While the potato was becoming a part of European cooking ever since the Spaniards brought them to the continent in the mid-1500s, the French were not so hot on the potato. They refused to accept the vegetable, referring to it as “hog feed” and believing that these tubers caused leprosy.
In 1748 the French Parliament forbade the cultivation of the potato on the grounds that it was thought to cause leprosy. This law remained in effect until 1772. Potatoes were decriminalized thanks to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who proposed that potatoes should be used to nourish dysenteric patients.
The potato first spread in Europe for non-food purposes. It was regarded with suspicion and fear due to it being a member of the nightshade family. Europeans assumed its resemblance to nightshade meant that it was the creation of witches or devils.
So, it comes as a bit of a surprise to learn that until three centuries ago, the people of France despised potatoes. Potatoes were illegal in 18th-century France, and it took a war with Prussia for the French to realize that today's much-loved vegetable does not cause diseases and is not toxic.
Some people started to be afraid of potatoes being poisonous because they often grew underground in the same plots with inedible plants. They are also part of the nightshade family, which people associated with being created by witches.
Potatoes in Italian Cuisine
However, Italians were initially slow to embrace the potato. Originating in South America, potatoes were brought to Europe from Peru in the 16th century. Their lumpy, gnarly, dirty appearance initially put people off, with some even comparing them to leprosy.
Before the introduction of the potato, those in Ireland, England and continental Europe lived mostly off grain, which grew inconsistently in regions with a wet, cold climate or rocky soil. Potatoes grew in some conditions where grain could not, and the effect on the population was overwhelming.
It's un-American! In 2011, France banned the tomato condiment from school cafeterias in order to preserve French cuisine. The one ironic exception: Students can still eat ketchup on French fries. Phasing out incandescent light bulbs isn't as easy as flipping a switch.
Pomme de terre is the standard French word for potato. Patate in standard French means “sweet potato”. However, in Belgian, Swiss, and North American French, patate means “potato”, and patate douce is used for “sweet potato”.
It became illegal to import polish potatoes into the UK due to the outbreak of ring rot in Poland. If you were planning on importing polish potatoes there is a stringent application process as well as a ring rot test certificate that needs to be provided.
Until the arrival of the potato in the 16th century, grains such as oats, wheat and barley, cooked either as porridge or bread, formed the staple of the Irish diet. The most common form of bread consisted of flatbread made from ground oats.
The New York Mercantile Exchange, one of the largest such marketplaces in the country, exclusively dealt in Maine potatoes. And two deep-pocketed Western potato kingpins weren't happy about it. So the Westerners waged what's now called the Maine Potato War of 1976.
The Origin of Potatoes
The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. Potato History: The ancient civilizations of the Incas used the time it took to cook a potato as a measurement of time.
But while fresh potatoes are a traditional part of the Chinese national diet, they're viewed as a vegetable rather than as a staple, and China's per capita consumption of potato is below the global average.
A grown man in Ireland would eat up to 14 pounds of potatoes a day. Potatoes were many people's only source of food. But why potatoes? During the 16th and 17th centuries, England invaded Ireland.
France. A baked potato is called "pomme de terre au four" in French. It may be served as an accompaniment to a meat dish, or, in a fast-food restaurant called a "pataterie", be the centre of a meal.
Literally, “apple of [the] earth”. The word pomme used to mean "fruit" in Old French. The French construction originated, as calques, Dutch aardappel, Icelandic jarðepli, Persian سیبزمینی (sib-zamini), Modern Hebrew תפוח אדמה (tapúakh adamá), the rare English earthapple, German Erdapfel, etc.
What Are English Jacket Potatoes? If you jump across the pond to England, you'll find baked potatoes just about everywhere, but you might not recognize them at first. That's because they're called jacket potatoes (which, TBH, is just about the cutest name there could be). The difference isn't just the name, however.
Vodka is composed mainly of water and ethanol but sometimes with traces of impurities and flavourings. Traditionally, it is made by distilling liquid from fermented cereal grains and potatoes since the latter was introduced in Europe in the 18th century.
However, in 2013 Heinz was acquired by a new company with a new CEO, Bernado Hees. Hees was the former CEO of Burger King, McDonald's fast food rival. Because of Hees' history with Burger King, McDonald's decided to end its 40-year partnership with Heinz and produce its own ketchup instead.
Chewing gum is banned in Singapore under the Regulation of Imports and Exports (Chewing Gum) Regulations.
Scientific analysis of dental calculus – plaque build-up – of victims found evidence of corn (maize), oats, potato, wheat and milk foodstuffs. The corn came from so-called Indian meal imported in vast amounts to Ireland from the United States as relief food for the starving populace.
Native fruits would've been small purple plums, sloes, wild currants, brambles (that means blackberries), raspberries, wood strawberries, cranberries, blackberries, redberries (no idea what this is; they're probably red), heather berries (Lord Google tells me they're edible but nasty), elderberries, rowan berries ( ...
Vikings ate fruit and vegetables and kept animals for meat, milk, cheese and eggs. They had plenty of fish as they lived near the sea. Bread was made using quern stones, stone tools for hand grinding grain.