Gifts from the New World: From Tomatoes to Chocolate

Can you imagine menemen without tomatoes, potato salad without potatoes, or an Indian curry without chillies? Many dishes that feel like ancient traditions are in fact products of the last five hundred years. Tomatoes, potatoes, maize, peppers and cacao only began spreading from the Americas to the rest of the world after the end of the 15th century. In this lesson we tell the story of the great kitchen revolution historians call the Columbian Exchange.

What was the Columbian Exchange?

After Columbus reached the Americas in 1492, plants, animals, people and, tragically, diseases began moving in both directions between the Old World (Europe, Asia, Africa) and the New World (the Americas). The term was popularised by the historian Alfred Crosby in the 1970s.

Some of what travelled from the Americas to the Old World:

• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Maize (corn)
• Peppers, both hot and sweet
• Cacao
• Beans such as haricot, kidney and borlotti
• Pumpkins and squashes, including courgettes
• Peanuts, vanilla and turkeys

In the other direction, wheat, rice, sugar cane, coffee, cattle, sheep, pigs and horses were brought to the Americas. The heaviest price of this exchange was paid by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, who suffered enormous losses from European diseases and colonisation. That painful truth belongs in any history of food.

Tomatoes: from suspicious stranger to star of the table

Tomatoes reached Europe in the 16th century. At first they were often grown as ornamental plants; because they belong to the nightshade family, people in some regions thought they were poisonous and were wary of eating them. Over time they found their way into Italian and Spanish kitchens, but dishes we now consider classic, like pasta with tomato sauce, became widespread much later.

Tomatoes entered Ottoman cooking later than many people assume. It's hard to give an exact date, but most historians believe they became common in Ottoman cuisine mainly in the 19th century. So menemen, tomato-based stuffed vegetables and tomato paste, all of which now seem indispensable in Turkish cooking, are relatively recent.

Chillies: the plant that warmed the world

The chilli pepper may be the fastest-spreading gift of the Columbian Exchange. Thanks to Portuguese traders it reached India in the 16th century, and from there South-East Asia. Before then, Indian cooking got its heat from spices like black pepper and ginger; many curries that are unthinkable today without chilli are the product of this meeting. The chillies of Thai, Sichuan and Korean cooking are part of the same story.

Peppers also reached Ottoman lands and the Balkans. Whether Hungarian paprika spread through Balkan and Ottoman influence is debated, but peppers were certainly embraced quickly in the region. Today Urfa and Maraş chilli flakes, long green peppers and bell peppers are essential to Turkish cooking, and menemen owes half of itself to them.

Potatoes: a slow but lasting journey

Potatoes came from the Andes to Europe in the 16th century, but ordinary people took a long time to accept them. In the 18th century some European states actively encouraged potato growing, and over time it became a staple in countries from Ireland and Germany to Poland and Russia. In Ottoman lands, potatoes are generally thought to have spread in the 19th century. Turkish potato salad, potato patties and potato börek are products of this late but lasting arrival.

Maize: even its name is a journey

Maize was adopted fairly early in Ottoman and Balkan lands. The origin of its Turkish name, "mısır", which is also the Turkish word for Egypt, isn't certain; a common explanation is that it was thought to have arrived via Egypt. Curiously, some European languages called maize something like "Turkish wheat". Black Sea cornbread and kuymak in Turkey, polenta in Italy and mămăligă in Romania are all traces of this plant in the Old World.

Cacao: from drink to dessert

Cacao had been consumed in Mesoamerica for thousands of years; the Aztecs and Maya usually prepared it as a bitter, spiced drink. The Spanish brought it to Europe in the 16th century, sweetened it with sugar and made it a fashionable drink at court. The solid chocolate bars we know today only became possible with production techniques developed in the 19th century.

Look at your plate with new eyes

Without the Columbian Exchange:

• Menemen could contain neither tomatoes nor peppers.
• There would be no potato salad and no chips.
• Indian curries would get their heat only from black pepper and ginger.
• Turkey's beloved beans with rice would star a different pulse.
• Italian pizza would have no tomatoes and Hungarian goulash no paprika.

Cuisines have never been frozen and unchanging. Many flavours we call "traditional" were born when plants that had crossed oceans put down roots in new lands. Next time you make menemen, remember that the tomatoes and peppers in your pan have come a very long way.