From Herd to Pantry: Meats, Soy Ferments and Flavorings

Pork: the entry cites evidence for pig domestication at Cishan in China from around 6000 BC, which makes pork one of the oldest farmed meats and a natural first stop.

Lamb: the entry gives the estimated date of sheep domestication as between 11,000 and 9000 BC in Mesopotamia, and it explains the three names for sheep meat, lamb in a sheep first year, hogget in its second and mutton from older animals.

Beef: the entry records that taurine cattle were domesticated from wild aurochs about 10,500 years ago in central Anatolia, the Levant and Western Iran, so the third most widely eaten meat today has a very long farming history.

Tempeh: native to the island of Java, it is made by binding whole soybeans into a firm cake with a Rhizopus fungus, and the atlas records Indonesia as its place of origin.

Soy sauce: it reached roughly its current form about 2,200 years ago during the Western Han dynasty of China, made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine and molds, and the atlas lists soybeans as its allergen.

Paprika: peppers were being gathered and eaten in Mexico by about 7000 BC, and the entry places the pepper native range in northern South America and southwestern North America.

Parsley: it is native to Greece, the Balkans, Algeria and Morocco, is believed to have first been grown in Sardinia, and was cultivated there around the 3rd century BC.

Lime: limes originated in tropical Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and South China, and spread by migration and trade, reaching the Middle East and Mediterranean through the spice trade by at least 1200 BCE.