Food History -- Sauerkraut came from Kimchee!

I heard this mentioned on the radio this morning and it completely fell into place for me. The Mongols and the Koreans have similar language and culture -- the Koreans remember a prehistoric nomadic past. And Sauerkraut is fermented cabbage, the process of producing Sauerkraut is pretty much identical to the process of producing kim-chee, except for the hot pepper etc. (before 1492, hot pepper would not have been involved in kim-chee making). So we can basically assign a date for the European discovery of Sauerkraut -- 1241, when the Mongols advanced as far west as they were ever going to get. They were at the gates of Vienna, and halfway across Poland, when one of their leaders died and the expansion stopped. The advantages of Sauerkraut are obvious, it preserves cabbage which might otherwise spoil and it's got some good vitamins in it, and the bacteria are the "good" kind.

In fact it is parallel with another European discovery. The Turks (closely related to the Mongols) gave up their attack on Vienna in 1648, and when looting through their encampments, the Viennese discovered COFFEE which became a craze in Europe...

I know that online sources say we got our Sauerkraut thousands of years ago. I think this is simply wrong, and the same online sources seem to think that the Mongols are "Chinese" which is quite a stretch...

In fact it is parallel with another European discovery. The Turks (closely related to the Mongols) gave up their attack on Vienna in 1648, and when looting through their encampments, the Viennese discovered COFFEE which became a craze in Europe...

and the pretzel bakers of Vienna were allowed to show the royal crest on their signs after the 1648 siege of Vienna when they, in the early morning hours of baking their pretzels, heard the sounds of tunneling beneath the city walls and alerted the authorities to the Turkish plot -- or so the legend goes.

Interesting story about sauerkraut, Frank. I've often wondered about the connection.

Mark Lipton

- the Koreans remember a prehistoric nomadic past..

Is this some kind of Jungian/Joseph Campbell thing?

Dale, I don't think so. The Bible has a clear image of a nomadic pre-history for the Jews, and I don't know whether to see it is necessary to discuss that in terms of "myth." The Koreans have a long written history and I think they know that they share an ancient past with their Mongol neighbors. At any rate artifacts bear that out (scroll down to Silla)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Korea

Mark, I had forgotten about the tunnels and the pretzels. It is interesting to spin back the clock and imagine what the old world would have been like without capsicum peppers. It's my guess that Persian food would have been pretty much identical to North Indian food. Kim-chee would have been a lot closer to Sauerkraut. It is hard to imagine what the Thais would have done. Of course there was black pepper in South India so hotness was at least possible...

Mark, I had forgotten about the tunnels and the pretzels. It is interesting to spin back the clock and imagine what the old world would have been like without capsicum peppers. It's my guess that Persian food would have been pretty much identical to North Indian food. Kim-chee would have been a lot closer to Sauerkraut. It is hard to imagine what the Thais would have done. Of course there was black pepper in South India so hotness was at least possible...

I got into some heat (pun intended) with an Indian grad student one time when I mentioned to him that Indian cooking had no chili peppers in it until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th C. He just couldn't believe that earlier Indian cuisine hadn't used chilies.

Mark Lipton

Mark, I had forgotten about the tunnels and the pretzels. It is interesting to spin back the clock and imagine what the old world would have been like without capsicum peppers. It's my guess that Persian food would have been pretty much identical to North Indian food. Kim-chee would have been a lot closer to Sauerkraut. It is hard to imagine what the Thais would have done. Of course there was black pepper in South India so hotness was at least possible...

I got into some heat (pun intended) with an Indian grad student one time when I mentioned to him that Indian cooking had no chili peppers in it until the arrival of the Portuguese in the 16th C. He just couldn't believe that earlier Indian cuisine hadn't used chilies.

Mark Lipton

Goa on with you! Really?