Sunflower butter is made mainly from roasted and ground sunflower seeds, but sometimes sunflower oil may be added in to give it a better consistency. Historians believe that sunflowers are one of the first crops cultivated in the Americas, and may well have been cultivated even before corn. Domestication of …
Cashew butter is made from the kidney-shaped cashew nut. The cashew nut is a tree nut from Brazil that was discovered by Europeans in the 16th century. At first, the Portuguese who had ventured to Brazil thought the nut to be inedible because of its toxic properties. The shell of …
Almond butter is made from roasted and ground almonds, which are tree nuts that originated in Iran and the region around it. The best quality and simplest versions will consist entirely of almonds, but lesser products may have other ingredients. Its true origin appears to be unknown beyond its association …
Peanut butter as we know it in the modern world is made from roasted and ground peanuts. Peanuts most likely originated on the South American continent and were used by the Incas and Aztecs as both food and medicine. It should be noted that these early South Americans were likely …
Toban djan is a broad bean paste that is effectively the same product as doubanjiang. Other names for the product include chili bean paste. The beans used to make toban djan are sometimes called fava beans. It shares the same history with doubanjiang, which is that it was supposedly invented …
Gochujang is a spicy Korean seasoning paste/sauce. The ingredients include chili powder, fermented soybeans in the form of meju or meju powder, and sweet rice. The jang in the name indicates that it’s a sauce. Sauces are among the most important elements in Korean cooking. Gochujang was invented because of …
Ssamjang is a Korean seasoning sauce. The most basic version of ssamjang is a blend of doenjang and gochujang, two seasoning pastes that have been around for centuries. Doenjang is a fermented soybean paste and gochujang is chili pepper paste with sugar and fermented soybeans for flavor. Ssamjang was invented …
Doubanjiang is a fermented paste consisting of broad beans and chili peppers. While it comes from the Sichuan province, versions of doubanjiang are used all over China, with properties that vary from region to region. Doubanjiang is one of the main seasonings in food from Sichuan, so much so that …