“There’s been a resurgence of interest over the past years or so in these forgotten foods and archaic ways of cooking. As individuals increasingly search for ways to eat more authentically and sustainably, they are unearthing once-common foods that hundreds of years ago were staples of the diet but have since fallen into obscurity. This article chronicles the stories of some meals that have gone extinct, and then tried to make a comeback.”
Image: Some of the foods from the History
Historical Grains: The Revealing of Expired Mainstays
Among the most vital forgotten foods are ancient grains upon which the world’s civilizations subsisted for millenniums. Quinoa and amaranth, once staples in the diets of the Inca and Aztec civilizations, are having a renaissance in kitchens across the globe. Once a staple grain fed to Roman soldiers, today farro is respected for its nutty flavor and versatility in soups and salads. Reinserted from the brink of extinction, Khorasan wheat, often known as (Kamut), and spelt have been having a moment, as shoppers look for alternatives that are more flavorful and healthful than the ideal boring wheat.
These grains, all forgotten foods, fit right in with the trend toward sustainable and organic farming practices because they tend to require less processing to be edible and are more resilient in difficult growing areas. Also, ancient grain-based and gluten-free diets have gained popularity and more people are being diagnosed with celiac disease. In addition to their healthfulness, ancient grains are loved for their abundance of culture and the history of long-gone farmers whose field they grew in.
Fermented Foods: A Resurgence of Antiquated Preservation Methods
Fermentation” is one of the oldest methods of food preservation and has been a major player in shaping countless cuisines globally. Because of these advantages — improved gut health and improved nutritional value — these forgotten foods have come back into popularity. One of these foods is natto, a sticky fermented soybean delicacy that has been consumed in Japan for over a millennium. Natto’s pungent smell and slimy mouth feel used to repel many, but in present times, as its high probiotic content has brought it into the health food mainstream.”
Another one is kvass, a fermented rye-bread drink traditional to Slavs. Once popular in Eastern Europe, it fell out of favor as modern soft drinks became the fashionable thing to drink. As a probiotic tonic and refreshing drink, kvass is enjoying a revival nowadays. Likewise, as the benefits of probiotic foods have became more well-known, kefir, a fermented dairy drink from the Caucasus, has arrived in stores.
Wizened foods, a renaissance of fermented veggies, like kimchi and sauerkraut, are also emerging. A staple in German and Eastern European cuisines, sauerkraut has re-emerged as a high-vitality fork in the road for modern meals, while kimchi, all but restricted to Korean tables until a few decades ago, has gone global. This heightened interest in these overlooked foods stems from a growing body of knowledge about our gut health and the role of probiotics in shaping our overall well-being.
Foraged Ingredients: Wild Foods’ Resurgence
“Long before cultivation was widespread humans depended on foraged foods for subsistence. Foraging has faded in recent years with the arrival of industrial farming, but some lost wild treats are returning. A rise in more sustainable, natural food sources is what the up-and-up of the foraged food trend stems from. Foodies and chefs are rediscovering these foods, too, for their unique flavors and nutrient profiles.”
A wild green once used for soups and teas throughout Europe is one example of forgotten foods. Nettles, stingy leaves and all, are a long-held nourisher and healer. The earthy taste of the root has recently re-emerged on restaurant menus, as chefs experiment with it in soups, pestos and even desserts. Purslane, another wild plant well regarded as a weed by many species of plants, has found its way into traditional diets in Asia and the Mediterranean on account of its richness in omega-3 fatty acids.
Now sought after for their nuance and medicinal attributes, mushrooms such as chanterelles, morels and maitake were once foraged by rural people. Other nonchalant berries — like elderberries, prized in antiquity for their immune-system-boosting panache — are also part of the foraging boom. The revival of these forgotten foods is happening not just at fine dining establishments, but also, at least to some extent, via farmers’ markets and community-supported agricultural programs.
Heirloom Vegetables: Bringing Back the Diversity of Agriculture
This loss of variety can be attributed to industrial agriculture and mass food production, which tend to eventually discard less commercially viable species of fruit and vegetables. But still, there’s a growing demand to restore heirloom crops that were once grown for their interesting flavors, their bold colors and their adaptability. Compared to the hybrid varieties bred for uniformity and shelf life at market, heirloom vegetables preserve the wealth of genetic diversity characterizing preindustrial farming.
In ancient forgotten foods, say, tomatoes. Colorful, tasty heirlooms that were once indeed plentiful in home gardens have little in common with bland, commercial types. With chefs and gardeners more concerned with flavor and nutritional value than appearance, heirloom cultivars — Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and the like — are back in fashion. Heritage beans that are deeply rooted in cultural significance and flavor, such as Scarlet Runner and Jacob’s Cattle, are also coming back.
Another ignored item that’s making a comeback is salsify root, or the “oyster plant,” as it is known at market, for a vaguely seafood-y flavor. Another even more obscure (though very much once ubiquitous) ingredient — Salsify — is back in style for being versatile in a soup or stew. In addition to being a boon to biodiversity, the conservation and development of these heritage varieties also helps to reacquaint people with traditional agricultural practices and culinary heritage.
Forgotten Flavors & Spices: Discovering Previously Used Seasonings
“The craving for exotic flavors has caused a rediscovery of spices and seasonings long sought after that had once deemed popular on trade routes of yore but gradually faded away.” Long pepper tasted more complex than black pepper and was a kitchen staple in Roman and medieval kitchens, but it faded away as it mounted fewer challenges to black pepper when the latter became relatively inexpensive. Its distinctive taste profile has made it a newcomer in fine-dining cuisine.”
Sour and lemony, in yet another comeback of a fugitive thing, sucan — a spice of widespread use in Middle Eastern cooking — has found its way into the chat rooms of lost food, too. Sumac has been used as both a spice and medicinal herb for millennia in parts of the world like the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Its reappearance in contemporary cookery is part of an interest in so many historical and cultural approaches to cooking.
As for vanishing edibles of another type, the Kent-ish ancient spice known as asafetida (asafoetida) is enjoying a renaissance among Middle Eastern and Indian cooks. Asafoetida was used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine but is also serves as a replacement for onions and garlic. It’s now viewed as ideal for digestive benefits. The resurrection of spices in contemporary cooking that were all but forgotten is as fine an example of old and new taste meeting as any.
Revival of Expired Gastronomic Customs: A Novel Approach to Sustainability
“Much more than just a food fad, the revival of forgotten foods is part of a broader wish to embrace sustainable ways and a reconnection to heritage. And, as we realize how poisonous the environmental impacts have become of the food-eating systems we’re currently using, we realize — and then embrace — foodways that are traditional and that prioritize biodiversity, seasonality and the ethical sourcing of ingredients. Time-forgotten foods are generally emblematic of the know-how of previous generations who farmed the land and prepared meals in harmony with the capacities of local ecosystems.”
For these foods from the past, the first step in bringing them back is often to reserve them and spread information that has been passed down through the generations. Indigenous cultures, for example, have long followed culturally important food practices that are now being lauded as ecologically minded. That new-found admiration for ways of eating not previously considered is inspiring a more integrative approach to how we produce and consume food — one stressing sustainability and cultural continuity as much as flavor and nutrition.
Difficulties in Reviving Forgotten Foods: Ownership and Cultural Appropriation
Particularly in how it takes shape in the form of forgotten foods and the complications of their reappearance in neglected cuisines. The main issue is cultural appropriation. When a dish goes global, there’s often a yawning gulf that opens up between the originators of the ancient recipes and fading components, on one side, and those who re-interpret and re-assemble them in abstract and commercial forms. This is what the risk of appropriation looks like — where indigenous value and indigenous practices become commodified, and traditions are availabilized without credit or capitalization;
If Indigenous Native American varieties of maize or that of African grains like teff and fonio become ubiquitous, they could lose significance. Introducing these items as cool superfoods or fancy products is at the risk of the people who have been growing and tending to them for centuries. That has provoked questions about who stands to benefit from the resuscitation of foods that had fallen out of fashion and whether access to markets and resources is fair to the communities most closely associated with them.
And Forgotten Foods are trying to solve these problems in order to do this. Increasingly, initiatives are focused on profit sharing, community and responsible sourcing. Some chefs and food entrepreneurs are working directly with indigenous peoples to create products that do honor traditional knowledge and create economic opportunity. Equally important in the equitable and respectful revival of used foods is the place of organizations dedicated to the protection of heritage crops and plant seed sovereignty.
The Advantages of Biodiversity and Forgotten Foods for the Environment
Another reason helping forgotten foods make a comeback is the renewed awareness around sustainability they are capable of promoting. Compared with their more marketed counterparts, many of these traditional components are hardier in the face of pests, illnesses and changing climate. They also make it easier to protect biodiversity, which is critical for maintaining ecosystem health and ensuring food security.
Industrial agriculture has resulted in a staggering loss of diversity in the crops cultivated worldwide. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), people today use just a handful of the plant varieties that were once cultivated. The loss of diversity makes food systemss one of the worst victims of environmental change, because both their genetic diversity and their crop diversity are reduced, limitating the possibility of crops adaption to changes of weather and edaphoclimatic conditions.
By contrast, the meal players end up forgetting are often crops that have been bred over millennia to thrive in specific environments. Shahzeb says ancient grains that do well in marginal soils include millet, sorghum, and teff. The grains are in their nature resistant to the drought. Likewise, when allowed to grow wild, naturally gathered plants like nettles, dandelions and purslane can establish themselves in a variety of landscapes, often with minimal help. By bringing these crops back to our diets we can help reduce agriculture’s environmental footprint and we can make food systems more resilient.
Forgotten foods not only benefit the environment, but they are often grown using more sustainable old agricultural practices rather than modern industrial methods. Examples of such practices include crop rotation, polyculture, and organic fertilizers, which promote biodiversity, maintain soil health, and reduce chemical inputs. Bringing these ways back to life alongside the crops themselves is integral to creating a more resilient food system.
Food Movement’s Contribution to the Promotion of Forgotten Foods
The renaissance of long-forgotten foods is closely tied to bigger food movements that promote local, sustainable and culturally appropriate diets. Farm-to-table, permaculture and slow food movements, for example, have been key to shining a spotlight on these archaic ingredients and cooking traditions.
In its case for forgotten foods, one of the groups to be among the first movements to advocate for traditional foodways to resist the forces of globalization and industrialization was Slow Food, which began in Italy in the 1980s. Many of the world’s endangered foods are also forgotten foods, and Slow Food lists and celebrates these delicacies through its “Ark of Taste” program. The initiative has helped rare breeds of animal, heritage varieties of crops and artisanal food products that are at risk of extinction.
Forgotten Foods and Food Security in the Future
With climate change raising alarms about food security, the role of forgotten foods in creating more resilient food systems is critical. Diverse and highly nutritious, many ancient grains are hardy weapons against hunger and food scarcity.
Hidden in history, resilient traditional crops can serve as a substitute to unsustainable input-dependent agribusiness systems, in parts of the world where, due to climate change, drought, floods, and many other weather extremes are on the rise. Staple grains like sorghum and millets, cultivated in parts of Africa and India, for example, can be grown in climatic conditions unfit for cereals such as wheat and maize. Bringing back these lost crops would help make communities more food secure and less dependent on imported staples.
The nutritional benefits of these forgotten foods, where we seem to ignore at least half of them, are also huge. Many ancient grains, wild greens and heritage crops contain more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than varieties we eat today. Like teff, one of Ethiopian grains is iron, calcium and protein-rich food that is an antidote for malnutrition. Likewise in wild, foraged plants like dandelion and amaranth, minerals are often deficient in heavily processed diets.
Technology’s Function in Bringing Back Forgotten Foods
Though rediscoveries of lost cuisines are frequently linked with traditions, entrées, ingredients and customs, the use of contemporary technology in bringing these elements back to attention cannot be overstated. The totality of this digital technology and most recent advances in food processing and agriculture is likewise working to revive and respect the traditional food, and traditional cultivators.
Tracing and recovering ancestral varieties through genetic study is one of the greatest scientific advances. To avert this loss for future generations, seed banks and genetic repositories around the globe are scrambling to preserve the genetic diversity of these forgotten crops. In some cases, modern breeding techniques are enhancing the resistance and productivity of old varieties while maintaining some of their traditional characteristics.
Food processing innovations are making it easier to include forgotten foods now favored in diets. Ultimately, better milling means one can produce fine flours from ancient grains, for example, and advances in fermentation and preservation have enabled the retail sale of antique fermented foods. All of these provide a link between old ways of doing things and modern-day eaters, reintroducing once-ignored foods to wider reach.
Using Culinary Tourism to Bring Back Forgotten Cuisines
Another Channel for Reintroducing forgotten foods — Culinary Tourism Culinary tourism — travel geared to sampling the food and drink of other cultures — is another path for the return of lost dishes. Discovering local delicacies that might be lost to time but are still eaten by rural and indigenous cultures is a trend on the rise, as travelers seek an authentic experience and more of the day’s destination, no matter where it is.
Culinary tours in Southeast Asia, South America or the Mediterranean now offer farm visits, foraging expeditions and cooking workshops featuring long-forgotten delicacies. Beyond educating visitors about the cultural and historical significance of these dishes, these opportunities also give communities looking to keep their culinary traditions alive a way to reach new markets.
Culinary tourism has also sparked a renewed interest in traditional, and forgotten foods festivals and markets. Such celebrations of local cuisine, artisan goods and heritage crops are drawing visitors from near and far, and providing a forum for the sharing of knowledge and the revival of lost cuisines. These festivals provide an opportunity for traditional foodways to be sustained and adapted to evolving tastes, serving as a bridge between the past and the present.
Forgotten Foods Effect on Local Economies
In rural and indigenous populations, the re-emergence of these forgotten foods has strong benefits for the local economy. As demand for artisanal and traditional goods increases, there are opportunities to establish new revenue sources such as artisanal food production, tourism and sustainable agriculture. Focusing on the production and sale of specialty products from heirloom crops, wild foods, and handicrafts, communities can profit while celebrating their agricultural and cultural traditions.
“But there are risks with the branding of underappreciated food. Ensuring that local producers own their resources and that the financial benefits are fairly distributed is critical. There are times when high demand for a once-popular forgotten foods leads to the overexploitation of natural resources or the marginalization of small-scale farmers. A local, equitable, and just recovery must include local supply chains, community businesses, and fair trade institutions to reduce these risks.”