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Researchers find evidence of a 2000 year old curry, oldest ever found in SE Asia
- intrasight 3y agoIt would be tasty with the 2000 year old honey they have found.
- DANmode 3y agoIt could be. You don't know who made that — it could be garbage!
- jrapdx3 3y agoBy coincidence I noticed this article while in the process of preparing lamb curry for dinner. The article quoted researchers studying ancient spice trade and usage: "Of the 40 tools we analyzed, 12 produced a range of spices including turmeric, ginger, fingerroot, sand ginger, galangal, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon." Quite interesting that curries evidently haven't changed very much over 2K years. Indeed my curry contains 6 out of 8 of those ingredients. Of course many present-day technologies contribute to making spices available in abundance in food markets or online. Compared to ancient times in some ways we have it pretty easy, in today's world making curries from scratch isn't really a high challenge. The article shows that our predecessors were as perceptive as we are, they understood a lot more than we realize. Of course while everything changes over time, fundamental insights tend to retain their enduring value.
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- petesergeant 3y ago> curries evidently haven't changed very much over 2K years The addition of chillis a few hundred years ago feels like a very large change
- barathr 3y agoYeah -- the fact that chili peppers only came to Asia a few hundred years ago isn't widely recognized for what a change it must have been to the cuisine. Just as the fact that Europe had no tomatoes or potatoes until around the same time a few hundred years ago.
- npsomaratna 3y agoYup. In Sri Lanka we calls chilies "miris," and pepper "gam miris" (translation: village chilies). I guess folks originally used pepper as the way to set their mouths on fire; and once introduced, happily jumped over to chilies as a much better way to do so.
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- petesergeant 3y agoOh, interesting! In Thai, peppercorns are พริกไทย, literally “Thai chilli”, where I think most Westerners would think of (and indeed Wikipedia says that) Thai chillis as being bird chilli (พริกขี้หนู, lit “mouse shit chilli”)
- resolutebat 3y agoPhrik kii nuu is a specific type of chilli pepper, namely bird's eye/chilli padi, the really spicy small ones. There are many other varieties: https://www.foodrepublic.com/1295447/what-are-different-thai-chilies/ https://www.foodrepublic.com/1295447/what-are-different-thai...
- naniwaduni 3y agoIs the implication that chili displaced local peppers as the "default" spicy condiment assigned the basic vocabulary item, with the latter relegated to the status of a "rural"/"traditional" variant?
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- jojobas 3y ago[flagged]
- agumonkey 3y agoI think they even perceived more. No post newtonian modeled science but the were constantly face to face with nature and matter.
- sharikous 3y ago> The article shows that our predecessors were as perceptive as we are, they understood a lot more than we realize Who's we? Apart from distributed knowledge in scientific/geographic topics and technological tools who thinks that our generation is somehow more evolved? People have had a perfectly fine intelligence and a good insight for a very long time. And arguably in some topics like psychology, power dynamics or the search for pleasure nothing important has changed for thousands of years
- theobromananda 3y agoThat is sadly common perception (IMHE). Just look at the use of the "cave man" as an illustration of dumbness.
- nemo44x 3y agoIt’s in part a philosophical question as well. In part because in the West we have a strong Protestant history we are tied to the myth of bettering through time. This has been expressed starkly by “providence” which eventually minimized (and then abandoned) the Christian aspect and turned into “progress”. This is our defining narrative myth today. I suspect because the advancements in technology have been so distinct that we’ve generalized into everything. It’s all about getting positive recognition from future people because the people of the past embarrass us. This is why people don’t generally ask “what would the people of yesterday say about us people of today?”. Especially interesting since we owe a gratitude to them.
- kingds 3y agono cumin mentioned though. that seems to be the highest volume spice in most Indian curry recipes I've seen.
- alephnerd 3y agoCumin is a northern thing. Also curry is basically an orientalized term for a soup or stew. If Chorba or Borscht are soups, then most curries are as well.
- giardini 3y agoNobody tried it? What kind of food explorers are these! Dip your finger in and taste it or, at the least, smell it!
- 29athrowaway 3y agoIt's from before expiration dates were invented so for sure it's not expired. /s
- oniony 3y agoGood job you put /s there as I was just about to eat it.
- 29athrowaway 3y agoƨ\
- zer8k 3y agoNo one has taken the 5 second rule to the limit. What are the behaviors of bacteria at infinity? Once the party is over all the bacteria go home disappointed they never got to give someone an upset stomach. For science, I think it's important we test this behavior. We may be able to loosen the bound some. The 6.31e10 second rule could be very useful to physicists.
- Ekaros 3y agoI doubt there is very much taste or smell left. It is well established that spices go stale in couple years, especially when grinded. And this has been around for much longer. Almost all components must have either oxidised or evaporated for volatiles.
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- Finnucane 3y ago"If you've ever prepared curry from scratch, you'll know it's not simple. It involves considerable time and effort, as well as a range of unique spices, and the use of grinding tools." Except that today the ingredients are available at the neighborhood spice shop and the grinding tools are electric.
- CydeWeys 3y agoEh, I use a stone mortar and pestle and it's not that hard. A few minutes' work at most. Many western recipes are more elaborate than having to grind up some spices.
- nsm 3y agoThis is so funny to read and really reflects how availability of ingredients and tacit knowledge really changes perception. Plus having a pressure cooker. Western interpretations of curry are always elaborate affairs. There are many varieties of extremely simple curries on the subcontinent. For example, the Maharashtrian amti. My mom or grand moms can make amti in less than 30 minutes and most of that time is waiting for things to cook and not active participation .
- somewhat_drunk 3y agoAfter 2000+ years of practice, it's no wonder that SE Asian curries are so good!