[Sca-cooks] Serving stuff over rice
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
Fri Oct 25 09:29:32 PDT 2013
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?
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