Palimpsest

In a literal sense, palimpsest means a manuscript which has been overwritten. Metaphorically, there are layers of thought, meaning, and cultural influences which underpin any overwriting. These layers of history cannot be ignored. It’s that combination of an original work, overlaid by adaptations or accretions, and changes in meaning or symbolism, which increasingly pertain to literature, art, history, architecture and more.

So it is with food. A recipe may stand as emblematic. But it does so rooted in a history.

Let’s take the story of the blood orange as an example. Oranges originate in the regions where southern China, north eastern India, and Myanmar meet. Complex trade routes by land and sea took this fruit, first farmed around 6000 years ago, to many parts of the world.

The name ‘orange’ derives from the Sanskrit word for ‘orange tree’ (नारङ्ग nāraṅga). The Sanskrit word travelled to Persia where it became نارنگ (nārang) from where the Arabs derived نارنج (nāranj). ‘Orange’ then entered Late Middle English in the 14th-century via the Old French word orenge (as in the phrase pomme d’orenge), itself based on the Arabic nāranj. Oxford English Dictionary tells us that the first recorded use of orange as a colour name in English was in 1512.

From a period well before the earliest ancient Greeks we can see that trade, migration, and cultivation was also part of spreading language, culture, and ideas about food.

Let’s now journey to Sicily in the early 9th century CE where Arab and North African control and culture suffused the island. Here you might encounter an orange cultivated on mountain slopes higher up and watered by the ingenious irrigation systems the incomers developed here and in southern Spain. This orange, because of its growing conditions, developed a reddish bronze tone to its segments and a rich, almost raspberry like, flavour. As far as we know, this was the first variety of blood orange that we prize today for its taste, aroma, and colour.

From the word to the flesh, a long history is attached to this fruit’s journey. That story spans time, place, and cultures. It is a palimpsest. The ancient story it contains also conveys a wealth of learning … if we choose to heed its lessons.