Posts Tagged venetian lagoon
Organic Foods in Venetian Baking Traditions: Learn Easy Organic Cookie Recipes
The Veneto region, comprising the islands of Venice, and a vast, dry land territory covering Padova, Verona, and Vicenza was largely an agricultural area dedicated to farming of fruits and vegetables, soft wheat, and corn during the pre-industrial age. Because money was scarce, families survived largely on the fruits of their labor: A diet designed around organic grains like corn, that were in abundance, and fish from the Venetian lagoon. Meats were considered a luxury. In fact, cured meats and salamis were a solution to the lack of refrigeration and provided a hearty alternative to the otherwise “poor” diet.
Thus, the organic baking traditions reflected not only the antique traditions, but also the organic ingredients most readily available. Converting corn into polenta for a sweet cookie or for the dinner table represented the marriage of necessity to nutrition. In fact, most of the traditional Venetian organic cookies are dry, rather than moist, given the scarcity of organic ingredients, the difficulty in conserving them, and the palette preferences of the Venetians for a drier organic cookie. Many of the desert and organic cookie recipes were secret, passed down through the maternal side, and often nicknamed “biscotti della nonna” or “grandmother’s cookies” to represent their homemade origins. The organic cookies were jealously conserved in lovely tin or wood boxes, next to the crystal bottles of rose oil, walnut liqueur, or citron liqueur.
Tags: cookie recipes, crystal bottles, fruits and vegetables, organic cookies, organic grains, soft wheat, use of pesticides, venetian lagoon, veneto region, wood boxesRelated posts
Discover the Secrets of Traditional Venetian Cookies With Organic Food Baking Recipes
From the enchanting Venetian lagoon on the Adriatic sea in Italy, when Venice was the center of commerce with Asia from the 13th to the 19th centuries, organic baking traditions were born that are still practiced today by housewives and pastry chefs. Explorers and sailors carried foodstuffs on board the merchant and war galleons that would survive the long voyages in the perilous seas. Among these were sweet treats, simple to make, that in name and taste, reflected their Venetian origins. Not to mention that in those days, the only existing agriculture created organic food; no pesticides or additives were used in foods, except those from mother nature herself.
Tags: adriatic sea, baking recipes, colored houses, delicate light, desert wine, feast days, pastry chefs, perilous seas, venetian dialect, venetian lagoon
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