Food and Drink Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the part of the atlas the question sits in. Start here if you know the territory better than the technique.
Showing 1 to 20 of 54 open questions, page 1 of 3.
Dishes 29
Hummus
Which country or people first prepared hummus as it is known today?
Open Hummus
Why It Is Open Multiple eastern Mediterranean countries and communities (Israel, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt among them) claim hummus as a national dish, but the documentary record does not fix a single point of origin; the earliest known written recipes are 13th-century Syrian and 14th-century Cairene.
What Would Settle It A written recipe or reliable archaeological attestation predating the 13th-century Syrian and 14th-century Cairene cookbook records, tied unambiguously to one people or place, would settle the question; none has yet been found.
Expertise Needed Culinary history
Question posed in
Hummus (Wikipedia), Origin and history.
Mole Poblano
Which Puebla convent, nun or friar first prepared mole poblano?
Open Mole Poblano
Why It Is Open Several colonial-era convent-kitchen legends compete for credit, naming different convents, nuns, friars and even different visiting dignitaries (an archbishop in some versions, the viceroy Juan de Palafox y Mendoza in others); food historians hold there is not enough evidence to prefer one account over the others.
What Would Settle It A contemporary 17th- or 18th-century convent record or eyewitness account naming one specific convent, nun or friar as the dish's inventor, rather than the anecdotal accounts collected long after the fact, would settle which legend, if any, is accurate.
Expertise Needed Culinary history / colonial Mexican archival research
Question posed in
Mole Poblano (Wikipedia), History.
Biryani
Did biryani originate in the Mughal royal kitchens under Akbar, or did it reach the Deccan earlier via Persian-influenced travelers?
Open Biryani
Why It Is Open Historian Lizzie Collingham credits the Mughal royal kitchens under Akbar (r. 1556-1605) with developing the modern biryani from Persian pilau and Hindustani rice cookery; other historians hold that biryani reached South Asia's Deccan region earlier, via Persian-influenced soldier-statesmen and pilgrims, predating the Mughal era.
What Would Settle It Textual or archaeological evidence confidently dated to before Akbar's reign (1556), describing a layered rice-and-meat dish recognizably like biryani in the Deccan, or a reliable absence of any such evidence, would settle which theory better fits the record.
Expertise Needed Culinary history / South Asian history
Question posed in
Biryani (Wikipedia), Analysis.
Baklava
Which culinary tradition, Byzantine and Greek, Arabic, or Central Asian Turkic, is baklava's true ancestor?
Open Baklava
Why It Is Open Food historians propose three competing root traditions for baklava: the Byzantine and Greek placenta cake and koptoplakous, the medieval Arabic confection lauzinaj, and the Central Asian Turkic tradition of layered breads. A recognizably Turkish form is generally placed in the Ottoman court kitchens of Topkapi Palace, but which, if any, of the three earlier traditions is its true ancestor is unsettled.
What Would Settle It A securely dated medieval recipe or description linking one of the three candidate traditions unambiguously and exclusively to the layered, syrup-soaked form recognizable as baklava today, or ruling the others out, would settle the question; historians currently weigh three plausible ancestors rather than one confirmed line.
Expertise Needed Culinary history / Ottoman and Byzantine studies
Question posed in
Baklava (Wikipedia), History.
Injera
When did injera, the Ethiopian and Eritrean fermented teff flatbread, originate?
Open Injera
Why It Is Open Wikipedia states the origin of injera is unknown; a folklore account places invention around 100 BC and mitad griddles are known from archaeological sites around 600 AD, but both are described as unconfirmed.
What Would Settle It A dated archaeological find of fermented-teff residue or an injera-specific artifact tied stratigraphically to a site, or a written record older than the 19th-century sources currently known, naming injera or its precursor by name.
Expertise Needed food history, archaeology
Question posed in
Injera (Wikipedia), History.
Naan
When and where was naan bread first made?
Open Naan
Why It Is Open Naan is an ancient Persian flatbread; the word itself is generic Persian for bread. The only dated textual evidence in the source is the Indo-Persian Sufi poet Amir Khusrau's memoirs, written in India in the 1300s AD, which is an early attestation of naan being eaten in that region, not a record of when or where the bread itself was first made. No source found gives an actual invention date or place.
What Would Settle It A food-history or archaeological source establishing when leavened, oven-baked flatbread first appeared in Persia specifically (as opposed to the broader family of Middle Eastern and South Asian flatbreads), with a citable date or period.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Naan (Wikipedia), Naan, Etymology and Varieties/Indian subcontinent sections.
Rogan Josh
What year marks the close of rogan josh's origin period as a distinct Kashmiri dish, after the Mughals brought the Persian original north in the 16th century?
Open Rogan Josh
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's Origin section documents rogan josh being brought to North India by the Mughals in the 16th century and becoming a staple of the Kashmiri wazwan, but narrates this as a continuing evolution (through a later British Indian restaurant form) with no year or reign given for when the dish's Kashmiri identity was established. No defensible closing year for the origin period was found in the source.
What Would Settle It A dated primary or secondary source (a Mughal-era or early colonial Kashmiri court or culinary record, or a peer-reviewed food-history study) naming when rogan josh became a recognized, named Kashmiri dish rather than an ongoing Persian import.
Expertise Needed Culinary history / South Asian history
Question posed in
Rogan Josh (Wikipedia), Origin section, first paragraph.
Baba Ghanoush
When and where did baba ghanoush, the Levantine roasted-eggplant dish, first take its current form?
Open Baba Ghanoush
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's own entry gives no dated origin claim for the dish itself; the only date in the article (1979) is Hans Wehr's dictionary entry for the WORD bābā ghanūj, not evidence of when the dish itself arose.
What Would Settle It A food-history source (e.g. Gil Marks or Charles Perry) dating the dish, as opposed to the term, to a specific period or century.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Baba Ghanoush (Wikipedia), Etymology section.
Pita
When did the steam-puffed, two-layer pocket form of pita bread first appear?
Open Pita
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's own History section states there is no record of the pocket pita in ancient texts or medieval Arab cookbooks and that food historians such as Charles Perry and Gil Marks consider it "likely a later development," with no period or century named.
What Would Settle It A food-history source naming the period or region where the steam-puffed pocket technique was first documented, as distinct from the much older prehistoric Near Eastern flatbread lineage.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Pita (Wikipedia), History section.
Chana Masala
When did chana masala emerge as a distinct dish on the Indian subcontinent?
Open Chana Masala
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's own entry names the dish's regional home (the Indian subcontinent, North Indian and Pakistani cuisine) but gives no date or period for its emergence anywhere in the article.
What Would Settle It A food-history source dating chana masala's emergence as a named dish, as distinct from the much older general history of chickpea cookery in South Asia.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Chana Masala (Wikipedia), Introduction.
Fattoush
When did fattoush take shape as the distinct dish known today, rather than the earlier bread salads it may descend from?
Open Fattoush
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's article on fattoush cites a 10th-century Arabic cookbook by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq recording a vegetarian tharid dish reminiscent of fattoush, and a late 19th-century description by Orientalist Reinhart Dozy of a bread-based dish close to today's fattoush, with the English word fattoush first attested in 1955. No source in the article fixes when the tharid-descended bread salad became the specific dish known as fattoush, so origin-start-year and origin-end-year are left unfilled rather than guessed from the loosely related medieval precedent.
What Would Settle It A food-historical study tracing bread salads in the Levant from the medieval Arabic tharid tradition through to the first clearly identified fattoush recipes, with dated textual evidence in between the 10th and 20th centuries.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Fattoush (Wikipedia), History section: 10th-century Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq cookbook, late 19th-century Dozy description, 1955 English attestation.
Harira
In what period, and where exactly, did harira take shape as a distinct soup, given the dispute between a specifically Moroccan origin and a broader Andalusian or Maghrebi origin?
Open Harira
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's article on harira reports that food historian Gil Marks attributes its origin to Morocco, calling this claim compelling but debatable, while Algerie Poste and the Andalusi scholar Ibn Razin al-Tujibi identify harira as an authentic Maghreb dish of Andalusian origin. The article gives no date range that both accounts would support, so origin-start-year and origin-end-year are left unfilled rather than guessed from either side of the dispute.
What Would Settle It A scholarly resolution of the competing Moroccan and Andalusian origin claims for harira, anchored to a specific dated text or archaeological finding rather than a named scholar's attribution alone.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Harira (Wikipedia), Origin section: Gil Marks Morocco attribution and Ibn Razin al-Tujibi Andalusian attribution.
Cassoulet
When did the dish now called cassoulet take its current form and name, given that its own popular 1355 siege-of-Castelnaudary origin story is directly contradicted by the historical record?
Open Cassoulet
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's article on cassoulet reports the popular tradition that cassoulet was invented in 1355 during a siege of Castelnaudary, then states plainly that in historical fact there was no siege and the Black Prince sacked and burned the town instead. The same article dates the term cassoulet itself to no earlier than the 19th century per the Dictionnaire de l'Academie francaise, with only the vague label medieval estouffet for an earlier related dish. No source bridges the medieval estouffet and the 19th-century named cassoulet, so origin-start-year and origin-end-year are left unfilled rather than built on the disproven 1355 legend.
What Would Settle It A documented dating of the transition from the medieval estouffet to the dish and name cassoulet, replacing the disproven 1355 siege legend with real textual evidence.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Cassoulet (Wikipedia), History section: 1355 siege legend refuted, term dated no earlier than 19th century.
Gallo Pinto
What year, and in which country, did gallo pinto (the Central American rice-and-beans dish) actually originate?
Open Gallo Pinto
Why It Is Open Costa Rica and Nicaragua each claim the dish with contradictory dates: Costa Rican tradition dates it to 1930s San Jose via a specific farmer's-feast origin story; Nicaraguan tradition holds it derives from a dish brought to the country by enslaved Africans considerably earlier. Wikipedia's own account calls the country of origin uncertain and disputed, and notes only general agreement that the dish's roots are Afro-Caribbean.
What Would Settle It A documented pre-1900 written or oral-history source placing a recognizable gallo-pinto-style rice-and-bean preparation in one country specifically, or a scholarly source adjudicating between the competing Costa Rican and Nicaraguan origin narratives.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Gallo pinto (Wikipedia), History and Contention sections.
Agnolotti
When and where did agnolotti take shape as a distinct stuffed pasta in Piedmont?
Open Agnolotti
Why It Is Open The only origin account Wikipedia gives is a legend that the name comes from a cook called Angiolino, or "Angelot", from Montferrat, said to be the inventor of the recipe; no date or period is attached to this legend and the article gives no other historical dating for when agnolotti took shape.
What Would Settle It A food-history source establishing when stuffed pasta of this square-folded Piedmont form was first made or documented, independent of the undated Angiolino naming legend.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Agnolotti (Wikipedia), Lead section.
Acquacotta
In what period did acquacotta take shape as a distinct bread-and-broth soup in the Maremma?
Open Acquacotta
Why It Is Open Wikipedia dates acquacotta's origin only to "ancient history" with no specific period, era or century given anywhere in the article; the dish is described as ancient peasant food from the Maremma with no citable starting point.
What Would Settle It A food-history or archaeological source giving a specific period, century or documented early reference for when acquacotta as a bread-and-broth soup first took shape in the Maremma.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Acquacotta (Wikipedia), Lead section.
Akki rotti
When did akki rotti take shape as a distinct Karnataka rice-flour flatbread?
Open Akki rotti
Why It Is Open Wikipedia's article on akki rotti gives no historical dating at all: no period, century or documented early reference for when the dish, or either of its two named regional versions, first appeared.
What Would Settle It A food-history source establishing when rice-flour flatbread preparation in Karnataka, or its Kodagu bhakri-style variant, took shape as the dish known as akki rotti today.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Akki rotti (Wikipedia), Lead section.
Varenyky
When did varenyky take shape as a distinct Ukrainian dumpling?
Open Varenyky
Why It Is Open Wikipedia states only that varenyky have been documented in Ukrainian culinary traditions for centuries and appear in folklore, ritual and literature, with no year, century or specific historical account of when the dish took its present form.
What Would Settle It A food-history source dating varenyky's emergence as a distinct filled-dumpling dish in Ukrainian cuisine, rather than only describing its long-standing presence.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Varenyky (Wikipedia), History.
Brik
When and where did brik take shape beyond its at-least-500-year floor?
Open Brik
Why It Is Open Wikipedia gives only a floor for brik, dating it back at least 500 years, and says its origins are otherwise hard to trace directly; no more specific date, place or inventor is given anywhere in the article.
What Would Settle It A food-history source narrowing brik's origin beyond the 500-year floor, and identifying where among the wider borek/bourek/burek/malsouka family it specifically arose.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Brik (Wikipedia), Regional variants and preparation.
Char Kway Teow
When did char kway teow emerge among Teochew hawkers in Maritime Southeast Asia?
Open Char Kway Teow
Why It Is Open Wikipedia describes char kway teow as originally sold by fishermen, farmers and cockle-gatherers as evening hawker food, and notes its later 20th-century popularization, but gives no year or period for when the dish itself first took shape.
What Would Settle It A food-history source dating when char kway teow emerged as a distinct hawker dish among Teochew and Hokkien communities, rather than only its later, better-documented 20th-century spread.
Expertise Needed food history
Question posed in
Char Kway Teow (Wikipedia), History and etymology.