To ask what you think food would be like if tomatoes and potatoes had never arrived in Europe from the new world

[Fragmentedbrain]

What sort of stuff would we be eating? Would your dinner be totally different?

Well I'd think the same as now but without those ingredients.......

I suppose pasta sauces would be very different and fish 'n rice might be a Thing, crisps obviously non existent, but who knows what foods don't exist now that could have been totally different.?

I rarely eat potatoes, but I would miss tomatoes!! Though I guess before their arrival the Mediterranean diet was more garlic, onion, olives and herbs based? So not all bad 😀

Fish and rice is a nice idea actually - had a great fish and rice thing in Portugal!

Probably be a lot of stews and pies.
And pickled food i would say.

You should look up tasting history on youtube. He cooks a lot of old recipes with the history of the food etc

A lot more swede and turnip, bleurgh!

Incredibly I think a lot of people often focus on the 'newness' or 'foreigness' (not sure if these are actual words) of British food. If you say for example spag bol or curry or fish and chips someone will be along to remind you that these arent 'British' even though we have been eating them for donkeys years (dont start about Bologna either)

But of course Italian, Spanish, Indian, Middle Eastern, all those cuisines that we might think are 'traiditional' are also made up of new world foods. Where would most european dishes be without the tomato or aubergine? What about Indian subcontinent foods without potatoes, tomatoes etc chillis etc
What about Italy without the introduction of noodles from the far east

So what we would all be eating probably is meat and indigenous veg, various grains and pulses. Lots of flavourings would be different although again, many of our spices like nutmeg and cinnamon were from the spice trade areas.

Pottage and gruel on the menu I think

I’d be skinnier 😂I’m a potato gal
boil em fry em stick em in a stew

Wheat/Oat gruel type thing, I guess as our carbohydrates. Then protein, either fish and meat, added. Plus, if course, root vegetables, ie carrots, swede, turnips etc

I only eat British tomatoes or potatoes so id be none the wiser probably.

If I cook a roast, there are no potatoes on it as I prefer to fill up on veg.

Yes I eat mince based dishes, but my favourite ones are not tomato based.

I do like the odd packet of crisps, but I'd rather have nuts!

But... They came from the Americas.

I know exactly what it would be like as a volunteer as a Tudor re-enactor and have cooked meals for both gentry level people and working class people, without using any tomatoes or potatoes (or forks! They didn't have those either). Working class people didn't just eat mush. Examples I have cooked and eaten for working class include:

Veg stews of all kinds, including things like onions, leeks, all kinds of pulses, carrots, herbs, garlic, all kings of green veg

Bread

Cheese

Occasional meat and fish

Authentic Tudor gentry level food (for well off family, not nobility) that I have cooked and /or eaten:

Veg stews but also meat stews, using chicken, pork, pheasant, rabbit, beef, with all kinds of herbs or spices to flavour

Various dishes of lentils /pulses

Tarts - both sweet and savoury. Quiche type tarts, could include French cheese in them (imported from France).

Gingerbread

Meatballs

Various fish dishes

Pasta in shape of noodles - yes really

Stuffed things - stuffed mushrooms, stuffed eggs

Salads using fresh lettuce and all kinds of other veg

Stewed fruit sweetened with honey. Marzipan.

They ate very well without a single potato or tomato!

That's the point - there are no native British potatoes or tomatoes. Our cuisine didn't have either until we discovered the new world.

We'd be like medieval peasants - bread at every meal. Oats and barley etc.

This is cool! How much did they eat eggs? I hate eggs so much.

I wonder if we would have obtained food from Asia or Africa, if the exploration had not been westwards....

We did obtain foods from the East, trading along the silk road.

More oats in savoury dishes. More bread with hot meals. More parsnip, turnip and swede. Probably even more pasta and rice if we'd still had the trade and influence from countries outside the Americas.

As a multi period reenactor (pre history, ancient Greek, Roman, early medieval, high medieval & early Tudor) I experiment with a lot of foods. There is some amazing recipes still available to us.

@Wigeon snap! KW?

It would be a surfeit of lampreys.

A lot of bread and porridge like grain dishes. Romans got through vast amounts of bread.

Romans would have loved tomatoes as they were very fond of umani type flavours. Garum (a fish sauce like Nam Pla) was consumed in huge amounts. They also loved heat and use pepper a lot to make dishes spicy and hot.

White Pizza

One of my rows with Biff and Chip about their Rome adventure

Pottage like ye olde days.

Meat and grains

Thank god I thought I'd slipped into an alternative reality. The phrase pepper corn rent now means cheap...it once was expensive as pepper corns travelled along the silk route and eventually got to Britain.... I'm full of useless facts like that, ask me to wire a plug and I'm googling

Fish and rice is a thing. Never heard of kedgeree?

I love potatoes, but my body doesn't so I wouldn't miss them if we'd never had them!

I cant imagine not having tomatoes though, so many of the meals I make have some in.

Fine by me. Highly allergic to tomatoes in all their revolting forms.