CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS - HIS GASTRONOMIC PERSONA
 
                                   by
 
                             LUCIO M. SORRE
 
(This was a paper delivered at the Phileas Conference in Fort
Lauderdale in Nov. 1989)
 
      As a wine person, ergo a food person (as wine and food are
intimately related) afflicted by Columbus quincentennial fever,
inquisitiveness prompted a look at what the Admiral of the Ocean
Sea and his crews ate during the four voyages to the New World.
      The first logical source of information was his diary.  It
provided the scantiest of information.  He writes that two main
meals were served daily, cooked on wood fires set in sand boxes. 
In addition, at the beginning of his third voyage to the New
World, he notes that they stopped in Gomera, Canary Islands where
"we stocked up on cheeses of which there is a good deal of good
quality."
      Attention was then turned to the books written by Gianni
Granzotto as well as Samuel Eliot Morison, his indefatigable and
lucid biographer.  Granzotto cast a light on the Admiral's family
life and overall behavior while Morison carefully recorded life
aboard the caravels, listed the victuals supplied to them, the
daily dietary routine (or perhaps we ought to say the gobbling
and swilling routine).  No recipes, however.  Not even from food
historians.
      Their occasional mentions of Columbus highlight his and the
other explorers' agricultural contributions such as yams,
potatoes, pineapple, peppers, cocoa, coffee, corn and tomatoes
brought from the New World to the larders of Europe.
      Food aboard ship was a source of nourishment, not a hedo-
nistic pleasure.  Crews had to be kept strong and reasonably
healthy.  They had to withstand privations and be able to put in
long hours of hard physical work.
      They lived in tight quarters.  The living arrangements were
very primitive.  The shipbuilders did not take into consideration
that the crews, unlike the crews who sailed along the shores of
the Mediterranean, could not go ashore for a night's sleep.  No
sleeping accommodations existed above deck except for the Admiral
or Captain.  The sailors simply bedded down anywhere.  Usually it
was the hold, but as time went on the stench below from decaying
meats, foul water and excrements became unbearable so the seamen
had to sleep on deck.  Frequent washing and bathing were unknown. 
Lice and fleas were accepted as natural.  There was a pervading
smell of unwashed humanity.
      The Captains or owners, in this case the Crown, were respon-
sible for the complete supplying of victuals and men.  The basic
staples were salt meat (beef and pork), salt cod, sardines,
anchovies, sea biscuits (hardtack), olives, olive oil, rice, dry
chickpeas, peas (they had great keeping powers), beans (black-
eyed peas - as the other types of beans originated in the New
World), wine, water and raisins.
      Ship biscuits date back to ancient Roman and Greek days. 
The word comes from "bis coctus," twice baked.  The Romans called
it "panis nauticus."   The dough of seasoned wheat flour and
water was baked (in molds) twice or even more times for long
voyages.  To make a more compact paste, after the initial baking
the biscuits were broken up, pounded, re-mixed with water,
re-shaped and baked again.  To eat it, if you did not want to
lose your teeth, you had to soak it in water or soup.
      They as well as the salted meats and fish, wine, olive oil
and water were stored in wooden casks, often of faulty construc-
tion.  All the victuals were stored in the driest part of the
hold, however, the stumpy ships leaked and water and humidity
played havoc with the food.
      I would have loved to have read gastronomic comments from a
crew member reporting on not even a typical meal but at least a
favorite dish.
      In my own dreams I envision what an ordinary crew member,
let us say Rodrigo de Triana, the ill-fated lookout on the Pinta,
the swiftest of the three caravels, would have written (assuming
he could read and write).   He is the one who at 2 am on Friday,
October 12, 1492 spotted land and yelled "tierra-tierra."  It was
named San Salvador by Columbus.  The bonus for the first person
to sight land, as established by the Crown, was a life pension of
10,000 maravedis.  A generous annuity.  Columbus cheated him out
of it by claiming that he had seen it hours before (when what he
actually had seen were cloud formations that looked like moun-
tains in the horizon.)  Triana, as historians tell us, returned
to Spain a bitter man.  There, according to some reports he died
either from wounds suffered fighting the Spaniards after he
converted to the Islamic faith or from hanging himself.  As a
final slap to his memory, the money ended up bequeathed to the
Admiral's mistress, Beatrice de Harana, after Columbus' death.
      Please join me in my dream and let us read what Triana might
have written.
      "Wednesday, October 10th, the 68th day at sea.  Today when I
started my day watch (it began at 11 am).  Pedrito, the steward,
prepared a most delicious repast.  He boiled excellent cod which
he had soaked for a couple of days.  It came from the cold waters
of the North Sea, not from Portugal or Spain, because it was less
fleshy but more flavorful.  He boiled the previously soaked cod
for a few minutes, removed the bones and skin, placed it in the
communal wooden bowl, broke it into small pieces with his hands
and, still warm drizzled it with some good oil from Andalucia,
where olive groves and orange groves dot the fertile land.  I
love salt cod.  Some of my sailing friends have told me that it
was the food of the Viking sailors and Basque fisherman who
benefited from its protein rich meat.  The Vikings even ate it
uncooked.  I remember running into several Viking sailors in
Lofoten, Iceland, who told me that many of their kind bit chunks
of dry salt cod with their teeth and chewed them for the longest
time until it became a paste and was easily swallowed."  (Cod has
provided not only nutritious food to sailors but also to genera-
tions of families in shore areas when fishing was poor due to
inclement weather and other cataclysms and also has provided
palatable food to generations of Catholics during the Lenten
period.)
      He would continue - "The cook also boiled chickpeas and
mashed them into a puree adding some olive oil, olives and a few
drops of vinegar.
      The sea biscuits he served fortunately came from the shop of
Gaspar Gorricio the best of the many bakeries that crowd Palos. 
Unlike some of his competitors, his biscuits are fresher and less
likely to have weevils.  In fact, as is customary, I split the
biscuits with my knife and checked the cut surface for weevils. 
Had I found them, I would have scraped them off with the knife."
End of log entry.
      But I'm digressing and romanticizing.
      The original thought of writing about food aboard Columbus'
ships begat another thought--Columbus--his gastronomic persona--
what were his likes and dislikes.  More research was warranted--
just like the boy who carves a figure on a piece of wood, and
levigates it with his penknife to make it smooth.  Suddenly he
digs a deeper cut and is forced to reshape his creation, changing
it into something else.
      The main source, once again, came from Samuel Eliot Morison.
Additional information was gathered from books on early Genovese,
Portuguese and Spanish foods, life in Spain and Portugal in the
15th and 16th centuries, monastic life, the wines of Liguria,
Spain, Portugal and Madeira.
      Let us start in chronological order.  Born in Genova, a
mercantile republic, in 1451, the same year Queen Isabella of
Spain, who played a major role in his fame.  He was a contem-
porary of Michelangelo and Botticelli therefore, without knowing,
was part of the volcano of genius that shattered the bleakness of
the Middle Ages.
      What are the discernible influences that shaped his gastro-
nomic persona?  First and foremost, Columbus was primarily a
seaman.  He spent most of his life at sea beginning at age 13. 
Was exposed to home cooking only in his very early years.  His
father Domenico was born about 12 km from Genoa, a stubborn,
ambitious, quarrelsome cloth weaver.  When business faltered he
became a merchant in cloth as well as wine and cheese, also a
tavern keeper who was his own best customer.  His mother Susanna
came from a mountain village where chestnuts were the main staple
of the diet.  The family was not well off, leading us to believe
that they enjoyed simple but tasty foods and wines, especially
Gavi from nearby Piedmont.
      The Genovese have always been proud and jealous of their
cuisine, always careful not to adopt foreign flavors such as
cinnamon, pepper, cloves or other strong spices (even though they
earned their livelihood trading them), creamy sauces and vege-
table oils except olive oil.  They were so conservative that they
refused to allow coffee to be served in public or private in the
early 1600's when at the same time coffee houses were the rage in
Venice.  Only much later was this restriction lifted.
      Genovese cuisine is strongly related to the return of the
seaman who, after long months spent on sailing vessels, having
endured a monotonous diet of salted meats and fish, dried
legumes, sea biscuits and an occasional meal of fresh fish,
longed for the exhilarating blizzard of freshness, color and
vitamins found in vegetables.  As a result he ate mostly salads,
stuffed vegetables such as eggplant and zucchini, vegetable pies,
vegetable soups, pasta with pesto sauce where basil reigns
supreme, devised as a variant to the white garlic sauces of
northern Europe, onions and later on, tomatoes and peppers.  In
short, a cuisine based on olive oil, greens and fresh fish
(served either fried or cooked in a fish stew called "burrida"). 
The fish used was of modest character such as sardines, ancho-
vies, squid, mackerel, bottom fish.  They also ate salted fish,
mainly dry salt cod prepared with local aromatic herbs, mostly
basil and marjoram.  Prized fish such as sea bass, lobster,
clams, etc. was sold to the rich who also made a much greater use
of game, beef and exotic spices, often bought in the black
market.
      Columbus was suited for life at sea and its rigors.  He was
known for his "impenetrable silences," was ashamed of his modest
origins and dreamt of aristocratic immortality.  His pride was
notorious, he kept to himself, was contemptuous of those who
opposed him, stayed in monasteries, enjoyed the company of
monks--Franciscans, with whom he had great affinity and
Dominicans as well as sea salts with whom he discussed navigation
and foreign lands.
      He was a man of simple tastes, temperate in his diet, just
like his contemporary, Queen Isabella.  His clothing and footwear
were sober.  He observed the fasts of the church and, just like
most sailors of his time, was very religious going to confession
and taking communion often.
      Columbus established residence in Lisbon in 1479 at age 28
where he stayed for a number of years.  Here too, he probably
indulged in fish soups, ubiquitous on every sailor's table,
probably spicier than he was accustomed to in Italy as spices
played a greater role in Portuguese cuisine.   The wine he drank
with moderation was almost certainly red and full-bodied as white
turned sour very quickly.  It probably came from Colares.
      During this time he sailed the north and south Atlantic. 
Time on shore was spent mainly with sailors.  He married in
Lisbon, lived for a short time with his mother-in-law, then
settled in Madeira where he probably enjoyed fish soups, goat
cheese and some of the unfortified local wine.  Fortified Madeira
as we know it today was not made until the 1700's.
      A widower in 1485, he settled in Spain when his request for
ships was turned down by the Portuguese court.  He stayed in
monasteries and, when permission was granted in 1492 to fit three
ships for an exploration of the West Indies, he moved to Cadiz
from where he sailed.
      The rest, as they say, is history.
      Let us look at the first voyage and the victuals embarked on
the three vessels, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria.  The first
problem was to procure one year's supplies of food, wine and
water to last enough for a non-stop voyage in case they did not
find land.
      The menu for Spanish seamen consisted of water, vinegar,
wine, olive oil, cheese, honey, raisins, rice, sea biscuits
(hardtack) baked ashore with wheat flour and water, well seasoned
but not old, plus dry legumes such as chickpeas, lentils, beans,
salted and barreled sardines and anchovies and dry salt cod.  We
assume that garlic was also supplied even though it is not
mentioned in any of the writings.  Wine, water and oil were
stored in wooden casks.
      Food, mostly boiled, was served in a large communal wooden
bowl.  It consisted of poorly cooked meat with bones in it, the
sailors attacking it with fervor, picking it with their fingers
as they had no forks or spoons.  The larger pieces of meat were
cut with the knife each sailor carried.
      At the time of Columbus, the only means of cooking was an
open firebox called "Fogon."  It was equipped with a back to
screen it from the wind.  Sand was spread on the floor of the box
and a wood fire built on it.  Of course, all this was obliterated
in stormy weather.
      Because fish was cheaper and more readily available than
meat it was served more often.  Meats were often served in some
sort of stew with peas other legumes or rice.  With these stews
sea biscuits were also served, soaked in the soup or in water for
edibility.
      Sea biscuits had to be purchased to last at least a year,
providing they were kept in dry areas.  Later on, portable ovens
were made available to set up ashore when the opportunity arose.
For drink they had wine and water.  Both were stored in wooden
barrels.  The wine was red and high in alcohol because of its
keeping quality.  It probably came from the hot, dry, undulating
treeless chalky plains of Xeres (Jerez) near Cadiz, where the
vines were first planted by the Phoenicians, tended by the Greeks
after them and then the Romans and much later the Moors.  The
wines while rich in character were not fortified at that time. 
Fortification came much later.
      We know that barreled wine from Jerez was used as ballast
during Columbus' second voyage to the New World.
      While there are no complaints of carelessness and ship
chandler's dishonesty reported on the first voyage, this was not
the case on the second voyage.  The people entrusted with supply-
ing 17 vessels carrying 1500 men believed in spending the least
money possible.  As a result, wine and water barrels leaked, the
wine quickly turned to vinegar, the food was beginning to spoil
at the time of purchase and old nags instead of Andalusian horses
were loaded along with livestock.
      The salting methods were very good.  Properly prepared salt
meat would keep as long as 40 years provided the casks--which
contained about 30 gallons--were kept in good order and their
contents were not allowed to become dry.  So often however, the
meat was of such poor quality and was beginning to go bad at the
time it was preserved.
      In days of calm sea the men fished and were able to enjoy
fresh fish.
      Humidity and heat played havoc with food supplies--sea
biscuits turned into soft masses of pullulating weevils, meat and
dry fish turned into malodorous masses but the men endured the
trials and tribulations.
      When sea biscuits became too spoiled, a flour made of
cassava roots of the manioc or yucca plant, leached out of their
poison (hydrocyanic acid--the Indians dipped their arrow tips
into this poison), was used to make into thin pancakes.  At first
the Spaniards did not like it, but they soon had to accept it as
it was superior to the moldy hardtacks they had available.  They
also learned to eat iguanas in Cuba (at first thought disgusting)
even "barkless" dogs (thought to taste as good as "kid from
Seville").  They also feasted on shark meat and dolphin during
the third and fourth voyages.
      Columbus died in 1506, poor, crippled by gout and arthritis,
still with the illusion of having found India.  We can see him
sitting by the window of his monastic room, dipping a weevil-
free sea biscuit in a bowl of Caldo de Perro Gaditano, the Cadiz
style fish broth prepared for him by his Franciscan friends,
gazing into the line of the horizon, seeing perhaps the distant
gold roofs of China.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                           SORRE-01.PAP