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}}</ref> Fadi Abboud (president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association), stated that "Israelis have usurped several Lebanese and oriental products",[http://www.ali.org.lb/foodcampaignarticles.html]. As a response, food critic Janna Gur wrote: "The success of certain brands of Israeli hummus abroad may have been what brought about Abboud's anger", leading him to claim that Israel has been "stealing" their country's national dishes, like hummus, [[falafel]], [[tabbouleh]] and [[baba ghanouj]].<ref name = gur>Gur, Janna (cited as 'Jana'), ''Santa Fe New Mexican'', "[http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Food/1022LEDE-Hummus Hummus History: Tales of a Wandering Chickpea]", 21 October 2008, retrieved 11 December 2008</ref> Shooky Galili (an Israeli journalist specialising in food who writes a blog dedicated to hummus),[http://humus101.com/EN] claimed in reply that “Hummus doesn’t belong to the country that invented it, but the people who love it”.<ref>[http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=106619 Lebanon aims for Guinness records as part of bid to lay claim to hummus, tabouleh]</ref>
}}</ref> Fadi Abboud (president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association), stated that "Israelis have usurped several Lebanese and oriental products",[http://www.ali.org.lb/foodcampaignarticles.html]. As a response, food critic Janna Gur wrote: "The success of certain brands of Israeli hummus abroad may have been what brought about Abboud's anger", leading him to claim that Israel has been "stealing" their country's national dishes, like hummus, [[falafel]], [[tabbouleh]] and [[baba ghanouj]].<ref name = gur>Gur, Janna (cited as 'Jana'), ''Santa Fe New Mexican'', "[http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Food/1022LEDE-Hummus Hummus History: Tales of a Wandering Chickpea]", 21 October 2008, retrieved 11 December 2008</ref> Shooky Galili (an Israeli journalist specialising in food who writes a blog dedicated to hummus),[http://humus101.com/EN] claimed in reply that “Hummus doesn’t belong to the country that invented it, but the people who love it”.<ref>[http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=106619 Lebanon aims for Guinness records as part of bid to lay claim to hummus, tabouleh]</ref>


Interviewed on the [[BBC]] program [[Cooking in the Danger Zone]], Israeli food editor [[Gil Hovav]] stated that hummus is so popular in Israel such that "even during the [[Wikt:intifada|intifada]] years Jews would sneak in to risk their lives, sneak into the Muslim quarter just to have a vital, really genuine good humous ..." When asked if hummus was originally Jewish, or Arabic, he answered: "Humous is [[Arabic]]. Falafel, our national dish, our national Israeli dish, is completely Arabic and this salad that we call an [[Israeli Salad]], actually it's an [[Arab salad]], Palestinian salad. So, we sort of robbed them of everything..."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/30_03_08_cooking_in_the_danger_zone_srs_3_israel_palestine_territories.pdf BBC Cooking in the Danger Zone: Israel and Palestinian Territories, pp. 5-6]</ref>
Interviewed on the [[BBC]] program [[Cooking in the Danger Zone]], Israeli food editor [[Gil Hovav]] stated that hummus is so popular in Israel such that "even during the [[Wikt:intifada|intifada]] years Jews would sneak [...] into the Muslim quarter just to have a vital, really genuine good humous ..." When asked if hummus was originally Jewish, or Arabic, he said that hummus, like many dishes that are considered to be Israeli national foods, is actually Arab/Palestinian.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/30_03_08_cooking_in_the_danger_zone_srs_3_israel_palestine_territories.pdf BBC Cooking in the Danger Zone: Israel and Palestinian Territories, pp. 5-6]: "Humous is [[Arabic]]. Falafel, our national dish, our national Israeli dish, is completely Arabic and this salad that we call an [[Israeli Salad]], actually it's an [[Arab salad]], Palestinian salad."</ref>


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 07:35, 27 March 2010

This article is about the food. For the biological matter in soil, see Humus. For the band, see Humus (band).
Hummus
Hummus with olive oil, lemon juice, cumin and za'atar (with sumac)
CourseMeze
Place of originLevant
Serving temperatureCold
Main ingredientschickpeas, olive oil

Hummus (a transliteration of the Arabic: حمّص; also spelled hamos, houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos or hummous; see romanization of Arabic) is a Levantine Arab[1] dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. It is a popular food throughout the Middle East.

Etymology

The word comes from Arabic: حمّصḥummuṣ[2] 'chickpeas'. Like other Arabic loanwords, its spelling in English is inconsistent.[2] The earliest use of the word hummus in English noted by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was in 1955.[3] Among the common spellings for this word as transliterated into English are hummus, hommos and hoummos. The spelling humus is avoided in English due to its having the same spelling as another English word, though this is the most common Turkish spelling[2] and the OED indicates the word entered the English language from Turkish.[3] The full Arabic name of the prepared spread is حُمُّص بطحينة (ḥummuṣ bi ṭaḥīna) which means chickpeas with tahina.

Historical origins

Hummus with pine nuts and olive oil

Many cuisine-related sources carry forward a folklore which describes hummus as one of the oldest known prepared foods[4][5][6] with a long history in the Middle East stretching back to antiquity, but its historical origins are unknown.[7][8] The historical enigma is such that the origins of hummus-bi-tahini could be much more recent than is widely believed. One of the earliest verifiable descriptions of hummus comes from 18th-century Damascus and the same source claims it was unknown elsewhere.[9]

Meanwhile some cookbooks repeat the legend that hummus was first prepared in the 12th century by Saladin.[10] Sources such as Cooking in Ancient Civilizations by Cathy K. Kaufman[11] carry speculative recipes for an ancient Egyptian hummus, substituting vinegar for lemon juice, but acknowledge we do not know how the Egyptians ate their chick-peas. Similarly, no recipe for hummus has been identified among the many books on cooking surviving from ancient Rome.

Charles Perry, co-author of Medieval Arab Cookery notes that owing to hummus bi tahina being an everyday staple, and because of the lack of Arab recipe books published between the 14th and 20th centuries, no recipes documenting this food's early ingredients have been found. He says the nearest medieval example recorded in a 13th century Arab cookbook, Kitab Wasf al-Atima al-Mutada is Hummus kasa, which substitutes vinegar for lemon, includes extra herbs and adds walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and pistachios.[12][13]

History of the ingredients

Chickpeas and sesame, the crops from which hummus's main ingredients are taken, were known and cultivated in the ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern worlds. Hummus's principal ingredient, chickpeas, have been a human food item for over 10,000 years.[14] They were eaten by people in Palestine before 4000 BC, were one of the earliest crops cultivated in Mesopotamia and were a common street dish in ancient Rome.[11] The Roman orator Cicero was named for an ancestor who had a wart on his nose shaped like a chickpea. Archeological evidence identifies chickpeas in the Sumerian diet before 2500 BC.[15] They are noted in a 13th century work by Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi of Persia for a "simple dish" of meat, pulses and spices.[16] It is unknown whether chickpeas were commonly mashed in any of these cultures. Tahini (sesame paste) likewise lacks any clear historical context. Sesame was grown as a crop in ancient Assyrian and Babylonian gardens and is mentioned by Columella.[17] It was common in Roman and Persian kitchens in the form of sesame oil but not as the tahini paste of hummus-bi-tahini.[18]

Other ingredients are used in sundry recipes of hummus-bi-tahini. The olive originated in Syria and Palestine, where it was being cultivated by the fourth millennium BC. A variety may have been indigenous to Crete, where olives were being cultivated by 2500 BC. The Bible mentions olive oil many times and it was exported to places such as Egypt. Several Roman writers indicate that salt was used in extracting the oil.[19] Garlic was grown in the gardens of King Merodach-Baladan II of Babylon and probably was in Greece by the early Bronze Age.[20] The lemon was last to arrive in the Middle East and Mediterranean world, originating in India. However, depictions of lemons have been found at Pompeii and Tusculum, so this fruit must have reached the Roman world, at least as a luxury import, by the first century.[21]

Nutritional information

Lebanese hummus, garnished with whole chickpeas, on a Yemeni serving dish

Hummus is high in iron and vitamin C, and also has significant amounts of folate and vitamin B6.[22] The chickpeas make it a good source of protein and dietary fiber; the tahini consists mostly of sesame seeds, which are an excellent source of the amino acid methionine, complementing the proteins in the chickpeas. Depending on the recipe, hummus carries varying amounts of monounsaturated fat.[23] Hummus is useful in vegetarian and vegan diets and like other combinations of grains and pulses, when eaten with bread it serves as a complete protein.

Serving methods

As an appetizer and dip, hummus is scooped with flatbread (such as pita). It is also served as part of a meze or as an accompaniment to falafel, grilled chicken, fish or eggplant. Garnishes include chopped tomato, cucumber, cilantro, parsley, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, whole chickpeas, olive oil, hard-boiled eggs, paprika, ful, olives and pickles. Outside the Middle East, it is sometimes served with tortilla chips or crackers.

Hummus ful (pronounced /fuːl/) is topped with a paste made from fava beans boiled until soft and then crushed. Hummus masubha/mashawsha is a mixture of hummus paste, warm chickpeas and tahini.

In Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East, Arto der Haroutunian calls hummus "one of the most popular and best-known of all Syrian dishes" and "a must on any mezzeh table."[24] Syrians in Canada's Arab diaspora prepare and consume hummus along with other dishes like falafel, kibbe and tabouleh, even among the third and fourth-generation offspring of the original immigrants.[25]

File:Hummus.JPG
Hummus topped with whole chickpeas and olive oil.

For Palestinians, hummus has long been a staple food, garnished with olive oil and "nana" mint leaves, paprika, parsley or cumin.[26] A related dish popular in the region of Palestine and Jordan is laban ma' hummus ("yogurt and chickpeas"), which uses yogurt in the place of tahini and butter in the place of olive oil. The chickpeas are first boiled alone before the other ingredients are added and it is served hot.[27]

Hummus is a common part of everyday meals in Israel.[28] Many restaurants run by Mizrahi Jews and Arab citizens of Israel are dedicated to hot hummus, which may be served as chick peas softened with baking soda along with garlic, olive oil, cumin and tahini. One of the fancier hummus versions available is traditional hummus masabacha, made with lemon-spiked tahini garnished with whole chick peas, a sprinkling of paprika and a drizzle of olive oil.[29] Hummus is sold in restaurants, supermarkets and hummus-only shops called humusiot.

Packaged product

In November 2009, Gadi Lesin, President & CEO of the Israeli Strauss group food manufacturer revealed that market share of co-owned Sabra Dipping Company reached 40% in the United States making it the largest hummus dip manufacturer in the world.[30]

Controversy

File:Lebanese hummus can.JPG
Lebanese produced hummus in a can, sold in Sweden.

In October 2008 the Association of Lebanese Industrialists[1] petitioned to the Lebanese ministry of Economy to request protected status from the European Commission for hummus as a uniquely Lebanese food, similar to the Protected Geographical Status rights held over regional food items by various European Union countries.[31][32][33] Fadi Abboud (president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association), stated that "Israelis have usurped several Lebanese and oriental products",[2]. As a response, food critic Janna Gur wrote: "The success of certain brands of Israeli hummus abroad may have been what brought about Abboud's anger", leading him to claim that Israel has been "stealing" their country's national dishes, like hummus, falafel, tabbouleh and baba ghanouj.[34] Shooky Galili (an Israeli journalist specialising in food who writes a blog dedicated to hummus),[3] claimed in reply that “Hummus doesn’t belong to the country that invented it, but the people who love it”.[35]

Interviewed on the BBC program Cooking in the Danger Zone, Israeli food editor Gil Hovav stated that hummus is so popular in Israel such that "even during the intifada years Jews would sneak [...] into the Muslim quarter just to have a vital, really genuine good humous ..." When asked if hummus was originally Jewish, or Arabic, he said that hummus, like many dishes that are considered to be Israeli national foods, is actually Arab/Palestinian.[36]

See also

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Cookbook:Hummus
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hummus.
Look up hummus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ^ Sami Zubaida, "National, Communal and Global Dimensions in Middle Eastern Food Cultures" in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East, London and New York, 1994 and 2000, ISBN 1-86064-603-4, p. 35.
  2. ^ a b c Pam Peters (2007), The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage, Cambridge University Press, p. 370, ISBN 0521878217 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |unused_data= (help)
  3. ^ a b Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition) CD-ROM Version 3.1.1 (2007), Oxford, Oxford University Press
  4. ^ mideastfood.about.com, Hummus 101, retrieved 28 February 2008
  5. ^ choice.com, More about hummus, "Hummus has existed for thousands of years." retrieved 5 May 2008
  6. ^ insidehookah.com Food - Hummus, "...it is evident that it’s been a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean favorite, and sometimes staple, for thousands of years." retrieved 5 May 2008
  7. ^ www.straightdope.com, Who invented hummus?, 21 March 2001, "Hummus has been around for too long, in too many forms, and the origin is lost in antiquity... There's no way of knowing where it started...", retrieved 5 May 2008
  8. ^ Jaffe, Jody, bethesdamagazine.com, Scrumptious Hummus, 2007, "...hummus has been around since humans have been hunting and gathering... the history of hummus is murky, with several cultures claiming origin." retrieved 05 May 2008
  9. ^ James Grehan, Everyday Life and Consumer Culture in Eighteenth-Century Damascus ISBN 029598676X
  10. ^ Percival, Jenny, Lebanon to sue Israel for marketing hummus as its own, guardian.co.uk, 7 October 2008, retrieved 9 November 2009
  11. ^ a b Brothwell & Brothwell pp. 105-7
  12. ^ Alice Fordham (October 10, 2008), Middle Eats: What are Lebanon’s chances of legally laying claim to hummus?, NOW Lebanon
  13. ^ Perry and Rodinson, 1998, p. 383.
  14. ^ Tannahill p. 25
  15. ^ Tannahill p. 61
  16. ^ Tannahill p. 174
  17. ^ Brothwell & Brothwell pp. 157, 146
  18. ^ Tannahill p. 176
  19. ^ Brothwell & Brothwell pp. 154-7
  20. ^ Brothwell & Brothwell p. 109
  21. ^ Brothwell & Brothwell pp. 140, 269
  22. ^ Bricklin, 1994, p. 115.
  23. ^ Hummus NutritionData.com
  24. ^ Arto der Hartoiunian Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East, London 1983, p.33.
  25. ^ Paul R. Magocsi (1999), Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples, University of Toronto Press, pp. p. 1244, ISBN 0802029388 {{citation}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  26. ^ Ibrahim, Lailie, Institute for Middle East Understanding, Hummus, a Palestinian staple, 31 March 2006, retrieved 9 March 2008.
  27. ^ Salloum and Peters, 1996, p. 204.
  28. ^ Even mentioned by the Israel Defense Force Cookbook, see Houston Chronicle "Diversity in the dining room helps ring in Israel's new year"
  29. ^ Food & Wine, May 2008; On the Hummus Hunt in Israel by Jen Murphy, p. 66,
  30. ^ זינוק במכירות חומוס שטראוס בארה"ב: כבשה 40% מהשוק, Globes, 25 November 2009, retrieved 25 November 2009Template:He icon
  31. ^ Karam, Zeina, "Hummus war looms between Lebanon and Israel", Associated Press, 7 October 2008, retrieved 10 December 2008.
  32. ^ Carolynne Wheeler (11 Oct 2008), "Hummus food fight between Lebanon and Israel", The Daily Telegraph
  33. ^ "Whose hummus is it anyway?", The Times of South Africa, Nov 09, 2008 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  34. ^ Gur, Janna (cited as 'Jana'), Santa Fe New Mexican, "Hummus History: Tales of a Wandering Chickpea", 21 October 2008, retrieved 11 December 2008
  35. ^ Lebanon aims for Guinness records as part of bid to lay claim to hummus, tabouleh
  36. ^ BBC Cooking in the Danger Zone: Israel and Palestinian Territories, pp. 5-6: "Humous is Arabic. Falafel, our national dish, our national Israeli dish, is completely Arabic and this salad that we call an Israeli Salad, actually it's an Arab salad, Palestinian salad."

Bibliography

  • Afzal-Khan, Fawzia; Seshadri-Crooks, Kalpana (2000), The Pre-occupation of Postcolonial Studies, Duke University Press, ISBN 0822325217, 9780822325215 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); More than one of |author= and |last1= specified (help)
  • Amster, Linda; Sheraton, Mimi (2003), The New York Times Jewish Cookbook: More Than 825 Traditional and Contemporary Recipes from Around the World, St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0312290934, 9780312290931 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); More than one of |author= and |last1= specified (help)
  • Bricklin, Mark (1994), Prevention Magazine's Nutrition Advisor: The Ultimate Guide to the Health-Boosting and Health-Harming Factors in Your Diet, Rodale, ISBN 0875962254, 9780875962252 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); More than one of |author= and |last1= specified (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  • Brothwell, C. D.; Brothwell, B. (1998), Food in Antiquity: A survey of the Diet of Early Peoples, Expanded Edition, John Hopkins University, ISBN 0801857406 {{citation}}: More than one of |author= and |last1= specified (help)
  • Rodinson, Maxime; Perry, Charles (1998), Medieval Arab Cookery, Prospect Books (UK), ISBN 0907325912, 978-0907325918 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); More than one of |author= and |last1= specified (help)CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  • Salloum, Habeeb; Peters, James (1996), From the Lands of Figs and Olives: Over 300 Delicious and Unusual Recipes, I.B.Tauris, ISBN 1860640389 {{citation}}: More than one of |author= and |last1= specified (help)
  • Tannahill, Reay (1973), Food in History, Stein and Day, ISBN 0517571862
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