FOOD HISTORY: TEA: Part 3 - Western Europe

Portugal was the first European country whose sailors successfully traveled around the tip of Africa and into the Indian Ocean basin in search of trade in the East. By 1513, a Portuguese captain, called Jorge Alvares, had reached China.  In 1560, the Portuguese Jesuit priest, Father Jasper de Cruz traveling by caravan between Portugal and China was the first European, personally, to taste tea and write back to Portugal about it. While the Portuguese had contact with China since 1513, it took Portugal two decades more to receive permission from the Ming Dynasty Emperor to anchor ships trading in tea in the harbors around the Chinese settlement of Macau in southern China. Portuguese traders and sailors had to return to their ships each night, and they could not build any structures on Chinese soil. In 1552, however,  China granted the Portuguese permission to build drying and storage sheds for tea in the area now named Nam Van, in Macau. Finally, in 1557, by helping the Chinese defeat pirates who were praying on Chinese shipping, Portugal got permission to establish a trading settlement in Macau. It took almost 45 years of inch-by-inch negotiation, but the Portuguese finally had a real foothold in southern China. The Portuguese established a trade route by which they shipped their tea to Lisbon where tea was readily accepted by the Portuguese. However, because of the high price it could be afforded only by the wealthy or royalty. As we will see later, this fact had an impact on the spread of tea drinking to Great Britain.


From Lisbon, the Portuguese contracted with the ships of the Dutch East India company to transport the tea to France, Holland and the Baltic countries. While tea never caught on in France, Portugal was affiliated with Holland at that time, and tea became popular among the Dutch. Dutch sailors on the ships transporting tea from Portugal to Holland saw the value of this tea trade and encouraged Dutch merchants to enter the trade and by-pass Portugal. In 1602, a combination of mercantile organizations in the Netherlands formed the Dutch East India Company to compete with colonial trade in Asia, particularly against the Portuguese. It was built and organized around the prospect of monopolizing the lucrative spice trade of pepper, cloves and mace, which had made them so profitable. To do this. they conquered and controlled 30 settlements throughout Asia and the entire archipelago of what is now Indonesia. Since the Dutch East India Company had huge resources of money, with their comfortable financial advantage, they took over the Asian trade at the expense of Portugal. However, the value of these possessions was rapidly reduced when Europe’s demand shifted from spices to tea, which was not found in Indonesia.


While the Dutch were the first to bring tea, directly, to European countries,  their slow reaction to the new European demand for tea allowed their main competitor, the British, to make major inroads in the tea trade thru The British East India Company. However, the British did not embrace tea, initially, since coffee was the preferred drink of men in British coffee houses. Slowly, the fad of drinking tea caught on with English women as a healthy and genteel drink. The rise in tea’s popularity and consumption was increased in 1657 when Thomas Galloway started to sell imported Dutch tea, as well as coffee, in his coffee house. Other coffee shops soon followed. An additional and more major factor in the increased popularity of tea in Britain occurred when King Charles II married the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza in 1662. She brought her Portuguese love of tea with her and introduced its drinking into the British court. To please King Charles II, the British East India Company brought gifts of tea from Europe in 1664 and 1666 for Catherine but they did not consider tea worth importing from China. England was the last European country to use its maritime power to trade for tea. In 1600, the British East India company was given a royal charter to use British sea power to compete for the valuable spice trade in southeast Asia and China but not for tea.


While the company had a royal charter, it was not a governmental entity but the enterprise of a band of London businessmen/capitalists using their own ships to compete with the Portuguese and the Dutch. The company, with its royal charter, acted as an imperial arm of England and exercised significant political power which helped create a wealthy and powerful British Empire. This included not only trading for spices but the right to annex land, direct troops and dictate British laws. The company’s encounters with foreign competitors lead to its assembling its own military and administrative departments and it became an imperial power of its own. As stated above, in the early to mid-1600’s, it became the dominant trading power and monopolized the spice trade in southeast Asia until 1668.  Tea only became a serious trading commodity in 1669. In 1669 tea imports from Holland were prohibited by the English government and the British East India Company had a monopoly over all tea imports to England and, also, the tea trade with China. By 1686, tea  became a large part of the British East India's regular trading, was selling in English markets and by the 18^th century, not only was tea the common drink of England replacing ale, but tea changed English dietary norms, as well. (see previous post: FOOD HISTORY: British Tea Traditions, 5/27/2015). The Company  had trading stations in India where it had introduced tea drinking and growing in 1774, and created, rather than conquered, colonies, such as, Singapore and Ceylon. Thus, the company was expanding the British Empire without the British government being involved. Finally, the British government reigned it in 1773 by creating a government controlled policy making body. Further, in 1813, at the urging of the British free-trade lobbyists, the government took away the company’s monopoly and after 1834, it worked only as the government’s agency until the government took full control in 1857.


In over it's 150 years of  time of operation, the British East India Company not only greatly expanded the British Empire but changed the whole English culture, based on tea trading and tea drinking.

FOOD HISTORY: TEA: Part 2 - Russia

While China had trade relations with Mongolia thru Tibet for some, time trading goods with both of these countries for horses to be used in spice trade caravans, tea was first officially traded with Mongolia in the horse trading town of Kalgan in 1571. However, it wasn’t until after 1579 that tea was traded throughout Mongolia. This was an important event in the spread of tea throughout Eurasia. In 1567, Russian Cossacks visited China and tasted tea for the first time and in 1638, a Russian ambassador, Vasily Starkov, brought a present of tea from a Mongolian Khan to the Tsar of Russia.  Later, in 1728, a Russian settlement, Kyakhta, was established in Siberia on the border of Russian Siberia and Mongolia. This became the center of China tea trade via Mongolia between northern China and Russia over a very long caravan route through the Gogi desert. This route became known as “The Tea Horse Road” extending tea trading from China to the eastern boundaries of Europe.


 Because the trade route between China and Russia was so treacherous, the cost of tea was very high and, therefore, only was available to royalty and the very wealthy. However, by the end of the 1700’s tea trade had increased, tea prices were reduced and tea was making its way into regular Russian society. While tea was appealing to much of Russian life style, because it was warm and hearty, for quite a long time, Russian women did not drink tea - they preferred traditional drinks to a hot and non-sweet foreign one. Further, the Russian Orthodox Church did not accept the drink at once either. However, a short time later, tea became an indispensable attribute of the monastic life -  monks appreciated the ability of tea to sustain spiritual and physical strength. When  the British, prominent customers for Chinese tea, were gradually shifting their purchases away from China to India and Ceylon, China became more interested in increasing tea trade with Russia. This was achieved when the Russian Trans Siberian Railways were constructed to cut across the vastness of Siberia to Mongolia and China, making the very long and expensive "Tea Horse Road" journey no longer necessary. This significantly reduced the cost of tea to the Russian people and increased both the demand and popularity of the drink. Over the years, tea became such a large part of Russian culture that a special device - a Samovar – was developed to heat and boil water for tea. Samovars are now very ornate and are kept in Russian homes in “a place of pride”. Next to vodka, tea is now the most popular drink in Russia and, today, Russia is among the top tea consuming countries in the world.

FOOD HISTORY: Tea; Part 1 - In the beginning: China, Asia and the Middle East)

Usually I publish posts in a regular, rotating  sequence;  Things I Like, Cooking Tips, Food Trivia and Food History. My last post was about Food Trivia, thus, this post is about Food History. However, since this history concerns a very large mass of information about TEA, from  its beginnings to its spread around the world, the information is too much to put in only one post. Therefore, this post (Part 1; in the Beginning....) will be followed by three more posts about TEA. Part #2 will be about how tea and its drinking spread to  and influenced  Russia and its culture, Part #3 concerns the same  about Western Europe and Part #4 covers how tea and its drinking spread to and influenced the history of the Dutch/British colonies that eventually became the United states.
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Next to water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world and has a very interesting history. According to legend, tea was discovered in China, about 2737 BC, in the mountainous areas around Sichuan and Yunnan when leaves of an unidentified tree fell into the pot of boiling water that Emperor Shen Nung was preparing to drink. Intrigued by the pleasant scent of the brew, the Emperor tasted it and found it invigorated every part of his body, Further, because it cured him of a stomach ache, he ascribed medicinal properties to it, also. He named the brew  "Ch'a", the Chinese character for, "to check", "investigate". Soon others started to drink Ch'a (tea)  believing it beneficial to their health. Being a scarce and rare product, it was only consumed by the wealthy. However, the demand of the wealthy soon outstripped the supply of wild  leaves. Therefore, farmers  began to plant and grow tea and it became more available and its popularity grew. It started to be used not only for its medicinal qualities but for refreshment and pleasure, as well.




Over the years, tea was processed by various means and drunk in different manners.  Very early, tea was made into bricks by steaming, crushing and pressing the ground green tea leaves into molds. To prepare tea, one pinched off a piece of the brick, put it into a tea bowl, added boiling water, allowed the ground tea to separate and infuse it's flavor into the water, after which it was ready to drink. People drank the tea from the same bowl in which it was prepared. However, this allowed the tea to cool quicker and drinkers had to keep refilling their bowls with hot water if they wanted to drink their tea hot. Later, during  the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), the preparation and the way tea was drunk was changed by the Emperor. He demanded that loose tea leaves, not bricks, be delivered to his court. From that point forward, tea leaves were brewed, directly, and the way tea was drunk was changed. Teapots were made to infuse the tea leaves and keep the tea hot and small cups were developed to direct the fragrant steam to the nose to get a better appreciation of the tea's flavor. While the way tea was prepared to drink had changed from bricks to leaves, bricks were still popular for ease of commerce and merchants trading tea became rich.




The Chinese Empire tightly controlled the preparation and the cultivation of the tea crop - only young women, because of their "purity" -  were allowed to handle tea leaves. Soon, tea and tea drinking evolved into an art form and books began to be written covering proper techniques to grow and brew tea. The making of artistic ceramic tea drinking bowls, pots, cups  and utensils were developed during that time, as well. By the 5th century China was exporting tea to other areas of Asia and later, the Tang Dynasty (618-907) Imperial Court established a Directorate to oversee the trading of tea. They  built an Imperial tea factory  to supply tea to other countries, as well. Tea was given as  gifts to visiting delegations, dignitaries and Buddhist monks from other countries visiting China which helped spread tea and its drinking to much of the Asian world. Further, Middle Eastern countries with large Muslim populations trading with China  started to import and drink tea to replace the stimulating properties of drinking alcohol, which was forbidden to  devout Muslims. Tea was brought to Tibet when Chinese Princess Wencheng was wed into the Tibetan Royal family, in 640. She brought tea with her, spreading tea drinking culture with her to the Tibetans. The  trade between China, for Tibetan horses, and Tibet, for Chinese tea, became  so important that the Chinese and Tibetans established a very long caravan thoroughfare  for commerce between the two countries. This trade route became known as the "Tea Horse Road" and, later, stretched from Sichuan, China  through Tibet extending trade including  tea to Nepal, Mongolia and Burma.




 In 780, the Chinese writer Liu Yu, known as "The Sage of Tea", wrote "Cha Jing", the  first definitive book on tea. This book inspired Japanese Buddhist missionaries to introduce tea into Imperial Japan; tea plants were brought from China in 1191  and planted in the Kyoto hills. Tea became an art form in Japan with the introduction of the Chanoyu Tea Ceremony during the Kamakura period in Japan (1192-1333). The Tea Ceremony is still  practiced in Japan today and tea is still the most popular drink in Japan. Tea had been drunk by people in Asia and the Middle East very long  before it was introduced into the western world. The history of tea trades to Europe, Russia, and, later, to the American continents did not begin until several centuries later. These Western World trades started in the 17th century.

FOOD TRIVIA: Holes in Crackers

The holes in crackers are not there for decoration but to help in the baking process. Crackers are made from dough rolled in sheets. The holes are placed, according to the size and shape of the cracker, with the numbers and position of the holes being of  importance to the final product. Holes too close together will make the cracker hard and dry due to too much steam escaping in the baking process: too far apart and little bubbles form on parts of the cracker's surface during baking, an undesirable effect in most crackers.

Cooking Tip: Keeping Cheese Souffle Light and Fluffy

To keep cheese souffle light and fluffy, substitute quick cooking TAPIOCA instead of flour to thicken the milk base: 2 Tbsp tapioca per one cup milk for a three egg souffle.

THINGS I LIKE: Susan's 9 Layer Salad

My wife Susan and I like salads; salads of all kinds but particularly  layered salads where ingredients are placed in a bowl in layers and a dressing is placed on top. Then the salad is placed in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight to allow the dressing to  "percolate" down thru the layers and dress the salad. Susan has tried several different recipes, all good and enjoyable. Recently, however, she researched Layered Salad recipes and came up with her own version, incorporating a variety of elements from different recipes. It was one of the best we ever had and I share this recipe with you.

Salad should be prepared in a large, clear glass bowl.

INGREDIENTS*

 SALAD
1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
2-3 tomatoes, diced
1-2 C frozen peas
! C shredded cheddar cheese
3-4 hard cooked eggs, sliced
2C chopped ham
1/2 - 3/4 C chopped red onion
1 C shredded Monterey Jack cheese
3/4 Lb. bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled




DRESSiNG

3/4 C mayonnaise
3/4 C sour cream
2 Tbsp. sugar




DIRECTIONS



Mix together ingredients for dressing
Layer salad ingredients, in order, up to  the red onion.
"Frost" top of salad with dressing.
Spread shredded Monterey Jack cheese over dressing.
Refrigerate overnight.
Sprinkle with crispy bacon bits.
Serve.




*The amounts of ingredients can be adjusted to the size of the bowl being used.
  Use your judgement to add or substitute ingredients according to your own taste.

FOOD HISTORY: Parker House Rolls

Parker House rolls, soft-yeast rolls with a signature fold in the middle which gives the rolls their  special texture are a culinary treat which came from the New England area of the United States. The Parker House was founded in 1855 by Harvey D. Parker in Boston, Massachusetts as a hotel and in the 18th and 19th centuries was a "who's who" of American and foreign guests. Since their guests had to be fed as well as given lodging, Parker started a kitchen which took very well to the task. The story of the Parker House rolls being  invented started in the 1870's when an in-house German Pastry Chef named Ward, working for the then Chef, John Bonello, had a big fight with a hotel patron. The baker, in a fit of anger, threw a batch of unfinished rolls into the oven. When they came out they were unsightly - dented and with a big fold in the middle. The inventive Chef thought that with a good slathering of butter on them, the taste would triumph over their looks. He was correct, of course, since the fold in the middle kept them light and fluffy on the inside while the added butter made the crisp outside all the more tasty. These rolls were so popular that they were continued to be made with the  fold and extra butter and became known as Parker House rolls. Later, Parker House rolls were baked in the hotel's kitchen to be sold to other restaurants, hotels and stores. They became a quick hit with the public and recipes started to appear in cookbooks in the 1870's.The oldest printed Parker House roll recipe is from the April 1874 issue of the New Hampshire Sentinel. Because of their great taste and ease of preparation they became a favorite in homes, as well as in restaurants and hotels, ever since. In addition to their rolls, the Parker House kitchen added other things to the culinary world; it was there that Boston Cream pie (sponge or butter cake filled with pastry cream or pudding and frosted with chocolate) was invented. This pie became the official dessert of the state of Massachusetts. Further, the Parker House was an early proponent of lemon meringue pie and where the term, "scrod", the generic name for various white-fleshed fish usually Cod but Pollack and Haddock, also, was coined. The contemporary iteration of the Parker House hotel still exists in Boston  as the Omni Parker  House Hotel where  Boston Cream pie is one of the specialties in their restaurants.

COOKING TIP: Grill smoking

We are now in the season where we have taken out our charcoal grill or "fired Up" our gas grill to  cook meat and poultry in our back yards. Wood smoking, using our grills, brings an added dimension to the flavor of the foods we are grilling. Some tips follow:

GRILL SMOKING

Wood smoke can add an additional depth of flavor to grilled foods. Start the coals, if using charcoal, and add wood - 1/4 cup of presoaked (20 min or longer) - when coals are glowing. When using a gas grill place wood in a heat proof container on one of the burners on high setting. In both cases, close grill cover and allow smoke to interact with whatever you are grilling. With charcoal grill. adjust the vents to allow enough air in so that the wood continues to smolder but not burn. Smoke for 15-20 minutes, at first, and adjust the smoking time further according to your taste requirements. Short periods of smoking started when food is almost done cooking, with either charcoal or gas, imparts a little smoke favor to the food. Smoking for long periods (1 to several hours) with wood added at the start of cooking, imparts a deep smoke flavor to the food. In this case, wood may have to be re-added to the grill several times during the cooking process

SOME COMMON WOOD FOR SMOKING

WOOD                SMOKE FLAVOR                      USE *                      

 Alder                    sweet, musky          salmon, fish, pork, poultry

Apple                     slightly sweet,

                              dense smoky              beef, poultry, ham

Fruitwood             fruity, sweet                      all meats

Hickory                  sweet to strong          all meats, especially ribs

                                flavor          

                                                                                                                                                  Mesquite            strong, hearty flavor      beef, ribs, pork, poultry;

                                                                       favorite for Texas BBQ 

Oak                         medium smoky                 any BBQ meat   

   

* Don't forget that vegetables, onions, peppers, tomatoes etc. may be smoked, as well.

 

 

FOOD TRIVIA: Some Facts About Pizza

1) The word "pizza" comes from the Latin root word, "picea", which means, "blackening of crust by fire".


2) The first known pizzeria, Antica Pizzeria, opened in Naples, Italy in 1738.




 3) The first pizzeria in the United States was opened by Genaro Lombardi in 1895 in the borough of Manhattan's Little Italy section of New York. It is still operating at 32 Spring Street.




4) Pizzerias represent 17% of all US restaurants.




5) Over 5 billion pizzas are sold world-wide each year.

COOKING TIP: Making Better Tea

DON'T squeeze tea bags when you remove them from your cup or you will squeeze tannins into your tea making it bitter. Use filtered water to avoid minerals in tap water which can make tea cloudy or bitter. To prevent food odors from being absorbed, COVER  cooled  tea being used for iced tea when storing it in the refrigerator . Freeze some tea into ice cubes and use as ice so your tea will not become diluted from using regular water ice cubes.

THINGS I LIKE: Lahmacun: Turkish Pizza

When I was a young man working near Greenwich village in New York, I would walk around the neighborhood at lunchtime looking for something different to eat. Once, I don't remember where or what was it's name, I came across a  food shop selling  "Lahmacun" that was described as Turkish pizza. I had never heard of this before. It was a flatbread covered with ground lamb with some chopped onion, tomatoes and Eastern spices, that was baked in a hot oven and served. It was delicious!! On researching it, I found that the name comes from the Arabic word,  "lahm ala adschiin" meaning, "dough with meat" and  that it is  found in Armenia and several countries of the Middle East, each with their own version. I wanted to make it at home but didn't want to bother having to make the flatbread dough. When I found a Lahmacun recipe that I liked, I made the Turkish pizza, substituting  a flour tortilla for the traditional flatbread. While it was not traditional, it worked. Now you can buy flatbread in most supermarkets so if you wish a more traditional Lahmacun, feel free. I still prefer the simplicity and ease of tortillas which, always, are in my refrigerator. The recipe from "allrecipes.com" with my "tweaking" follows:

INGREDIENTS

1 lb. lean, ground lamb
4 Roma tomatoes, halved
4 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/2 C fresh parsley
2 Tbsp fresh mint
1/2 Tbsp ground Cumin
1/2 tsp ground Coriander
1 tsp ground Cinnamon
6 Tbsp tomato paste concentrate*
TT  salt, freshly ground black pepper and Cayenne pepper

Flour tortillas**





PROCEDURE
Heat oven to 500 F.


 Preheat a  skillet over medium - high heat.



Put olive oil, onion, garlic, parsley, mint and spices into a food processor and pulse until the finely chopped. Remove and set aside. Add the Roma tomatoes to the processor and process  until a thick puree is formed.



Put lamb into preheated skillet, reduce heat to medium, and add puree and tomato paste concentrate. Mix well and cook until lamb is cooked through, 10 - 15 min. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne and allow to cool to room temperature.


Add vegetable/spice mixture and mix, thoroughly. (The filling, at this point, can be cooled further and then refrigerated for use at a later time.)



Spread filling onto tortillas up to the edges. Place on baking sheet and bake until done; 8 -10 minutes.





Cut into wedges and ENJOY!







* I use Amore brand concentrated tomato paste. It is available in most supermarkets.

** The number of pizzas this recipe will make will depend on the size of the flour tortilla you are using.

FOOD HISTORY: Fondue

Fondue, derived from the French word,"fondre", meaning "to melt', is a warm cheese dish which originated in the Neuchatel Canton of Switzerland. Traditionally, it consists of at least, two cheeses, melted with white wine and flour to stabilize the cheese in the wine. It is served , communally,  in a pot called a "caquelon" and is eaten with long forks used to spear a piece of bread to dip into the melted cheese. Before refrigeration, cheese and bread were made in the summer and fall and were expected to last throughout the winter. Obviously, the bread and cheese became hard before they were totally eaten. The Swiss, however, found that the hard cheese could be melted and become edible when heated with wine and stale, dried out bread became soft and pliable when dipped into the melted cheese. What was once developed as a necessary means to eat otherwise inedible cheese and bread, developed into a social custom where the Swiss could enjoy a communal meal with family or friends around a heated pot of melted cheese and bread. From Switzerland, the idea of dipping bread into melted cheese spread to other countries. While the original Swiss fondue consists of two cheeses, Gruyere and Emmentaler (sometimes kirsch, a clear cherry flavored brandy and garlic are added) each canton has their own style of fondue. Italians have their Fonduta, made from Fontina cheese and egg yolks while the Dutch eat Kaas Doop, a fondue style dish using Gouda cheese, milk, brandy and nutmeg and use brown bread for dipping. Other kinds of fondue have evolved, not using cheeses but  hot oil into which various tidbits are dipped to either cook or flavor. Bagna Cauda ( from the Italian, bagno caldo - meaning "hot bath",) a specialty of the Piedmont region of Italy, is made using butter, olive oil, garlic and anchovies and is used as a dip for various fresh vegetables. Fondue Bourguignon, a fondue method of cooking meats in hot oil  was introduced by Konrad Egli, Chef at the New York Swiss Chalet restaurant in 1964. Also, in the 1960's,  Egli, working with a Swiss chocolate company wanting to find a way of introducing its new chocolate and nougat bar named Toblerone  in the US, hit upon a new kind of fondue - a sweet one - using only cream, Toblerone and Kirsch brandy into which pieces of  fruit or cake could be dipped. Now there are all kinds  of fondues to choose from and one to please everybody's  taste.