[Sca-cooks] Serving stuff over rice

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

I'm inclined to doubt it, if only because a prepared food is more likely to 
 have come after one that occurs in nature.
 
This paper on pasta in the Muslim world cites a reference to coucous from  
the fifteenth century (78, n9):
Les pâtes dans le monde musulman 
Bernard Rosenberger     lien Médiévales  lien   Year   1989     lien Volume 
  8    lien Issue    16-17    lien pp. 77-98
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/medi_0751-2708_1989_n
um_8_16_1138

The  first Western reference I find to couscous is from 1649:

"Ils ne mangent presque point de viandes rosties, &se  nourrissent 
ordinairement de ris, de couscous, de mouton ,de veau, de  boeuf, ôc de volaille 
boüillie."

"They eat almost no roast meats, and feed themselves normally with  rice, 
with couscous, with mutton, veal, beef and boiled meat."
 
http://books.google.com/books?id=VmFUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA281&dq=couscous&hl=en&sa=
X&ei=ypZqUqzpHsj5igLNnoDAAQ&ved=0CO8CEOgBMC8#v=onepage&q&f=false
 

Accounts of the dish manage to reflect racial attitudes pretty quickly  - 
this from 1820:
 
"Fali Loum was the name of the chief; he invited us to enter his hut, and,  
indeed, gave it up to our use. This old man pitying the fatigues that I had 
 undergone, asked my Marabout what dishes 1 liked best. When supper was 
ready, we  all three seated ourselves before a wooden bowl tilled with boiled 
millet, here  called couscous. The daughter of Fali Loum brought us water for 
our ablutions,  and presented it to me on her knees, a kind of homage paid 
to the whites, which  made me prognosticate a successful issue to my African 
 travels.
;In.twenty-four hours, what a change! No rare dishes now, no highly  
seasoned ragouts, no expensive wines; milk, couscous, and water, were our only  
sustenance. The guests raised the food to their mouths, with the right hand  
alone. I was busy in thought, when Fali Loum remarking my want of appetite,  
ejaculated: "Thou dost not find here the good cheer of white men; how wilt 
thou  accustom thyself to our mode of life?" A mat spread on the ground 
served me for  a bed. From fatigue, I felt no difference from that which I had 
quitted."
http://books.google.com/books?pg=RA1-PA10&dq=couscous&ei=eJRqUuPKHYSLjAKa4oC
YCw&id=TnYBAAAAYAAJ#v=onepage&q=couscous&f=false
 

>From 1880:
"Abominable couscous! How many times have I been awakened before it was day 
 by the noise of the pestle with which it was being pounded! I was lodged 
in a  house the ground floor of which was occupied by three or four Joloff 
families,  and every morning, or rather every night, for they were at work by 
four o'clock,  I was aroused from my slumbers by the grating monotonous 
noise of the pestle.  One day I could stand it no longer, and went down to ask 
what it was, and it was  thus that I learnt how the national dish is 
prepared. A mortar scooped out of a  hollow tree, and nearly three feet high, 
contains the millet or maize to be  ground; the negress, who is standing, holds 
with both hands a heavy wooden  pestle, which she raises and lets fall with 
the regularity of clockwork. In  order to keep her infant quiet, she often has 
it tied to her back with a cloth.  Not very hard to please, the poor child 
makes a pillow of his mother's back and  finishes his sleep in this 
uncomfortable position, which, however, seems to suit  him well enough. "
http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA57&dq=couscous&ei=SJhqUqDsM4reiAKor4HIBA&
id=zXoLAAAAIAAJ#v=onepage&q=couscous&f=false
 


Jim Chevallier

Comparing early and late medieval food in  France
http://www.chezjim.com/food/pre-v/comparisons.html

In a message  dated 10/25/2013 6:13:40 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
betsy at softwareinnovation.com writes:
Which brings to mind a query; how/when  was couscous (i.e. tiny balls of
wheat, or pasta) used? Maybe rice came in  later and was adapted to this 
use?