This is a post about a revelation I had several years ago that finally clicked on what I have eaten all around this world, and what I have cooked and learned about various cuisines while writing PattyCooks. In short, there are universal dishes all around this planet, and throughout time. Yes there are differences, but they are similar enough that they should really be described as variations on a theme.
—**—
Human Occupied Continents
By most standards, there is a maximum of seven continents, even though many folks may combine Europe and Asia, given they are one solid landmass: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. Although people now live permanently or temporarily on all of these land masses, I am going to exclude Antarctica since it is the one land mass without permanent human habitation.
On each of the 6 continents with human habitation we find very unique and geographically specific cuisines. However, all of them have some dishes in common:
- Casseroles
- Schnitzel
- Stew
- Flat bread
- Dumplings
- Porridge
Even scientifically, there is an agreement that there exists a wide variety of flat breads, and other foods, around the world. So the concept of there being similarities, even without ”cross pollination” of cultural ideas is feasible.
My contention here is that every continent has its own version of these dishes. To prove that, I will highlight some of the foods and provide links to the recipes on how to make them.
—**—
Casseroles
This is a modern dish that came about after the actual invention of the casserole pot ~1866 ADE (1). Casserole is from a French word meaning “sauce-pan”; defined as a large, deep pan used either to cook something in an oven, or as a serving dish. But Wikipedia also reports that a form of macaroni and cheese is the oldest written casserole recipe found, was created 1250 ADE.
Foods cooked in a casserole generally combine meat, vegetables, and a base starch. Some people, especially in the USA, consider cheese as a necessary topping as well.
This food can sit in the oven to cook, so you can be busy doing other things. It excels as a ”dump dish” for using veggies or meat (often ground) that need to be used before they go bad. Critical about these universal foods is that they can also, cheaply, serve many people with food that fills the belly.
Africa: South Africa’s Bobotie; Cameroon’s Ndolé
Asia: Japan’s Curry doria, Yaki karē; Isreal’s Kugel
Oceania: Aussie’s beef-n-veggie Casserole;
Europe: Italy’s lasagna; France’s gratin dauphinois; Greece’s moussaka
North America: USA’s Mac-n-cheese, green bean casserole,
South America: Peru’s Arroz tapado, Chile’s Pastel de jaiba; and pastel de choclo.
Schnitzel
Schnitzel, to me, is breaded veal that has been thinly cut, pounded, salted, dredged in flour-egg-bread crumbs and pan fried. This can be done with chicken, turkey, pork, veal (beef), and a variety of vegetables like eggplant. But the term here is meant to be a specific cooking technique that is replicated around the world not just with meat, but think of all the dredged-fried fritters out there as well.
So ”schnitzel” is meant to describe a certain food preparation technique:
- Take seasoned food (meat, fowl, fish, or veggies), or a mix of ingredients, form (or beat) into similar thinnish sizes.
- Dredge in some form of flour, then egg (or milk), and then breadcrumbs.
- Fry until there is a crispy brownish exterior.
Africa: South Africa’s European colonialism brought schnitzel (beef + chicken); Egypt frakh pané (chicken); and Namibia’s experience with German colonialism brought schnitzel (chicken + pork); but fritters are nearly everywhere.
Asia: Japan tonkatsu (pork); Korean donkasu (pork), chikinkaseu (chicken); China’s zhu-pai; and Iran shenitsel (veal, pork, chicken, mutton, beef, or turkey).
Oceania: Australia’s schnitty (chicken)
Europe: Germany/Austria’s schnitzel; France’s escalope; Italy’s cotoletta, scallopini; Poland’s kotlet schabowy (pork); created in Switzerland cordon bleu (chicken + ham); Estonia’s cheese schnitzel; Ukraine’s Chicken Kiev
North America: Chicken fried steak; and chicken parmigiana; Cuba’s Steak Milanesa (steak); USA’s Indigenous Peoples corn fritters.
South America: Argentina’s milanesa (beef + veal); Colombia’s chuleta valluna (pork)
Stews
Wikipedia writes: The world’s oldest known evidence of stew was found in Japan, dating to the Jōmon period. Additionally, Herodotus says that the Scythians (8th to 4th centuries BC) “put the flesh into an animal’s paunch, mix water with it, and boil it like that over the bone fire [sic].
So stews are one pot meals served as a main course, it is a thick liquid with various proteins (meat, fish, fowl, etc.), vegetables, herbs and spices, and simmers (not boils) as the food melds together. In the Western world, according to Encyclopedia, meat stews are categorized as “brown” or “white.” This means that the meat is browned in fat before liquid is added for the brown stew; meat for the white stew is not cooked in fat before liquid is added.
The development of using pot-like implements are tied to stews and are thought to have been developed ~10k years ago. Some think the origin of stew was made soon after humans figured out how to boil water, then used readymade containers (like turtle shells) in which to boil water, then added food and bones into that water, then created pottery. The earliest pottery found were Japanese and Chinese, show evidence of being held over fire, and are dated at 18k – 20k years ago.
Another aspect of this food is that it allowed limited foods to serve many hungry people by extending the ingredients, especially starchy ones, into making a flavorful and thick broth. Stews can also be created from lesser cuts of meat, bones that have some meat or gristle left on them, etc.
Africa: Ethiopia’s atakilt wat, key wat; Ghana’s kokonte; and Madagascar’s Romazava.
Asia: Thailand’s kaeng om; India’s murgh kari (curry); Japan’s imoni and yokosuka (curry); Korea’s budae jjigae; and Philippine’s afritada.
Oceania: Kimberly Camp Stew (see video).
Europe: Hungary’s goulash; Ireland’s shepards pie (lamb);
North America: USA’s Beef stew, Brunswick stew (squirrel), gumbo, Tex-Mex chili; and Cuba’s ropa vieja.
South America: Brazil’s moqueca (fish); Argentina’s locro; and Colombia’s sancocho.
Flat Bread
History of Flat Bread
It is commonly thought flat bread is the earliest processed food, and originated in the area of Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt, and the Indus civilization. Wikipedia writes, that in 2018, charred bread crumbs were found at a Natufian site called Shubayqa 1 in Jordan … dating to 12,400 BC, some 4,000 years before the start of agriculture in the region. Analysis showed that they were probably from flatbread containing wild barley, einkorn wheat, oats, and Bolboschoenus glaucus tubers (a kind of rush).
But looking further, SBC reports that 36,000-year-old grindstones discovered in New South Wales, used by Aboriginal Australians to turn seeds into flours for baking. That’s well ahead of other civilisations that started baking early on, like the Egyptians, who began making bread around 17,000 BC.
The reason why flat breads are everywhere is that they have certain aspects that fit into the needs of those ancient times. Research has shown, these breads, whose origin is very ancient, fit well into the context of a subsistence economy: i) they can be obtained from cereals other than wheat, such as pseudocereals or legumes, allowing the use of sustainable local productions from marginal lands; ii) they do not necessarily require an oven to be baked; iii) they can serve as a dish and as a spoon/fork; iv) they can be dehydrated by a second baking process, preventing the growth of molds and extending the shelf life; v) they are transported with little encumbrance.
I think the overarching point is that humans started to make flat breads pretty early in our development, prior to farming, and used what we had on hand or could easily forage.
Making Flat Bread
Flat bread is mainly unleavened, but some do contain yeast (e.g., pizza and pita). The usual equation is flour + liquid + salt = a flat bread. But the actual ingredients can vary as listed below:
- Flour: from various forms of wheat, corn, teff, millet, etc.
- Liquid: from water, milk, yogurt, etc.
- Salt: from various sources
- Just a few traditions or flat bread types add yeast
- Mixture is combined into a batter OR rolled and flattened into a dough
- Baked in an oven, or cooked on a grill or in a skillet.
Examples of Flatbreads
- Africa: Ethiopia’s injera made with teff (lahoh is made with wheat), kocho made with enset plant (aka flase banana), and himbasha; East African’s chapati made from wheat; Morocco’s medfouna and msemen; Algeria’s kesra; and South Sudan’s kisra made with millet.
- Asia: India’s paratha, roti, papadum and naan; Israel’s matzo; Turkey’s yufka; Lebanon’s manakish; Malaysia’s Roti Canai; and China’s shaobing.
- Oceania: Australia’s Aborigine’s damper made with millet, wattle seed, pigwig, mulga, bush bean or dead finish seed.
- Europe: Scotland’s bannock made with barley, oats, or rye; Italy’s pizza, focaccia, or farinata made with garbanzo flour; Span’s coca; Norway’s lefse (mixed with potatoes); Sweden’s knäckebröd; Greek’s pita; Icelandic’s flatbrauð made with rye; and Armenia’s lavosh.
- North America: Mexico’s tortillas made with corn; Canada’s ploye a traditional Acadian flatbread; Jamaica’s bammy made with cassava; USA’s Indigenous Peoples made frybread,
- South America: Argentina’s Fainá made with garbanzo flour and arepa made from corn, Venezuela’s casabe made with casava flour,
Dumpling
Dumpling History
Most experts seem to believe that dumplings were invented by the Chinese, and some specifically mention medicine practitioner Zhang Zhongjing. But not everyone agrees, and the main reason is doubt about when the Chinese had good enough flour milling technology to make the little dough-based dumplings China is known for making.
Others trace the dumpling origin to Central Asia, and the migration from there of the Turkic peoples, defined as a collection of ethnic groups whose members live everywhere from Turkey to Siberia to parts of China. As with many dishes, the first recipes for dumplings appear in Apicius, a Roman cookery text. But, the first use of the actual term “dumpling” was found in an English text from the 1600 ADE.
Similar to flat breads, dumplings are thought to have a humble, poor or peasant origination. It is believed this dish was most likely another early way to make food go further, transport better, and perhaps even preserve food. For example, it would allow a cook to feed limited meat by mixing it with onions or cabbage and other veggies stuffed in a belly-filling dough. Taking a pocketed meal out to the field for lunch was easier to carry and eat without extra utensils. And this was a good way to use slightly-rancid meats or ”tipping” veggies by combining, adding flavor, perhaps a dipping sauce, and essentially hiding what is being fed.
Making Dumplings
A dumpling, in the largest, broadest definition, is a dish made with flour of some sort, a bit of salt, small pieces of dough that can be filled or not, savory or sweet, served with dipping sauces or not, added to soups or not, and cooked in a variety of ways.
- Africa: Ghana’s fufu from pounded cassava flour; South Africa’s Amadombolo
- Asia: India’s samosas; China’s wontons, shumai, + potstickers ; Japan’s mochi
- Oceania: Australia’s dim sim; Papa New Guinea’s saksak
- Europe: Span’s empanadas are filled; Poland/Ukraine’s filled pierogi; Italy’s ravioli; Germany’s various dumplings, dampfnudeln; spätzle and knödeln (balls made from potatoes or bread); and Sámi’s reindeer blood dumplings; more Jewish than one country’s matzo balls.
- North America: Dumplings are a biscuit dough served in soup, Mexico has tamale
- South America: Brazil has Coxinhas
Grain or Cereal Porridge
History of Porridge
The history behind the preparation of rice porridge has been documented in China for ~4,500 years. In other regions of Asia, quinoa was consumed in the form of porridge ~3,000 years ago.
The origin of the word “porridge” traces back to pottage, a variation of the French word for soup: ‘potage’. And some say to the word pot as in the saucepan. The word porridge however was not used until the 17th century, while the practice of chopping or grinding cereals or seeds, and cooking them in a pot in water, broth, or milk is much older (1). Wikipedia writes: The most ancient evidence of porridge dates back to paleolithic hunter-gatherers in Southern Italy, becoming more commonplace during the neolithic period.
Then the next leap was suggested as the thickening of the porridge, or accidently dropping porridge on a griddle, may have lead to a new cooking innovation: from porridge to bread – can be proven almost simultaneously and on all continents (2).
- Africa: Zimbabwe’s sadza made with cornmeal; Ethiopia’s kinchi made with cracked wheat; Angola’s funje with cassava flour; Morocco’s Bessara made with pureed beans.
- Asia: All over variations of Conjee.
- Oceania: Kiwirrkurra Peoples used warrilyu seed to grind into a paste and eat as a cold gruel or eucalyptus-flavored porridge (3).
- Europe: Central European kasha; Italian’s polenta; and Scotland’s oatmeal.
- North America: Wampanoag Peoples made nasaump, a cornmeal porridge; USA Indigenous Peoples grits; and Mexican’s champurrado.
- South America: Brazil’s pirão.
— Patty
—*—
