Overview
Among the cuisines of South America, Colombia is second only to Peru in combining the culinary traditions of the native populations with those of the Europeans who arrived in the 1500s. The country’s long coastline and historical trade routes have also fostered a strong Afro-Caribbean influence. That hybridization, along with the varied produce of a country with several distinct climatic regions, makes Colombian cuisine particularly interesting to study.
The volcanic Andes Mountains divide into three roughly parallel ranges as they enter Colombia, so that broad plateaus and valleys of high fertility occupy the center of the country. Those valleys, called the tierra templada, comprise only 6 percent of the land area but support over a quarter of the country’s population. Along the Pacific coast are the world’s rainiest tropical jungles, a sparsely populated area broken up by slow-moving rivers. The Caribbean coast is more dry and hospitable and includes relatively temperate zones, vast marshy lowlands, and a desert peninsula. The Andean foothills extend to this area, and the majority of the country’s population is in this region where the central highlands slope to the Caribbean. Colombia also has sovereignty over a Caribbean archipelago that has an Anglo-African culture with no Spanish roots.
The natural flora of most of the country is thick jungle, which provided abundant fruit and game to hunter-gatherers, and there are still tribes that live in the same way as their Neolithic ancestors. The principal preconquest tribes of Colombia were the Tairona (or Tayrona) along the Caribbean coast and the Muisca in the highlands to the south. Both the Muisca and Tairona developed urban centers, and a Spanish chronicler of 1538 noted extensive plantings of potatoes, maize, and cassava in the highlands. The natives also raised beans, chili peppers, arracacha and malanga roots, and squashes.
The coastal Tairona ate seafood, tortoises, manatees, tapirs, and iguanas and raised cassava. Their diet included fruits such as the tamarillo, papaya, guava, guanábana (soursop), and passion fruit, but whether these were actively cultivated before the arrival of Europeans is open to question. Lake and river fish were caught; insects, including snails and ant queens, were eaten; and they may have raised animals to supplement the birds and game that they hunted. There was some commercial activity in food and spices; coastal Taironas developed a salt trade with the interior tribes, though not with the Muisca, who had their own mines in the highlands.
About the only cooked item in modern Colombian cuisine that we can be certain is the same as a Mesoamerican dish is the arepa. This corn pancake probably gets its name from a word for corn in the Chibcha language, which was spoken by the Muisca and other tribes. (It is hard to tell because speaking Chibcha was illegal from 1770 until 1991.) In its most basic form an arepa is a thick fried cake made of ground corn, water, and salt, but modern arepas are often stuff ed with cheese or topped with salad. A relative of the arepa, called the casabe and made from cassava root, is native to the area around the border between Colombia and Venezuela. Though it is now associated with Venezuela, it was probably eaten all along the southern Caribbean seaboard.
The natives also brewed a kind of corn beer and, in the highlands, made both alcoholic and nonalcoholic versions of chicha, a beverage incorporating corn and fruit. The latter caught on with the Spanish, who added citrus; in 1627, when Fray Pedro Simon first recorded it, he noted that the Spanish had “made it cleaner, more curious and gifted.” The colonial era brought Spanish techniques and ingredients that became integral to Colombian cuisine. The tierra templada of Colombia was the only part of northern South America suited to large-scale cattle ranching, and the importance of this industry led to the establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, centered at Santa Fe de Bogotá, in 1739. The administrators in Bogotá were primarily from the Spanish regions of Andalusia, Aragon, and Valencia, and they brought a taste for paella and blood pudding that survives to this day.
Though they initially tried to keep their culture and cuisine as Spanish as possible, in time native foods became part of their diet and a cuisine called criolla was born. This used Spanish foods such as pork, beef, chicken, and cheese along with imports from other parts of the empire such as plantains, rice, carrots, and sweet potatoes.
Bogotá’s rival for cultural precedence was Cartagena, the gateway to the Caribbean, which had the advantage of being the port of call for the Spanish galleons and the disadvantage of frequent raids by pirates and enemy forces. Cartagena developed a distinctive seafood-heavy cuisine that uses the locally popular sabalo fish as well as shrimp, sea bream, carp, and the tiny local oysters. Among the signatures of Cartagena-style food is abundant use of coconut milk and rice. Plantains, originally imported by Portuguese missionaries from Southeast Asia, are eaten in many ways, including the delightfully named “kitten’s head,” in which they are baked and mashed with fried pork and pork skin.
The exceptional example of Afro-Caribbean cuisine in Colombia is the Raizal cuisine of the San Andrés and Providencia islands, which are owned by Colombia even though they are far closer to Nicaragua. The typical dish here is rondón, consisting of fish, sea snails, breadfruit, yucca root, and plantain boiled in coconut milk.
Food Culture Snapshot
Santiago and Carolina live in a high-rise building on the edge of Bogotá and wake up every workday at 6 A.M. when the radio plays the national anthem. Like most of the inhabitants (who refer to themselves as Santafereñas), they enjoy a breakfast of changua, soup made from eggs poached in milk with scallions, cilantro, and bread. This they wash down with locally grown coffee, strong and black. They feed their children—Alvaro, Ernesto, and Maria—the same breakfast before sending them to school, though instead of coffee, the children drink fruit juice. It isn’t necessary to pack a lunch for them, because, as in many schools, a lunchroom serves healthy meals. The children would rather run to a nearby stand that sells perro caliente Colombiano— the Colombian hot dogs that are topped with coleslaw, pineapple, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and potato chips—but Carolina does not approve of junk food.
Santiago drives to his job in the accounting department for a coffee broker, while Carolina takes a bus to the hospital where she is an administrator. Her mother is old-fashioned and would prefer that she stay at home, but like almost half the women in the country, Carolina prefers to work. She doesn’t expect to rise to executive level nor to join the men who are at that level for social occasions, but she takes her morning snack, known as a medias nueves, with co-workers at a similar level in the hierarchy. The medias nueves is likely to be a roll with coffee or a glass of aguapanela, a drink made from sugarcane and water.
Santiago and Carolina have their main meal of the day around one in the afternoon, both dining with their co-workers. Since Carolina works for a hospital, her place of business does not close, but like most of Colombia, Santiago’s department closes for lunch. She eats at the hospital’s canteen, while he dines at a fine restaurant, but both have similar meals; they start with a bowl of sancocho, meat or fish stewed with yucca, plantain, and vegetables. The second course, called el seco, or the “dry dish,” is usually a grilled fi sh or meat, and it is followed by a glass of juice and coffee. After lunch, anyone who can fi t it into their schedule takes a brief nap, the siesta, awakening refreshed by 3 P.M. to go back to work.
Both Santiago and Carolina are home by 7 P.M. and help the children with their homework while drinking glasses of passion fruit or mango juice. Carolina doesn’t start to make dinner until after 8—they won’t be eating until 10 P.M. When they do, it is a light meal: arepas or empanadas, savory little corn-fl our turnovers; fried green plantains called patacones; and a small portion of the soup called ajiaco, made with chicken, several kinds of potatoes, and the aromatic herb called guasca.
Santiago prefers his patacones with a spoonful of ají picante, the vinegary hot sauce made with habanero peppers, but the rest of the family likes them plain or with a dusting of cheese. The adults have coffee, the children hot chocolate, and after dinner Santiago enjoys a glass of rum mixed with water, lime, sugar, and cinnamon.
On weekends the family invites friends over for an afternoon meal of empanadas, followed by parrillada, the traditional barbecued mixed grill. This is served with grilled or boiled corn on the cob, yucca or potatoes, and spicy green garlic sauce. Afterward, while the children play, the adults enjoy glasses of fermented chicha, the corn-based fruit punch that turns mildly alcoholic after a night in the refrigerator.
They have to drink it all that day, since it turns sour quickly, but the sweet, fruity taste is so enjoyable that there is rarely any left. When Santiago and Carolina can get an aunt to watch their children, they enjoy going out to dine, usually at restaurants featuring food from Colombia rather than from other parts of the world. They enjoy the food of their own country and don’t see a reason to go beyond its culinary borders.
Major Foodstuffs
Though the climate and altitude variations in Colombia are extreme, an extensive road system means that produce from all areas of the country is available in the cities. This has been true even during period of insurgency and civil unrest; it was dangerous for the drivers and transport workers, but fresh ocean fish was available in the highlands, and beef went from the plateaus to the lowlands.
This is especially impressive because Colombia’s largest crops, bananas and coff ee, are both grown more for export than local consumption. Colombians prefer green plantains to the yellow bananas that are popular overseas, and though they are voracious coffee drinkers, the greater part of the crop is grown with overseas sale in mind. In fact, though the coffee business employs fully one-fourth of the country’s agricultural labor and coff ee is the country’s largest cash crop, the coff ee served in cafés in Colombia is often not very good, since the best beans are exported. Lower-value beans stay at home and are often overroasted.
Colombia’s lowlands produce sugarcane for both export and local consumption, but the sugar that stays in the country is not mixed into coff ee—most Colombians drink theirs black and bitter. The sugar is refi ned into panela, a solid mass of fructose and sucrose sugars that is used in drinks and desserts, and the leftover molasses is made into local rum and aguardiente, a distilled clear spirit.
Other major lowland crops are rice, plantains, cassava, cocoa beans, tobacco, and fruit for both export and local consumption. The most popular fruits in Colombia are the coconut, passion fruit, orange, guanábana (soursop), mamey, mango, and varieties of guava, though star fruit, tamarillos, limes, cherimoyas, and others are eaten widely or made into juice drinks. Avocados are widely grown and used in soups and beverages, and tomatoes are a minor crop.
As the land rises from the Caribbean coast into the foothills of the Andes, cattle ranches and family farms growing corn, beans, yucca, and squash take over. Colombia exports beef and some cheese, but the country makes few aged cheeses; instead, there are soft farmer cheeses, cottage cheese, and the crumbly, slightly acidic queso fresco (fresh cheese). Milk is drunk by both adults and children, usually mixed with juices or cinnamon and other spices.
In the highlands, the staple is the potato—or rather, many different varieties of potatoes, each suited to diff erent climates, altitudes, and purposes. Potatoes in Colombia come in colors from almost pure white and yellow to red and deep purple, and they vary in size from tiny spheres to large and irregular.
Fish, mussels, shrimp, and lobster from both the Caribbean and Pacific coasts are popular throughout the country, and the mojarra (tilapia) is offered in almost every restaurant. The tuna fishery on the west coast has long been important, but concerns about sustainability have led to restrictions and decline. Freshwater fish from the tributaries of the Amazon is also widely available. There are over 800 known species of freshwater fish in Colombia, but the most popular is catfish, which sometimes reaches colossal size. The bocachico fish used to be eaten widely, but the construction of a dam almost wiped out the species, causing concern about how ongoing water projects aff ect the sustainability of freshwater fisheries.
Pigs and chickens are raised and eaten everywhere, and in the mountains barbecued cuy, a breed of guinea pig, is regarded as a delicacy. Wild tapirs are eaten by natives of the Amazon but are not raised commercially, and their numbers have been falling due to overhunting. Colombian cuisine is not highly spiced as a rule, though chili peppers and garlic are used in moderation in many dishes. The most distinctive native Colombian herb is guasca, which is slightly similar to basil. Other commonly used spices are cilantro, chives, cumin, onion, and achiote (annatto seed).
Cooking
Many Colombians believe that even soups and other items that never touch a fire will taste better when cooked over wood, so woodstoves are popular even where gas and electricity are available. Until the early 1990s, when tax laws designed to keep out imported items changed, electric kitchen appliances were very expensive. Their popularity has grown slowly but steadily, and one particular item has taken off —the electric arepa maker. Traditionalists scoff at these contraptions, which are similar to waffle irons, and claim superior flavor for old-fashioned arepas made in a cast iron skillet or using a special perforated grill that is set on a wood fire. There will be a variety of skillets in any household, including a very large one that is used for fritanga, fried assorted meats. Most homes will also have an outdoor grill for making parrillada, or grilled meats. Large households may have a fire pit with a spit or a vertical roasting rack for this purpose.
Typical Meals
Though there are regional diff erences between the Afro-Caribbean–influenced northeast and the Andean-influenced southwest, some things about any Colombian meal are universal: There will be soup, there will be corn or rice, and fruit or fruit juice will make an appearance somewhere. This is not a society with a profound difference between the meals of the rich and the poor; the wealthy will have better-quality ingredients, eaten from nicer dishes and in more formal circumstances, but except among the very poorest or the tribes who are subsistence farmers or hunter-gatherers, the general pattern will be the same.
Poor people live like their remote ancestors on a diet of beans and rice supplemented with vegetables, small amounts of meat, and the fruit that grows wild and abundant in the jungles. The national bean of Colombia is the cargamanto, a large red bean with white flecks that is nutritious and high in protein. Black beans are fried and served with rice in a style similar to the Cuban dish “Christians and Moors,” and white canary beans are boiled with onions and served as a side dish or used in soups.
Sopa de Frijoles Canarios (Canary Bean Soup)
This is a traditional Colombian dish. Sazón preparado is a popular seasoning mix throughout the Caribbean. The Goya brand is most popular in Colombia, but it contains more monosodium glutamate than many other versions.Serves 6–8
Ingredients
1 garlic clove
¼ c onion, chopped
¼ c red bell pepper, chopped
¼ c green pepper, chopped
1 scallion, chopped
1 lb canary beans (or kidney, pinto, or cranberry beans), soaked overnight
2 lb pork ribs, cut into pieces or meatballs
14 c water
2 c grated carrots
1 cube chicken bouillon
½ tbsp ground cumin
½ tbsp sazón preparado with saffron
½ c chopped cilantro
1 large potato, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper
1. In a food processor, combine garlic, onion, red bell pepper, green pepper, and scallion and process until finely chopped.
2. In a large pot over medium heat, combine the processed vegetables, beans, pork ribs, water, carrots, and chicken bouillon. Slightly cover and simmer for 1½ hours.
3. Add the ground cumin, sazón preparado, cilantro, and potato. Simmer for 30 to 40 minutes more, or until the beans are tender.
4. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with white rice and hot sauce on the side.
Even simple meals may begin with empanadas as an appetizer. Though savory turnovers called empanadas are found from Mexico all the way to Argentina, Colombian empanadas are different. First, they are usually fried rather than baked, and, second, they are made with a mixture of corn and wheat fl our. Colombian empanadas are usually filled with a mixture of minced chicken and onion but may also be fi lled with beef or cheese. In the Caribbean region you might also have carimañolas, yucca fritters stuff ed with meat or cheese and served with garlicky hot sauce. Plantains feature throughout Colombian meals and may be served as an appetizer, either cut into pieces and fried; sliced lengthwise and baked with cinnamon; or mashed, salted, and fried (called patacones).
The first main course is almost always soup, of which there are many varieties. The most popular nationwide is sancocho, originally from the Tolima region. The iconic version is made with a whole cut-up hen, sliced green plantains, yucca, corn, and potatoes. It is seasoned with salt, black pepper, cilantro, and a seasoning paste called aliños that is made from green and red bell pepper, onion, scallions, cumin, garlic, and saff ron. Aliños is used as a soup base throughout Colombia, and every family has its own recipe.
There are other bases as well, such as mazamorra, ground corn soaked in fern ash or lye (similar to American hominy grits, and also known as peto). This features in mazamorra chiquita, a soup made of beef ribs, tripe, onions, green peas, lima beans, carrots, several types of potatoes, garlic, pepper, and cumin. The Caribbean coast is home to the spiciest food in Colombia, which in practice often means the soups contain a larger amount of aliños. On both the long Caribbean coastline and the shorter and sparsely populated Pacific coast, soups with coconut milk, rice, and fi sh are popular. The most exceptional example of this type of soup is from the San Andrés and Providencia islands, which are owned by Colombia but are actually far closer to Nicaragua.
The people and cuisine here are called Raizal, and their signature dish is rondón, made from fish, sea snails, breadfruit, yucca, and plantain simmered in coconut milk.
In a Colombian meal, following the soup is the seco, the dry dish. In coastal regions this will usually be fried or grilled seafood with coconut fried rice on the side. Inland, roasted chicken or beef is extremely popular. As with coffee, much of the best Colombian beef is exported, but the cuisine is rich in techniques for making the most of tougher cuts. A specialty of Bogotá is sobrebarriga, flank steak simmered in beer until it is extremely tender, then rolled in breadcrumbs and broiled. It is then served half-submerged in the beer broth, thus a steak served in soup.
Ingredients
2 lb flank steak
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 white onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp prepared mustard
1 tbsp lime juice
1 bottle dark beer
Beef stock or water
2 tbsp melted butter
1 c breadcrumbs
Preparing the Roll (Prep Time: 15 Minutes;
Marinating Time: 24 Hours)
1. Lay out flank steak on a cutting board and trim off excess fat.
2. In a bowl mix together tomatoes, onion, carrot, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and lime juice.
3. Spread the mixture on the steak, and roll along the grain so that when you slice it, you will be cutting across the grain.
4. Secure the steak with butcher’s twine. The easiest way is to tie a slip knot once every couple of inches.
5. Place the steak in a large freezer bag, pour over any filling that has leaked out, and allow to sit in the refrigerator for at least a day.
Cooking the Steak (Cooking time: 2 Hours,15 Minutes)
1. Place steak in a large saucepan, and add the beer.Fill the pot with enough beef stock or water to fully submerge the steak.
2. Bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for 2 hours.
3. Preheat broiler 15 minutes before the steak is ready.
4. Remove steak from the cooking liquid, and increase the heat to reduce the liquid to a sauce while you broil the steak.
5. Place the steak on a baking sheet and drizzle melted butter over the top of the steak, then sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Place under the broiler until the breadcrumbs have browned, about 10 minutes.
6. Remove from the broiler, remove twine, allow to sit for 10 minutes, and slice across the grain.
7. Skim any particles from the top of the cooking liquid, and then pour it into a gravy bowl.
Among the nontraditional but popular methods of cooking beef are marinades using Coca-Cola; the citric acid helps tenderize meat and also adds a touch of sweetness. Beef in Colombia is usually sliced very thin and served medium-well—a Colombian steak covers a plate but is still a modest portion compared with an English or American portion of roast beef or prime rib.
The quintessential celebratory dinner is parrillada, a mixed grill that might be composed of beef, pork, tripe, morcilla (a blood sausage similar to boudin), sweet pork longaniza sausage, chorizo sausage heavily flavored with coriander, and other meats, served with corn and potatoes. If this same assemblage of meat is served fried instead of barbecued, it is called fritanga. By any name, it is an imposing spread that makes a siesta afterward seem like a wonderful idea.
To finish, Colombians enjoy simple desserts that are often based on milk, coconut milk, or fruits. Among the baked sweets is flan (custard), either plain or mixed with guava, pear, or other fruits. Fruit desserts include preserved uchuva (a type of gooseberry), tree-tomato juice, chopped fruit mixed in soda or orange juice, and fruit-stuff ed crepes. Finally, there are simple sweet breads topped with arequipe caramel (the local version of dulce de leche) or ice cream. An unusual after-dinner sweet is candied hormigas, the queens of the world’s largest species of ant. While the Guane Indians eat these ants fried as a savory, city dwellers prefer them enrobed in caramel or chocolate.
Colombians of all ages enjoy fruit juices, either straight or mixed with milk, or aguapanela, sugarcane juice mixed with water. The other homemade soft drink is chicha morada, the traditional Andean fruit punch with corn and cinnamon. Chicha is usually homemade, but despite problems with a short shelf life, bottled versions have entered the market in the last decade. Colombians also enjoy sweet carbonated sodas, the most popular of which, Cola-Champaña, has been made by the Postobón company since 1904. Other popular bottled soft drinks are Pony Malta, a sweet nonalcoholic beer, and Kola Roman, a very sweet fruity drink popular in the Caribbean region. Colombiana, a tart soda made with tamarind, is also popular along the coast. In the mornings or on cool evenings, Colombians enjoy hot chocolate. In Bogotá this frequently has cheese melted into it and is called santafereño.
Among alcoholic drinks, the alcoholic version of chicha is popular, but there are no commercial producers due to its very short shelf life. Alcoholic chicha is drinkable for only about a week after it has finished fermenting—after that it turns very sharp and sour. Multiple attempts have been made to stabilize and commercialize chicha, but as of this writing none has been successful.
As might be expected in a hot country, beer is popular, with light lagers dominating the market. Rum drinks are popular, especially those that use local fruits, but it is also drunk with Coca-Cola or on the rocks. The other popular strong drink is aguardiente, a strongly flavored variant of rum that often contains anise. There is some regional market segmentation, with aguardiente most popular inland and rum drunk mainly along the coast. Finally, there is coffee, the country’s national beverage, which is drunk from morning to night by almost every adult. As might be expected, alcoholic coff ee drinks involving rum or aguardiente and milk or cream are very popular as a nightcap.
Eating Out
While Colombians enjoy dining out, they are not generally adventurous, and the overwhelming majority of restaurants serve regional Colombian cuisine. The exception is at the high end, where the most expensive places boast their fidelity to traditional Spanish cuisine. In the last decade other European cuisines have achieved a foothold in major cities, but they are still struggling to find a market beyond business dinners and the most sophisticated younger people.
Restaurants are patronized at all times of day, with cafés specializing in breakfast, called desayunerías, opening very early. The slang word for restaurants serving home-style food is corrientazo, literally meaning “a place to get energy.” Whether a simple corrientazo or a top-notch restaurant, the evening pattern is similar—they open for dinner at about 7 p.m., but the rush begins around 9, and people will still be dining until almost midnight. Tourists are often amazed that they can be seated in the best places at 7 or 8 and don’t realize that by local standards that is ridiculously early. Tourists also stand out because they are excessively casual; at all but the most modest restaurants, people are expected to dress up for dinner. In most restaurants, as at Colombian homes, the oldest person will always be served fi rst, and it is expected that even finger-friendly items like empanadas will be eaten with a knife and fork.
Special Occasions
As is the case throughout Central America, special versions of tamales appear at Christmas and Easter. One is the tamale Tolimense style, made with beef, pork, chicken, and vegetables with ground corn, boiled or steamed in corn-husk casings. Fruit and dessert tamales are also made. Colombian tamales are usually milder than Mexican versions but are otherwise similar and are almost always accompanied by hot chocolate.
Many Christmas pastry treats are deep-fried instead of baked. These include cheese fritters called buñuelos and bolillas, fried round doughnuts that are served with chocolate or coff ee. Hojuelas, flat fried cookies topped with powdered sugar, are almost identical to the Polish Christmas cookie called kruschicki, though it is hard to establish a connection between the two seasonal treats. Other seasonal treats are natilla, a coconut-milk custard that is sometimes fortifi ed with rum or aguardiente, and champus, a drink similar to chicha but with chunks of fruit, extra spices, and orange leaves added.
Diet and Health
The most famous living Colombian artist, Fernando Botero, famously portrays his countrymen as pudgy sensualists who are obsessed with food. His sometimes cruel, sometimes sympathetic portraits are an exaggeration of a fact; a 1999 study showed that over 40 percent of the country’s citizens are obese, and that fi gure may be rising. It is ironic that a government that has historically focused on getting its rural and native citizens enough to eat now must change its focus to convincing them to switch to healthier foods. The popularity of sugary sodas and a diet heavy in meat, coconut milk, and cream, plus the increasing use of motor vehicles instead of walking for everyday tasks, are probably to blame. Colombians who can aff ord it often get weight-loss surgery rather than change their diets, and more of these operations are performed there than anywhere else in South America.
When Colombians do fall ill, traditional practices that are based on a diet of scarcity are actually counterproductive. Traditional ideas of health prescribe aguapanela, the mix of sugarcane juice and water, for almost any illness, and especially in diabetic people this can make things much worse. Colombians also ascribe characteristics of hot and cold to many foods and give beef broth the kind of reverence accorded to chicken soup in eastern European cultures.
There is a specific regimen called the dieta that mothers are supposed to observe for 40 days after giving birth. Besides never being exposed to direct sun, a new mother is supposed to eat sancocho and hot chocolate; at the end of this period, she takes a bath in herbs before going outside and resuming normal life. If the baby becomes sick at any time, putting slices of cucumber on its head is supposed to help protect it from sinus infection.
The influence of Colombian traditional healers has been growing, and the commercialization of their remedies based on Amazonian plants has been a boon for people who want to preserve jungle regions. Colombian culture is very macho, and there are many recipes for aphrodisiacs. Some of these involve eating insects such as leafcutter ant queens, a logical choice for someone obsessed with fertility, since ant queens are literally egg machines. Since leafcutter ant queens are high in protein and have low levels of saturated fat, this at least does no harm, unlike more toxic alternatives.
By Richard Foss in the book 'Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia'- Ken Albala, editor.Greenwood- (An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC) Santa Barbara, California U.S.A, 2011, 2nd. volume, p.75-83. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.
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