Flowers in the kitchen

Although flowers can be part of our diet, there are the plants parts less considered in gastronomy. Apart from providing color and beauty to our meals, flowers can enrich our diet with different nutrients and textures. In this post, we talk about what kind of flowers are used in different cultures kitchens and what benefits they can bring.

ROOT, STEM OR LEAVE EATING?

Maybe you have never asked yourself about what part of the plant you are eating when you consume a potato, a lettuce, a tomato or a sunflower seed but all cited vegetables are different plant organs with distinct properties and functions. Potatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, beets and mandioques are roots or tubers and contribute our organism with many nutrients. One of the functions of the roots is to accumulate reserves for the leaves and flowers development, so these organs constitute a valuable source of high-energy carbohydrates and vitamins. On the other hand, the greenest and crispiest vegetables in our diet like lettuce, spinach and chard are leaves and its function is to do the photosynthesis. His contribution to our diet is very beneficial because they contain lots of fiber, vitamins and minerals. Following our plant tour we can continue with fruits, sometimes called vegetables such as tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, eggplants and beans. The fruits include highly rich nutrients because have their function is to accumulate nutrients for seed germination. They contain fiber, sugars, minerals and a large intake of vitamins. Finally, many also consume seeds and nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and peanuts. These feed us with beneficial fats and essential amino acids, fiber and vitamins.

There are other plants parts less frequently consumed, but all plant organs can have a profit! The stem or trunk is usually too fibrous and hard to eat although some species are made of trunk such as cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum).

And flowers? What role do they have in our diet? The showy and most ephemeral plants part have been used throughout history and cultures to feed us or their uses are limited to ornamentation?

EATING FLOWERS

In fact, we regularly consume flowers although perhaps we do not perceive. In the Mediterranean diet, one of the most popular vegetable is a flower: the artichoke (Cynara scolymus) is an inflorescence from which we only consume the basis of the floral bracts and the receptacle when it is not yet mature. Also capers (Capparis spinosa) are buds used in vinegar in the preparation of many Mediterranean dishes. When you eat broccoli or cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) you are also eating the immature flowers of these plants.

Capers buds to consume and an open caper flower. Source: PresidenciaRD by Flickr.

Another common flower in the Mediterranean, with a very special taste is Aphyllanthes monspeliensis. Its flowers are very sweet and is a delight to eat them while you walk through the countryside. Also elder flowers (Sambucus nigra) are used to prepare delicious and very aromatic bunyols at Spain. The elder flowers are anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and diuretic and they act against colds, fever and bronchitis.

In other cultures, the flowers are used for flavoring desserts and sweets. For example at Turkey and Iran, rose water (Rosa sp.) is used to make the famous lokum or Turkish delight.

Turkish delights aromatized with rose water. Source: Pinterest.

Other flowers used in infusion are hibiscus flowers (Hibiscus sabdariffa). Only sepals are used to prepare an iced tea with diuretic properties, very popular in Jamaica but also common in Mexico and other countries in Central America.

Hibiscus dried sepals. Source: Commons Wikimedia.

The violet flower (Viola odorata) is also very sweet and aromatic. It is used to make a famous candy from Madrid, manufactured from 1915, with calming properties. Viola flowers can also be sued to make pies, jellies and ice cream.

Violet candies typical from Madrid. Source: morenisa.blogspot.com.

The zucchini flowers (Cucurbita pepo) after the stamens have been removed, are used in Italy for a very original pizzas. Similarly, in Greece and Turkey, they eat pumpkin flowers (Cucurbita maxima) batted or stuffed and fried. They are also used in Mexico to make quesadillas.

Zucchini flowers pizza. Source: Gourmand Asia.

Flowers have been used at kitchen from Roman and Greeks time. They used flowers in salads, like mallow (Malva sylvestris), that has soothing and healing properties in infusion.

Flowers add color, texture and beauty to our meals while they can also provide taste contrasts, as they are not always sweet and soft. For example, cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) and nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), both edible flowers have a spicy taste and borage (Borago officinalis) reminds cucumber and can be used in salads, soups or drinks. The chives flowers (Allium schoenoprasum) are often used to add a very special taste of garlic at salads and soups.

Nasturtium flower. Source: David Goehring by Flickr.

Borage flower. Source: Commons Wikimedia.

Some spices come from flowers or organs flower. Saffron (Crocus sativa) is the female organ (style and stigma) of this species bloom, giving color and flavor to spanish paellas. Its cultivation is extremely delicate and expensive: 200 thousand of flowers or 600 thousand of pistils are needed to produce 1 kg of saffron. Spain is the world’s largest producer. Cloves (Syzygium aromaticum), originally from Indonesia, are in fact dried buds of a tree that can reach 12 m high. Its strong smell can help in producing a natural insecticide prepared with cloves infusioned with distilled water and alcohol.

Saffron flowers with its typical red pistils. Source: pixabay.

Maybe not all the flowers mentioned are affordable but we encourage you to include flowers in your meals while learning more about plants cooking them.

REFERENCES

Graziano, X. 2010. Almanaqueo do Campo. Panda Books, Sao Paulo, Brasil.

Cooking also made us human

Cooking is a distinctive and unique feature of our species. After the success of Eating meat made us human, we continue delving into the nutrition of our ancestors as one of many factors that led us to Homo sapiens. We will analyze the contributions of our readers in the previous post on the importance of carbohydrates and the use of fire.

THE OPPORTUNIST OMNIVOROUS

In the previous post we learned that one factor that contributed to the fast growth of the brain was the increased intake of meat by H. habilis, that allowed them to save energy in digestion (Aiello, L. Wheeler, P, 1995). Another factor that allowed saving energy to dedicate to brain growth, since Lucy, was bipedalism (Adrienne L. Zihlman and Debra R. Bolter, 2015).

One of the things that gave us evolutionary success is our ability to take advantage of almost any food, allowing our expansion around the globe. Current diets are varied and traditionally linked to the availability of the geographical area or time of year, which changed with the development of agriculture and livestock. Human groups studied in historical period without agriculture or livestock, hunt, fish and gather very different foods, but no groups exclusively carnivorous or exclusively vegetarian have been found (except Eskimos, who have traditionally fed on hunting and fishing because of the characteristics of their environment, frozen during almost all the year).

Hazda people returning from hunting. The Hadza are a small African tribe of about 1500 hunter-gatherers. Photo: Andreas Lederer

The first tools, possibly used by Australopithecus but obvious since H. habilis, allowed our ancestors to get food that otherwise would have been impossible to get: drilling and tearing flesh, breaking the hard shells of nuts, and later crushing and grinding grain. Thus, the basis of our current supplies are hard cereal grains (e.g. rice, wheat) and the dried seeds of legumes (e.g. lentils), because our needing of protein intake is low, although meat is consumed in excess in the First World countries.

But before the advent of agriculture, our ancestors ate what they found: Neanderthals in hostile areas had to base the diet with meat and supplement it with vegetables when they were available, while in milder climate zones, like the Mediterranean , make use of aquatic resources as molluscs, turtles and fish. Furthermore, by its robust body and increased muscle they needed more protein intake.

Neanderthals collecting mussels in Gibraltar, one of the last settlements of this species. Photo: DK Discover

THE ORIGINS OF THE CUISINE

As we have seen, seeds are very nutritious because they are rich in carbohydrates (especially starch), but low in protein; in addition, legumes must be cooked to be assimilated. No other animal, except us and our ancestors, prepare food or cooks. Cooking is an unique human trait which opened an infinite number of possibilities in our nutrition.

CONTROL OF FIRE

The first traces of use of fire date back 1.6 million years ago in Africa, although the first reliable evidence is a hearth 0.79 million years old. The responsible: Homo erectus, but those who used fire continuously, especially for cooking, were a later species: Neanderthals.

Homo erectus, American Museum of Natural History. Photo: Mireia Querol Rovira

The advantages of controlling fire were numerous and very important, but in this post we will delve into the first one:

• Cooking and food storage
  
• Better hunting and scavenging: fire allowed them to obtain prey hunted by large carnivores or direct theirs to natural traps .
  
• Protection from predators
  
• Heat: increased survival when temperatures fell.
  
• Light: they could extend its tasks when night had fallen, favouring social skills and later, the development of language. In addition, changing the circadian rhythm (24h internal clock) could have extended the reproductive period .
  
• Access to new territories: burning areas of dense vegetation to take dead animals and make use of new areas and encouraging migration to cooler places.
  
• Improved tools: wood tools made with fire are more durable.
  
• Better hygiene: burning waste avoided infections.
  
• Medicine: after H. erectus, the fire has been used as disinfectant and instrument sterilizer and for the preparation of remedies based on medicinal plants, as inhalation of vapors or preparing of  infusions.

  

  Homo erectus surprised by the strength of his spear warmed with fire. Figure by Elisabeth Daynès, CosmoCaixa. Photo: Mireia Querol Rovira

  ADVANTAGES OF COOKING FOOD

  • Variety in the diet: certain foodstuff is indigestible raw or difficult to chew (especially for individuals with dental problems). Stewed food is softer and easier to digest, allowing H. erectus expand their diet respect their ancestors, accessing food of higher nutritional value (Richard Wrangham, 2009). Cooking improves the palatability and increases the assimilable carbohydrate availability in tubers, vegetables… and therefore it gives them more energy value. According to Wrangham and other experts, raw foodism can be harmful to health, because our body is adapted to this “pre-digestion” in the stoves, which allows us to be the primate with the shorter digestive system in relation to the body.
  • Reduction of the teeth: tusks and teeth could have been reduced due to consumption of cooked food. A tooth that has to bite a boiled potato instead of a raw one can be 82% smaller. Less space were needed for chewing muscles and teeth in the skull, so the mouth and face became smaller. This free space can be dedicated to accommodate an increasingly large brain. H. erectus had a brain 42% larger than H. habilis.
  • Less energy consumption: energy and time dedicated to chew and digest cooked food is less, so the number of final calories obtained increases. This energy can be devoted to brain development rather than digesting food.
    
    Possible Neanderthal diet. Photo: Kent Lacin LLC/The Food Passionates/Corbis.
  • Fewer diseases: raw food, especially meat, may contain potentially pathogenic or deadly bacteria and parasites. But from certain temperatures, many of these bacteria die, so eating cooked rather than raw, our ancestors increased their survival significantly.
  • Less poisoning: some plants, fungi and tubers are toxic if are consumed raw, like some edible mushrooms, sweet potato or potatoes with green areas.
  • Food preservation: by smoking meat, it could be kept in good condition for longer and take advantage of it in times of scarcity. In addition, cooked food lasts longer than raw food.

CONCLUSION

In short, cooking was another factor involved in the brain development and cognitive abilities of our ancestors, allowed energy savings to digest and chew food, decreased masticatory apparatus, allowed the young become earlier independent from their breast-feeding mothers (who could mate more often), improved immune system… Even improved social skills: left more free time so they could dedicate it to other tasks, such as cooperation to keep the fire, planning the collection or capture of food, distribution of food in the group acoording to range and health of individuals… intelligence enhanced cooking techniques, which in turn enhanced the intelligence, in an infinite wheel that still exists today.

REFERENCES

• Mateos A, Rodríguez J (2010). La dieta que nos hizo humanos. CENIEH, Burgos.
• Arsuaga J L, Martínez I (2006). La especie elegida. La larga marcha de la evolución humana. Booket divulgación.
• The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrate in Human Evolution
• Butchered bone suggests earlier start to eating meat
• El dominio del fuego
• La cocina nos hace humanos
• Boniato o batata cruda y dioscorina
• Cooking up bigger brains
• cover picture by Mauricio Antón