Couscous is steamed semolina made from durum wheat, traditionally hand rolled and cooked in stages in a two part couscoussiere over a simmering stew, served with harissa on the side. Amazigh, or Berber, peoples are its acknowledged originators, and the dish is a staple across the Maghreb. In 2020 UNESCO inscribed the knowledge and practices behind its production and consumption onto the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in a nomination jointly submitted by Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia.
Facts
Disputed
Origin Period, From (Year)Food historian Charles Perry places the dish origin between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, and the earliest secure written reference is a thirteenth century Andalusian source; an earlier antiquity dating proposed by Lucie Bolens is described by later scholarship, including the Institute of Archaeology in Algiers, as now largely invalidated. 1100 marks the early edge of Perry range, not a settled date. Origin Period, To (Year)Brackets the eleventh-to-thirteenth-century range food historian Charles Perry proposes for couscous's origin; the earliest secure written reference is a thirteenth-century Andalusian source. See origin-start-year on this entity for the fuller note. Origin RegionThe Maghreb, North Africa, among Amazigh, or Berber, peoples. 1 Connections
Associated With
Expresses Tradition
Source Couscous (Encyclopedia of Food and Culture)Teresa de Castro
In Cuisine
Source Knowledge, Know How and Practices Pertaining to the Production and Consumption of Couscous (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, RL 01602)
Uses Ingredient
Traditionally served alongside couscous as harissa rather than cooked into the grain itself.
Source Harissa, Knowledge, Skills and Culinary and Social Practices (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, RL 01710)
Source Knowledge, Know How and Practices Pertaining to the Production and Consumption of Couscous (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, RL 01602)
Sources
1. Couscous (Encyclopedia of Food and Culture)
Teresa de Castro, Charles Scribner's Sons, via Encyclopedia.comOriginsView the Source Knowledge, Know How and Practices Pertaining to the Production and Consumption of Couscous (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, RL 01602)
Couscous (Wiktionary)
Harissa, Knowledge, Skills and Culinary and Social Practices (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, RL 01710)
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, 2022Uses Ingredient: Chili PepperView the Source Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Origin Period, From (Year)
Historian Lucie Bolens proposed that Berbers were preparing couscous as early as 238 to 149 BCE, an antiquity dating her own source material states only tentatively and which later scholarship, including the Institute of Archaeology in Algiers, describes as now largely invalidated. The better supported reading, from food historian Charles Perry, places the dish origin between the end of the Zirid dynasty and the rise of the Almohad dynasty, roughly the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, matching the earliest secure written reference to couscous, a thirteenth century source from Hispano-Muslim Andalusia.
A dissenting reading, from an independent laneTeresa de Castro, Couscous (Encyclopedia of Food and Culture), Charles Scribner's Sons, via Encyclopedia.com
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