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Capsicum Capsicum annuum |
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Columbus called the new plants 'pimiento'
and most Europeans seemed happy to also call them peppers.
Fearing that this new cheap spice would supplant their
expensive black pepper, the Dutch tried to enforce the
Mexican Indian's name for the plant, chilli.
Today, we swap the names around a
bit, but mostly call them
capsicums in Australia, the English and Americans call
them sweet bell peppers and we all reserve the chilli tag
for the hot smaller varieties. It doesn't matter much
what they're called. They've been cultivated in South America for thousands of
years and are depicted on pre-Columbian ceramics dating from 5000 BC. In Europe,
after Columbus, they were adopted eagerly around 1500 AD and they quickly spread
to India and Eastern Asia from there.
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There a
PDF document
dedicated to the culinary
adventures of Christopher Columbus as part of the site of Tuscan wine producer, Castello Banfi.
Written by Lucio Sorré it has some translation quirks from the
Italian, not the least is the title. There are even
some recipes
linked to the legacy of food introduced by Columbus.
 
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