The menu for Spanish seamen consisted of water, vinegar, wine, olive oil, molasses, cheese, honey, raisins, rice, garlic, almonds, sea biscuits (hardtack), dry
legumes such as chickpeas, lentils, beans, salted and barreled sardines, anchovies, dry salt cod and pickled or salted meats (beef and pork), salted flour. � The olive oil and perhaps olives were stored in earthenware jugs. � All other provisions were stored in wooden casks which, according to some reports, were of cheap and faulty construction permitting the preserving brine to leak out of the meat casks and moisture to invade the casks of dry provisions. � All were stored in the hold, the driest section of which was normally reserved for those casks carrying dry provisions. � A cooper (barrel maker) was responsible for
keeping the casks tight, an almost impossible challenge. Food, mostly boiled, was served in a large communal wooden bowl. It consisted of poorly cooked meat with bones in it, the sailors attacking it with fervor, picking it with their fingers as they had no forks or spoons. � The larger pieces of meat were cut with the knife each sailor carried. � At the time of Columbus, the only means of cooking was an open firebox called "Fogon." � It was equipped with a back to screen it from the wind. Sand was spread on the floor of the box and a wood fire built on it.
LEGACY
The cuisines of today's world are typically post-Columbian. � What
would many of the Mediterranean's gastronomic delights be without the
tomato or her rich desserts without chocolate, Ireland's shepherds' pie or England's fish and "chips" without potatoes, Hungary with without
paprika, France's Nicoise without Haricot verts, Italy's polenta without
corn, India's curries, Thai or China's Sichuan dishes with the ubiquitous chile, an American hamburger without onions, Mexican carnitas without beef or pork, or Cajun delights without Tabasco�...