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ut that no period recipes more elaborate than “fried in oil and with salt and pepper” are known.
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Capsicum Peppers
The term “pepper” refers to two entirely different groups of plants. The spice pepper, both
black and white, is the fruit of any of a group of related Old World trees and is routinely
mentioned in period cookbooks. The capsicum peppers, which include both hot peppers (chili,
cayenne, paprika, etc.) and sweet or bell peppers, are New World. According to the OED, the first
English use of the word “chili” is in 1662. According to Dewitt and Gerlach, there is a Spanish
reference to hot peppers from the New World in 1493; apparently the seeds had been brought
back by Columbus. They assert that peppers are mentioned in Italy in 1526 and in Hungary (in a
list of foreign seeds planted in a noblewoman’s garden–as “Turkish Red Pepper”) in 1569. They
also say that “according to Leonhard Fuchs, an early German professor of medicine, chiles were
cultivated in Germany by 1542, in England by 1548, and in the Balkans by 1569.” Assuming that
both the dates they give and those they attribute to Fuchs are correct, it sounds as though chile
peppers, at least, had spread through much of Europe by 1600. This does not, however, imply that
they were in common use. We have not found any period recipes using capsicum peppers, nor
period references to their being served at feasts.
Beans
Some beans are New World, some Old World. Crosby lists “lima, sieva, Rangoon,
Madagascar, butter, Burma, pole, curry, kidney, French, navy, haricot, snap, string, common, and
frijole bean” as American and mentions that soybeans are Old World. Broad beans, aka fava
beans, are also Old World, as are lentils, chickpeas and the black-eyed bean (Vigna unguiculata).
According to Crosby, the haricot bean “was in Europe by at least 1542, for in that year the
botanists Tragus and Leonard Fuchs described and sketched it. It was probably grown in
appreciable quantities in France by the end of the century; otherwise, why would the Englishman,
Barnaby Googe, write of it as the 'French bean' in 1572?” There is also one reference to kidney
beans and French beans being grown in the Middle East in the 1570's (Crosby). Some Old World
beans were known in Asia but not, as far as we know, in Europe or the Middle East; these include
soy beans in China and mung beans in India.
Peanuts
With peanuts as with corn, there has been some controversy over origin. The OED describes
them as native to the New World and West Africa. Higgins discusses the evidence at some length
and concludes that the peanut is a New World plant introduced into West Africa early in the
sixteenth century, probably by the Portuguese, and into the East Indies at about the same time,
probably by both the Portuguese and the Spanish. European explorers in Africa a century later
observed peanuts, maize, cassava, and tobacco, and concluded that they all were native. He cites
Chevalier, Auguste, “Histoire de L'Arachide.,” Rev. Bot. Appl. & d'Agr. Trop. 13 (146 & 147):
722-752. According to Cosby, peanuts were grown in China in the sixteenth century.
There is some archeological evidence for peanuts in China at a much earlier date, briefly
discussed by Simoon; my conclusion from his discussion is that the evidence is probably wrong.
The OED reports no uses of “peanut” (or “groundnut” as a synonym for “peanut”) prior to the
eighteenth century.