Food and Drink Atlas
Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.
199 statements marked Debated.
Beer, Origin Period, From (Year)-11000
Beer, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)
Currently States -11000
Contested residue evidence from a Natufian hunter-gatherer site in the southern Levant has been read as very early beer brewing, well before the clear, undisputed written evidence of organized Sumerian brewing; the earlier end of this range reflects that contested claim, not a settled date.
Source The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson
Beer, Origin Period, To (Year)-3400
Beer, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)
Currently States -3400
Contested residue evidence from a Natufian hunter-gatherer site in the southern Levant has been read as very early beer brewing, well before the clear, undisputed written evidence of organized Sumerian brewing; the later end of this range is the securely attested Sumerian textual record.
Source The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson
Beer, Origin RegionMesopotamia (modern Iraq); contested residue evidence points further back to the Natufian southern Levant
Beer, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Region
Currently States Mesopotamia (modern Iraq); contested residue evidence points further back to the Natufian southern Levant
Source Beer (World History Encyclopedia)
Bibimbap, Origin Period, From (Year)1590
Bibimbap, Dishes
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)
Currently States 1590
Marks the earliest textual reference, under the name hondon-ban, in the Yeokjogumun section of Historical Notes of Gijae by Bak Dongnyang, written around 1590; the first known bibimbap recipe under that name appears later, in the anonymous 19th-century cookbook Siuijeonseo.
Source Bibimbap (Wikipedia)
Bibimbap, Origin Period, To (Year)1900
Bibimbap, Dishes
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)
Currently States 1900
Marks the late 19th century, when the Siuijeonseo cookbook carrying the first known bibimbap recipe (under that name) is believed to have been compiled, closing the bracket the live origin-start-year fact opens at 1590 (the earlier hondon-ban name in Historical Notes of Gijae). The cookbook itself is not more precisely dated by this source than late 19th century.
Source Siuijeonseo (Wikipedia)
Biryani, Origin RegionIndian subcontinent (Mughal court and/or Deccan, contested)
Biryani, Dishes
Standing
Concerns Origin Region
Currently States Indian subcontinent (Mughal court and/or Deccan, contested)
Historian Lizzie Collingham credits the Mughal royal kitchens under Akbar with developing the modern biryani from Persian pilau and Hindustani rice cookery; other historians hold biryani reached the Deccan region earlier, via Persian-influenced travelers, predating the Mughal era.
Source Biryani (Wikipedia)
Biryani, Origin Period, From (Year)1556
Biryani, Dishes
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)
Currently States 1556
Marks the start of Akbar's reign, the period the Mughal-court origin theory credits; the rival Deccan-origin theory places biryani's arrival in South Asia earlier, before the Mughal era.
Source Biryani (Wikipedia)
Biryani, Origin Period, To (Year)1605
Biryani, Dishes
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)
Currently States 1605
Marks the end of Akbar's reign (1556-1605), the Mughal-court period credited with biryani's emergence in the origin theory this range reflects; the rival Deccan-origin theory places its arrival in South Asia earlier, before the Mughal era.
Source Biryani (Wikipedia)
Black Pepper, Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)-2000
Black Pepper, Ingredients
Standing
Concerns Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)
Currently States -2000
Reflects the approximate window in which specialized black pepper cultivation is attested on India's Malabar Coast, beginning around 2000 BCE. This is distinct from, and earlier than, the 1213 BCE peppercorns found in the mummified remains of Ramesses II, which is the earliest firmly dated evidence of the pepper trade reaching the Mediterranean rather than evidence of the plant's first cultivation.
Source The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson
Black Pepper, Earliest Documented Use, To (Year)-1500
Black Pepper, Ingredients
Standing
Concerns Earliest Documented Use, To (Year)
Currently States -1500
Reflects the approximate window in which specialized black pepper cultivation is attested on India's Malabar Coast, beginning around 2000 BCE. This is distinct from, and earlier than, the 1213 BCE peppercorns found in the mummified remains of Ramesses II, which is the earliest firmly dated evidence of the pepper trade reaching the Mediterranean rather than evidence of the plant's first cultivation.
Source The Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson
Bloody Mary, Origin RegionFrance
Bloody Mary, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Region
Currently States France
According To petiot-1921-claim
Two competing origin narratives exist for the Bloody Mary: a 1921 claim tied to Paris and a 1934 claim tied to New York; sources do not agree on a single origin city or country.
Source Bloody Mary (cocktail) - Wikipedia
Bloody Mary, Origin RegionUnited States
Bloody Mary, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Region
Currently States United States
According To petiot-1934-claim
Two competing origin narratives exist for the Bloody Mary: a 1921 claim tied to Paris and a 1934 claim tied to New York; sources do not agree on a single origin city or country.
Source Bloody Mary (cocktail) - Wikipedia
Bloody Mary, Origin Period, From (Year)1921
Bloody Mary, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)
Currently States 1921
According To petiot-1921-claim
Two competing origin years are claimed for Petiot's invention, 1921 and 1934; sources do not agree on a single year.
Source Bloody Mary (cocktail) - Wikipedia
Bloody Mary, Origin Period, To (Year)1921
Bloody Mary, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)
Currently States 1921
According To petiot-1921-claim
Two competing origin years are claimed for Petiot's invention, 1921 and 1934; sources do not agree on a single year.
Source Bloody Mary (cocktail) - Wikipedia
Bloody Mary, Origin Period, From (Year)1934
Bloody Mary, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)
Currently States 1934
According To petiot-1934-claim
Two competing origin years are claimed for Petiot's invention, 1921 and 1934; sources do not agree on a single year.
Source Bloody Mary (cocktail) - Wikipedia
Bloody Mary, Origin Period, To (Year)1934
Bloody Mary, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, To (Year)
Currently States 1934
According To petiot-1934-claim
Two competing origin years are claimed for Petiot's invention, 1921 and 1934; sources do not agree on a single year.
Source Bloody Mary (cocktail) - Wikipedia
Börek, Origin RegionAnatolia and the Turkic world, per the earliest known record in a 12th century Turkic epic; a Byzantine Greek origin is also proposed by some scholars
Börek, Dishes
Standing
Concerns Origin Region
Currently States Anatolia and the Turkic world, per the earliest known record in a 12th century Turkic epic; a Byzantine Greek origin is also proposed by some scholars
Source Burek (Wikipedia)
Borscht, Origin Period, From (Year)1550
Borscht, Dishes
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)
Currently States 1550
Marks the sixteenth-century Domostroy, a Russian household compendium carrying an early written reference to the Slavic hogweed soup borscht derives from; the now-standard beetroot-based form is documented later.
Source Borscht (Wikipedia)
Bubble Tea, Origin Period, From (Year)1986
Bubble Tea, Drinks
Standing
Concerns Origin Period, From (Year)
Currently States 1986
Two Taiwanese tea rooms each claim to have invented bubble tea: the Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says 1986, while the Chun Shui Tang tea room in Taichung credits staffer Lin Hsiu Hui with the idea in 1988. The two tea rooms litigated the question for roughly a decade; a 2019 Taiwanese court ruling declined to assign credit to either side, holding the drink an unpatentable general food product. Filed as an open question.
Source Bubble Tea (Wikipedia)
Buckwheat, Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)-6000 BCE
Buckwheat, Ingredients
Standing
Concerns Earliest Documented Use, From (Year)
Currently States -6000 BCE
Wikipedia "Buckwheat" History: common buckwheat was domesticated and first cultivated in inland Southeast Asia, possibly around 6000 BC, most likely in the western Yunnan region of China.
Source Buckwheat (Wikipedia)