Much of what we learned aboutChristopher Columbusas kids is questionable . He did not , in fact , set out to prove the Earth was rotund – most people already knew that by the late fifteenth one C . And whether an already inhabit land can be " describe " is , at the very least , up for public debate .
One thing we know beyond a doubtfulness is that Columbus found food – new and awe-inspiring food for thought in shiny color and bold flavors . European cooking as we know it hinges on what Columbus regain when he mistook America for India and landed in the New World .
We also know that what he and his seamen run through on their way over was not peculiarly bright or bold .
The contrast must have been collide with .
Here , five things Columbus would have eaten on his risky venture . The first is a common seafarer solid food from the clip , and one you ’ll want to do a very loose take on if you let in it in a holiday feast .
5. Carbs!
Many of us have sworn them off . Repeatedly . Columbus and his piece , more concerned with survival than weight ascendancy , definitely eat carbs .
Not , perhaps , the carbs we starve , though . The clams Columbus ate was " hardtack , " an unleavened , knockout , thick bread that could live a long sea journey without spoil . It ’s sometimes promise a sea biscuit . Hardtack was twice baked to help preserve it , reducing the moisture that could spawn mold .
All sorts of preservation techniques help make Columbus ’s farsighted journeying potential . You ’re plausibly more familiar with the next raw material on our leaning .
For a commemorative meal…
Consider fresh - bakedbreador Mediterranean - inspired flatbread .
4. Loads of Legumes
dry legume , namely lentils and attic , were a significant part of a sailor ’s diet . Columbus would have eat plenty of lentil stew , boiled beans and chickpeas seasoned with what the ship had handy – basically , salt .
What Christopher Columbus and his bunch likely did not eat , or at least did n’t eat much of , was fresh meat . That , too , would have been salted .
For a commemorative meal …
Consider lentil soup , hummus or baked beans ( with brownsugar , since Columbus did have sugar on board ) .
3. Salty, Salty Meat
Like dry bean , drybread , and sometimes dried fruits , preserved centre was a basic of sea lifespan . While saucy fish was a possibility , most animal protein sources were salted .
Columbus would have commonly eaten things like salt ( cured ) beef , cod and sardines . salt pork barrel was also a constant bearing onboard . In fact , pork barrel was something that Columbus and his compeer brought to the New World .
Introduction of pork to Mexican cooking apart , for those who like bright , bold flavors , the benefits of a culinary interchange between Europe and the Americas at that time in all probability favored the former .
Take , for illustration , thetomato .
Consider impudent - baked or deep-fried cod , corn beef or carnitas taco .
2. New World Veggies
Columbus and his human , on entering the New World , also enrol a whole newfangled cosmos offood . In Spain and in Europe in world-wide , they would have eat , say , turnip , onion , ail and carrot .
By the early 1500s , Columbus was probably dining ontomatoes , maize corn and sweet-flavored potatoes , all of which had been cultivated in South America for many year .
Hard to imagine Spanish and Italian cuisine without the love apple ( which is actually a fruit , to be technological ) , but there it is .
Last on our lean is a cooking component that many cultures ca n’t do without : spice .
Consider trying maize ( if you could find it ) or go with mellifluous potato pie , a corn whiskey - and - Lycopersicon esculentum salad , or , to coalesce the two worlds , a garlicky tomato sauce .
1. Suddenly, Spices
Christopher Columbus set out to find a forgetful way to the spiciness of India . Instead , he base the spices of America . Columbus would have try out , for the first time , the spicy flavour ofchili pepperand cayenne , along with allspice tree .
The aboriginal may also have introduced him to vanilla and cocoa ( chocolate ) . The Aztecs ate chocolate uncoiled and bitter . Only in Europe did cook summate sugar and Milk River to produce the creamy , cherubic confection we know today .
So by all means , sense free to end off a Columbus Day meal with some drinking chocolate bar , or chocolate pudding or chocolate biscuit . Or a big hunk of evidently - old chocolate . It ’s in the life of the holiday .
For more information on Christopher Columbus , Columbus Day and relate topic , look over the links on the next varlet .
Consider chile , jalapeno poppers , Jamaican jerk crybaby or mole .