My fascination with Samosas had me go down the rabbit gap of discovering their origin story and write a Twitter thread about it.
Samosas originated within the center east. Persian literature from the tenth century has plenty of mentions of early variants of the fashionable samosas. These samosas have been crammed with minced meat.
Within the thirteenth century, merchants introduced them to India. Made with meat, ghee and onions, they turned common within the Delhi Sultanate. Samosas have been virtually all the time crammed with meat. Literature round this time doesn’t have a point out of *vegetarian* samosas.
To study in regards to the potato-filled samosas, we’ll need to take a detour and study the historical past of potatoes. Until the sixteenth century, the potato was indigenous to Peru, and unknown elsewhere. As European explorers opened the world, potatoes unfold the world over.
seventeenth century: Potatoes got here to India through the Portuguese. Enjoyable truth: they have been referred to as “Batata” by the Portuguese, which is what we name them in Marathi even at the moment. The consumption of potatoes was nonetheless restricted to West India, the place Portuguese had set their bases.
18th century: The East India Firm began to incentivize farmers in Northern and Japanese India to develop potatoes. Initially, this was for their very own consumption, however as soon as we tasted potatoes, how may we resist? Mass manufacturing of potatoes started!
My deduction based mostly on the above (couldn’t discover a supply): Within the 18th and nineteenth centuries, as potatoes turned widespread, they began changing meat in Samosas (*in all probability* influenced by vegetarianism and the delectable style of potatoes).
Immediately, the samosas are unfold the world over with differing fillings, tastes, and cooking strategies. However they’re a logo of globalization within the medieval and trendy ages. Extremely advocate studying the wiki article in regards to the unfold of potatoes.
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Sources:
On samosas: wikipedia
The story of potatoes: