Mediterranean cuisine
Mediterranean cuisine is the food and methods of preparation used by the people of the Mediterranean Basin. The idea of a Mediterranean cuisine originates with the cookery writer Elizabeth David's book, A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950) and was amplified by other writers working in English.
Many writers define the three core elements of the cuisine as the olive,
The region spans a wide variety of cultures with distinct cuisines, in particular (going anticlockwise around the region) the
The historical connections of the region, as well as the impact of the Mediterranean Sea on
The cooking of the area is not to be confused with the
Geography
Various authors have defined the scope of Mediterranean cooking either by geography or by its core ingredients. Elizabeth David, in her A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950), defines her scope as "the cooking of the Mediterranean shores" and sketches out the geographical limits:[2]
from
Despite this definition, David's book focuses largely on Spain, France, Italy, and Greece.[4]
She defines this region as coextensive with the range of the olive tree: "those blessed lands of sun and sea and olive trees".[2] The olive's natural distribution is limited by frost and by availability of water. It is therefore constrained to a more or less narrow zone around the Mediterranean Sea, except in the Maghreb and in the Iberian Peninsula, where it is distributed more widely, and on the islands of the Mediterranean, where it is widespread.[5][2]
The Tunisian historian Mohamed Yassine Essid similarly defines the region by the olive's presence, along with bread, wheat, and the grape as the "basic products of Mediterranean folk cuisine":[6]
Mediterranean cuisine is defined by the presence of fundamental elements which are said to play a more important role than others, reflecting a community of beliefs and practices which transcend religions, languages and even societies. The olive tree, the emblematic tree on more than one account, traces the bounds of a frontier of landscapes and lives on either side of which the Mediterranean begins or ends. Above
Montelimar, nicknamed "Gates of Provence", is the limit of the olive.[6]
Other authors question that there is any such common core:
The belief in a common core, emerging from a claim to authority over that kernel of "Mediterranean-ness," is what underlies writing describing the culinary Mediterranean, yet it seems that only from far away does a unified Mediterranean exist. The closer one gets to that common core, the less it is visible, until the food of Umbria comes to seem entirely different from the food of Tuscany, and to compare either to the food of Greece would be absurd. The very idea of a Mediterranean ensemble—be it onions and olive oil and tomatoes or some other combination entirely—presupposes not only a shared history but a unified history, an imagined moment in which the Mediterranean presented a single culture that over time has, like a language, split and branched and flowered into the wild variety of contemporary cuisine.[4]
Some writers include the cuisines of the eastern Adriatic coast of Dalmatia – Albanian, Montenegrin, and Croatian, while most do not mention them. Some writers also include areas not touching the Mediterranean Sea or supporting olive cultivation, including Serbian, Macedonian, and Portuguese cuisine.[7]
Key ingredients
Essid identifies the "trinity" of basic ingredients of traditional Mediterranean cuisine as the olive, wheat, and the grape, yielding oil, bread, and wine respectively.[6] The archaeologist Colin Renfrew calls this the "Mediterranean triad".[8]
Olive
The olive appears to come from the region of
The olive yields bitter fruits, made edible by curing and fermentation, and olive oil. Some 90% of the fruit production (1996) goes into olive oil.[13] The Mediterranean region accounts for the world's highest consumption of olive oil: in 2014, the highest-consuming country, Greece, used 17 kg[a] per head; Italy, 12 kg, Spain, 13 kg; the United States for comparison used only 1 kg per head.[14]
Wheat
Wheat was domesticated in the
Wheat is a staple food in the Mediterranean region. Wheat
Grape
The grape was domesticated between 7,000 and 4,000 BC between the
Grapes are mostly grown for making wine and vinegar as basic components of the Mediterranean diet, as well for drying as
History
Concept
The concept of a Mediterranean cuisine is very recent, probably dating from the publication of David's A Book of Mediterranean Food (1950).[24] David herself did not use the term, speaking instead of Mediterranean "food", "cookery", or "cooking".[25] The usefulness of the concept is disputed. Carol Helstosky, author of the book Food Culture in the Mediterranean (2009), is among the authors who use "Mediterranean cuisine" interchangeably with "Mediterranean food". In the preface to her book she writes: [26]
Mediterranean food is incredibly popular: pasta, pizza, sausage, wine, gyros,[b] kebab, and falafel can be found just about everywhere. Food experts and cookbook authors adore Mediterranean cuisine ...[26]
Essid acknowledges that "geographical differences and the vicissitudes of history" have affected the food of different Mediterranean lands, but nonetheless asserts that:[27]
Rules for the preparation and consumption of food are common to the lands that border the Mediterranean. They offer both stability, continuity and reproduction of a specific pattern of eating which resists conquest, invasion, colonisation, social change, industrialisation and urbanisation. Consequently, wherever you go, in southern Europe or the lands bordering the southern Mediterranean, you will find a cuisine and gastronomic ritual which is always familiar.[27]
On the other hand, Sami Zubaida argues in his book Culinary Cultures of the Middle East (1994) that:[28]
The idea of the "standard Mediterranean" ... is a modern construction of food writers and publicists in Europe and North America earnestly preaching what is now thought to be a healthy diet to their audiences by invoking a stereotype of the healthy other on the shores of the Mediterranean. Their colleagues in Mediterranean countries are only too willing to perpetuate this myth. The fact of the matter is that the Mediterranean contains varied cultures.[28]
The cookery author Clifford A. Wright wrote in 1999: "There really is no such thing as 'Mediterranean cuisine'. At the same time, we seem to know what we mean when we use the expression ..."[29] Wright argued that David's book itself was largely about specifically French Mediterranean food, pointing out that "only 4 percent of her recipes come from North Africa or the Levant", so that the focus was on an aspect of European cuisine, largely omitting coverage of Middle Eastern cuisine.[30]
Since David's time, a variety of books on Mediterranean cuisine have been written, including Abu Shihab's 2012 book of that name;[31] Helstosky's 2009 book; books by other cookery writers include S. Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean (2011);[32] and Mari-Pierre Moine's Mediterranean Cookbook (2014).[33] There are many more cookbooks covering specific cuisines in the Mediterranean area, such as B. Santich's The Original Mediterranean Cuisine: Medieval Recipes for Today (1995), on Catalan and Italian recipes;[34] and H. F. Ullman's (2006) on the cooking of Tunisia,[35] Spain[36] and Italy,[37] each one subtitled "Mediterranean Cuisine".
Origins
The ingredients of Mediterranean cuisine are to an extent different from those of the cuisine of
Another major change was the
Cooking
David's introduction to her 1950 book characterises the cooking of the Mediterranean countries as "conditioned naturally by variations in climate and soil and the relative industry or indolence of the inhabitants".[2]
David identifies "the ever recurring elements" in the food of this extensive region as olive oil,
With common ingredients including the olive, wheat, and grape; a shared climate; and a long period for cultural exchange, it might be expected that a single, pan-Mediterranean cuisine would have developed. Certain items, such as olive oil,
-
Certain foods are pan-Mediterranean, such asgrey mullet.[46]
-
The major culinary regions of the Mediterranean
Maghrebi
Mediterranean Maghrebi cuisine includes the cuisines of Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. One of the most characteristic dishes of the region is couscous, a steamed, small-grained wheat semolina, served with a stew. The dish is ancient, mentioned by the Medieval traveller Ibn Battuta,[51] and found for example also in the Western Sicilian cuisine, especially in the province of Trapani, where it was re-introduced after 1600.[52]
One stew that may be served with couscous is the
Egyptian
Egyptian cuisine has
Levantine
Levantine cuisine is the cooking of the Levant (Mediterranean coast, east of Egypt). Among the most distinctive foods of this cuisine are traditional small meze dishes such as tabbouleh, hummus, and baba ghanoush.[59][60] Tabbouleh is a dish of bulgur cracked wheat with tomatoes, parsley, mint and onion, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.[61][62] Baba ghanoush, sometimes called "poor man's caviar", is a puree of aubergine with olive oil, often mixed with chopped onion, tomato, cumin, garlic, lemon juice, and parsley. The dish is popular across the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa.[63]
Ful medames, originally from Egypt and still a national dish there, consists of fava beans with oil and cumin; it is popular throughout the Levant.[64] The dish may be ancient: dried beans of Neolithic age have been found near Nazareth, Israel.[65]
Ottoman
Ottoman cuisine has given rise to the cuisines of modern Turkey, parts of the Balkans, Cyprus, and Greece. A distinctive element is the family of small flaky pastries called börek. These are popular and widespread across the Eastern Mediterranean region, and date as far back as ancient Roman times. Börek are made of thin sheets of filo pastry, filled with mixtures such as meat, caramelised onion and sweet peppers.[66][67]
Another widespread[e] and popular dish is moussaka, a baked dish of aubergine or potato with various other ingredients: often minced meat and tomatoes, sometimes a layer of egg custard or béchamel sauce on top. In its Greek variant, well known outside the region, it includes layers of aubergine and minced meat with custard or béchamel sauce on top, but that version is a relatively recent innovation, introduced by the chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1920s.[69]
Greek
Balkan
David barely mentioned the non-Greek Balkans, stating only that yoghurt and moussaka are widespread in the region.[4] Some later cooks like Paula Wolfert give a few recipes from Dalmatia, some being Ottoman.[4][7]
Albena Shkodrova notes that the cuisines of the coastal provinces of Istria and Dalmatia were influenced by Venice. She adds that cuisines labelled as "Italian" and "Mediterranean" are becoming popular in the Balkans, which she calls "a historical crossroads of Oriental, Mediterranean and Central-European influences".[73]
Italian
Mediterranean Italian cuisine includes much of Italy outside the north and the mountainous inland regions. It is a diverse cuisine, but among its best-known and most characteristic foods are risotto, pizza in Neapolitan and Sicilian styles, and pasta dishes such as spaghetti.[74][75][76]
Pizza, or as David notes "pissaladina or pissaladière" in Provence (the cuisines of Mediterranean France and Italy having something in common), is a piece of bread dough rolled out thin, with a topping which varies from place to place, but is generally much simpler than those in the English-speaking world.[78][79] In Naples, this is tomato, anchovies and buffalo mozzarella. In San Remo, it is onions cooked in olive oil, with salted sardines. The Provençal variety uses onions, black olives, and anchovies.[75]
Spaghetti dishes also vary. It may be eaten as David says "simply with olive oil and garlic", without cheese, or with a sauce of "very red and ripe peeled tomatoes", cooked briefly and flavoured with garlic and either basil or parsley. One Sicilian variant includes pieces of bacon, onions fried in fat, garlic, stoned olives, and anchovies, served with olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.[76]
French
Mediterranean
Bouillabaisse is a substantial dish from the French port of
Salade niçoise is a colourful salad of tomatoes, tuna, hard-boiled eggs, Niçoise olives, and anchovies, dressed with a vinaigrette.[81]
Spanish
Spain's varied Mediterranean cuisines include the cooking of
Catalan cuisine has developed over centuries since ancient times in a cultural context distinct from that of other parts of Spain. It arose from the cooking of the Romans who occupied Iberia for nearly 700 years, until the latter part of the 5th century. Catalan cooking is a sophisticated cuisine with its own methods and recipes, and was influenced by Moorish, French, and Italian cookery. It shares with other Mediterranean cuisines ingredients such as bread and wine, fresh herbs and fruit, olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, onions, fish and shellfish, rice, pasta, sausages, lentils, chickpeas, and nuts including hazelnuts, almonds, and pine nuts.[85]
Portuguese: partly Mediterranean
Portugal lies on the
Anise spirits
Anise is used around the Mediterranean to flavour various traditional spirits, including:
- French pastis and absinthe[91]
- Greek ouzo
- Italian sambuca
- Spanish anísado
- Balkan rakı
- Levantine arak
- Algerian anisette cristal[92]
Mediterranean diet and cuisine
The Mediterranean diet, popularised in the 1970s, is inspired by the cuisine of Greece, especially Crete, and the south of Italy in the early 1960s.[93] The American Diabetes Association writes about "Mediterranean-Style Eating", mentioning "the traditional Mediterranean lifestyle ... of ... eating healthfully ... together among family and friends", and asserting that "Mediterranean cuisine is plant-based", citing the ingredients "whole grains, fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices, beans, nuts, seeds, and olive oil", and stating that most foods "in a Mediterranean diet come from plants".[94]
The 1984 Guida all'Italia gastronomica states that "around 1975, under the impulse of one of those new nutritional directives by which good cooking is too often influenced, the Americans discovered the so-called Mediterranean diet. The name even pleased Italian government officials, who made one modification: changing from diet—a word which has always seemed punitive and therefore unpleasant—to Mediterranean cuisine."[95]
A changing cuisine
Since David wrote about Mediterranean food in 1950, and indeed since dietary researchers showed in the 1950s that people around the Mediterranean had less
In 2013, "Mediterranean diet", stated to encompass the "skills, knowledge, rituals, symbols and traditions concerning crops, harvesting, fishing, animal husbandry, conservation, processing, cooking, and particularly the sharing and consumption of food" of the Mediterranean basin, was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.[97]
Notes
- ^ A kilogram is about 2.2 pounds in weight.
- döner, meat roasted on a vertical spit.
- ^ Barrels of potatoes were exported from the Canary Islands to Antwerp in 1567.[41]
- ^ The chickpea is the usual base in Egypt; it has been grown in the region for 7,500 years.
- ^ Elizabeth David stated that "mousaká" was "well known all over the Balkans, Turkey, and the Middle East."[68]
- ^ David's recipe is from M. Reboul's La Cuisinière Provençale.[80]
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Portuguese food is not (only) Mediterranean cuisine, but Atlantic, African, Asian and Brazilian cuisine. This comes from Portugal's History of which also a bit of the World's History. Starting with a Mediterranean base that has its roots in the trio bread, wine and olive oil, complemented by soups, fruit, pork meat and fish, the Portuguese cuisine also include ingredients that came from the Maritime Discoveries like beans and potatoes, Indian spices or "malagueta" also known as chilli or "periperi" from Africa.
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We present a food pyramid that reflects Mediterranean dietary traditions, which historically have been associated with good health. This Mediterranean diet pyramid is based on food patterns typical of Crete, much of the rest of Greece, and southern Italy in the early 1960s, where adult life expectancy was among the highest in the world and rates of coronary heart disease, certain cancers, and other diet-related chronic diseases were among the lowest.
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[Nominated by] Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Italy, Morocco and Portugal
Bibliography
Media related to Mediterranean cuisine at Wikimedia Commons
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- David, Elizabeth (1988) [1950]. A Book of Mediterranean Food. Dorling Kindersley [John Lehmann].
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