2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, petunias and other representatives of the Solanaceae plant family have become so firmly established in our life that it is not even thought that some 200 years ago our ancestors did not suspect their existence, or they staged riots, not wanting to obey the imperial decrees about the cultivation of these crops. A lot of curiosities happened to plants before they became common everyday foods
Potato
Long way to our stomachs
The way to our table of “second bread” of a Russian consumer was not easy. Potatoes, born on the land of South America, had to overcome the restless ocean expanses, and then slowly penetrate into the territory of European countries and Russia.
Of course, the size of root crops, which, as scientists have found, are not root crops at all, but the stem of a plant, which changed its appearance in order to store nutrients for future use, in the wild were ten times smaller. It is through the efforts of human hands and ingenuity that potatoes sometimes grow today, sometimes weighing up to 3 kilograms.
More than 3 thousand years ago, humble potatoes contained toxic substances, one of which was solanine. Breeders have achieved the release of potatoes from poisons. But if the gardener gape and allowed the tubers to lie in the sun, then they are covered with a green layer, dangerous to the human body, since poisonous solanine is present in this layer. Therefore, it is not worth saving, but you should cut off the green layer before sending the potatoes to the pot or frying pan.
Dried meat without chuno, what is life without love
The legendary Indians did not know about solanine, but, apparently, through bitter experience, they were convinced that it was not worth eating the tubers right away, and therefore they subjected them to natural processing. They did not dig out cellars and cellars for storing tubers, but gave them to natural forces, scattering them right on the ground under the blessed heavens.
Seasonal rains soaked the tubers with water, the sun's rays dried them, and light night frosts froze the potatoes, from which they shrivel, becoming even smaller in size. On the other hand, the procedures obtained were beneficial to the quality of the product. The tubers became soft, lost their poisons, turning into an excellent addition to dried meat.
They write that the Indians even had a saying: "Dried meat without chuno (the so-called ready-to-eat potatoes), that life is without love." As you can see, love adorned life thousands of years ago, and meat and potatoes were successfully eaten together (and continue to be eaten), contrary to the conclusions of modern scientists about the physiological incompatibility of these products.
Food and medicine
By the 19th century, potatoes were firmly established on the dining tables in Europe and Russia, and then moved to North America.
Periodic crop failures, provoking famine in European cities and countries, became not so terrible, since people were rescued by potatoes, unpretentious to growing conditions, giving good harvests.
It would seem, what could be so attractive in a potato that is 70 percent water and 20 percent starch? But after all, a person also consists of 60 percent of water, the reserves of which must be constantly replenished. This is where potatoes come in handy.
And even about starch, that is, about carbohydrates that give energy to the human body, and it is somehow superfluous to talk about.
The remaining 10 percent also contains vitamins, including vitamin C, which saved the heroes of Jack London's story, who lived in the North of the country, from scurvy. True, this required fresh potato juice, since potatoes lose part of their vitamin reserves in hot dishes.
Summary
We eat delicious potatoes, forgetting to say "Thank you!" nature for a generous gift.
But, for example, in Romania, people erected a monument to the potato, and in Brussels there is a potato museum, which broadcasts Bach's musical piece honoring the potato.
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Everything new always pushes the way in people's lives with difficulty. The path to the refectory table was long not only for potatoes, but also for other plants of the Solanaceae family. Partly the fault was the toxic substances found in green fruits. But the man managed to "tame" the poisons, diversifying his table with tasty and, as it turned out, useful for the body vegetables
