Como Agua para Chocolate
Codex Medoza, c. 1540. Attributed to Francisco Gualpuyogualcal and to Juan González. Transport method of cacao (next to jaguar skins) under the early Aztec Empire. Public Domain, Bodleian Library, Oxford University. Bartolomé de Las Casas presents a horrific picture of post-Columbian indigenous life documented during the first fifty years of Spanish imperial rule. Insofar as plantation cacao, long before tobacco*, sustained colonial trade and was poised to become a transatlan
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Twice
The Coco-Nut Tree, 1739 Penelope Jephson was most famous for having married Simon Patrick, prolific bishop, anti-semite, and controversial “paraphraser” of the Bible from Genesis to Song of Solomon, published in 10 volumes. This epic study would be published alongside other bible commentaries through the mid-19th century. More to the point of this blog, Patrick may have had an equally prolific appetite. Jephson amplified her cookbook shortly before marrying him in 1675. If he