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New World Crops in Moldova

Historical period

⚠ A DATING ROW, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE IN THIS FILE. Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, common beans, pumpkins and squash, and sunflower are all American. Maize arrives through the Ottoman lands in the 16th-17th centuries and becomes the peasant staple in the 18th-19th, displacing millet — which is what makes mămăligă possible. Tomatoes and peppers become general only in the 19th century, and sunflower, now the country’s characteristic oilseed, spreads from Russian selection in the same period. Zacuscă, ardei umpluţi and mămăligă are all, in this sense, modern dishes.

Atlas — where and when

What is recorded

  • Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, common beans, pumpkins, squash and sunflower are all New World crops. Their adoption in this region dates from the 16th century at the earliest and in most cases from the 18th and 19th. Zacuscă, stuffed peppers and mămăligă are consequently recent dishes, however traditional they are now felt to be. documented
  • Maize displaces millet as the peasant porridge grain, making mămăligă possible. documented

Related foodways

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • caused Mămăligă Foodways documented

    Mămăligă exists because maize replaced millet, which is a post-Columbian event.

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.