and soda water (Seltzer), probably dating from the late 19^th century and specially associated with Brooklyn, home of its alleged inventor Louis Auster, who owned a candy shop.
In taste, an egg cream is somewhat similar to an ice cream soda.

The surprising thing is that, although the name of this drink contains “eggs” and “cream”, its preparation lacks of them!! It’s the reason why different theories to explain its origin appeared in order to try to give meaning to its name;

The first one has to do with the classification with respect to the quality of the milk used to prepare it; so, since its quality was “A” this drink was called Chocolate “A” cream. Probably the sound “A” was mistaken for the word “egg”, remaining “Chocolate Egg Cream” instead of its real name.

Stanley Auster (Louis Auster’s grandson) provided us with another theory. He points to this misconception in the name as a corruption of the German (and also Yiddish) word “echt”, meaning genuine or true. This means that what Germans and Jews considered a genuine or good cream, it became “Egg Cream”; nothing related to the conception those people had of the beverage and, at the same time, fact that diverts us from its original meaning.

It’s is said that its name might come from an attempt of capitalizing on the name, as in the late 19^th century there were already many chocolate dessert drinks using actual eggs in their recipes, and it’s possible that its author wanted to do that to make of this drink an special one, and to stand it out from the others. But, around 1885 the author of the book “Fix the Pumps” fall apart the existing theories and made a historical look at soda fountains, claiming that the “New York Egg Cream” was a variation of the original milkshake served at soda fountains throughout America in the late 19^th century but that it was mostly created to keep the price of milkshakes low. He thought that milkshakes were expensive because they contained “eggs” and “cream”, so, this new beverage was created removing these ingredients to make it cheaper! It’s the reason why it became described as “poor man’s soda”.

Another explanation is that the term comes from the request

“chocolat et crème”, expression used by someone who tasted something similar in Paris, and that this changed later into this current version “Chocolate Egg Cream”.

It is also thought that when this drink appeared firstly, it was made with eggs and cream, but that due to the limitations there were in the World War II, they were dropped from the recipe. However, equally looking at the past there are other theories pointing at the name of this drink as a name that has been acquired because of its resemblance with the old term “Egg Cream”, an American concept that refers to beaten egg whites remaining the foam and resembling, to a large degree, this beverage.

Having this information, now it’s your turn! You can think about which of these hypotheses you agree with.

Hope you enjoyed!

Magic everywhere!

What would you say if you were in Australia and someone ask you: “Do you want a piece of fairy floss?” At first you would say: “a piece of what?” and then you would probably imagine something similar to the fairy cakes, small and “made by fairies”. But in this case, you would be partially wrong. Perhaps the terms “candy floss” or “cotton candy” sound more familiar to you, but just in case some of you still don´t know what fairy floss is, I´m going to tell you. 

Fairy floss is the term used in Australia for naming a form of spun sugar, a light and very sweet candy of threaded sugar which is twirled onto a stick. Since fairy floss is mostly air, a small initial quantity of sugar generates a tremendously greater final volume, causing servings to be physically large and voluminous. Now, let´s go back to its history to know the reason for this Australian and magical name. 

Most people think that the origin of "fairy floss" dates from the late 19^th century, but that´s not correct. This candy dates from the 1400s in Italy when it was called “spun sugar” and was made by melting sugar in a pan and then using a fork to make strings of sugar over an upside down bowl. This process was expensive, difficult and time consuming, so only the wealthy could have it. That´s why in 1897, the dentist William Morrison and the confectioner John C. Wharton (Nashville, Tennessee) invented the first electric machine for spinning sugar into edible threads which were often coloured, almost always in pink.

Then, they introduced it in 1904 at the St. Louis World´s Fair and sold, with great success, 68.655 boxes of spun sugar with the name of “Fairy Floss”, “floss” for its texture and “fairy” because it was the perfect fair food: it fitted in the fair atmosphere, with the castles, dragons and fairy tale creatures. That´s the reason why I said before that you would be partially wrong, it is not called “fairy” for the magical creatures, but for the place in which it was eaten. From then on, candy stores started to purchase this machine and to sell fairy floss, and in 1970s an automatic machine was created which made the product and also packaged it, making it easier to produce and to sell this candy at carnivals, fairs and stores.

  

The terms I first mentioned are the different names this candy has in other countries, “candy floss” in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and South Africa, and “cotton candy” in the US and Canada,  being the latter invented in 1920s in New Orleans by the dentist Joseph Lascaux.

A few curious and interesting things are that fairy floss is still as popular today as it was in the days of lords and ladies. Now people can purchase their own fairy floss machine to enjoy this candy at home or buy it in nearly every grocery store, without the necessity of being in a fair, a carnival or a circus. In addition, fairy floss is so culturally important that the US celebrates the National Cotton Candy Day on December 7, it appears in some American and English films and we can also see it in Katy Perry´s video “California gurls” as if it were clouds. 

In short, what would childhood be without it? It's soft, sweet, brings memories of summer days spent under the circus tent or through the country fair's exhibits and the most important thing, it makes us happy!

Hope you enjoyed it!