Herbs and spices mentioned in first Latvian cookbooks

The cookbook “The First Cookery Book Translated from German books” was published near Valmiera in 1795 by the German priest of Rubene Christoph Harder. It was the first cookbook in Latvian language with 414 food recipes. One year later, in 1796, “Latvian cookbook for manor chefs on teaching to cook and prepare all kinds of gentlemenʼs dishes” was published in Jelgava, also in Latvian, and contained 560 food recipes. In these two books, a variety of herbs and spices are mentioned such as the following: chervil, chives, endive, marjoram, parsley, parsnip, thyme, almonds, bay leaf, caraway, cardamom, capers, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, lemon peel, lovage, nutmeg as well as nutmeg flowers, pepper, vanilla etc. These ingredients can be found practically in all recipesʼ chapters – soups, meat and fish dishes, vegetables, pates, desserts – with the aim to enrich the flavour and taste of the dishes as well as to make their texture juicier. As salt was not used in big quantity, by additives of herbs and spices, the sweetness and the bitterness of served dishes was balanced.

This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Science, project “National Identity: Gastropoetic Aspect. Historical, International and Interdisciplinar Contexts” No. Izp-2019/1-0294.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
12. Dezember 2022