[Sca-cooks] Peppers

[Terry Decker]

The Cambridge World History of Food has a rather interesting article on 
capsicums, suggesting that they were spread by the Portuguese to West Africa 
along with maize as part of the slave trade, then around to East Africa and 
on to India.  "Thus 50 years after 1492, three varieties of capsicums were 
being grown and exported along the Malabar Coast of India." (Purseglove, 
J.W. 1968.  Some problems of the origin and distribution of tropical plants. 
Genetics Agraria 17:105-122.  Watt, G. (1889) 1972.  A dicionary of the 
economic products of India.  Dehli.)

"From India, chilli peppers travelled (along with the other spices that were 
disseminated) not only along the Portuguese route back around Africa to
Europe but also over ancient trade routes that led either to Europe via the 
Midle East or to monsoon Asia."  (L'obel, M. 1576.  Plantarum sev stirpium 
historia.  Antwerp.)

"In the Szechuan and Hunan provinces in  China, where many New world foods 
were established within the lifetime of the Spanish conquistadors, there 
were no roads leading from the coast.  Nonetheless, American foods were 
known there by the middle of the Sixteenth Century, having reached these 
regions via caravan routes from the Ganges River through Burma and across 
Western China."  (Ho, P.T. 1955.  The introduction of American food plants 
into China.  American Anthropologist 55:191-201.)

Capsicums were known in Italy by 1535, Germany by 1542, England before 1538, 
the Balkans before 1569 and Moravia by 1585.

"...except in the Balkans and Turkey, Europeans did not make much use of 
chilli peppers until the Napoleonic blockade cut off their supply of spices 
and they turned to Balkan paprika as a substitute."

Quotes are from the article in The Cambridge World History of Food. 
Citations are sources referenced in the article.  If you are interested in 
the subject, the full article is definitely worth reading.

Bear