The northern passage

A typical traditional recipe (Finnbiff – Reinsdyrgryte – Reindeer Stew) prepared for the Norwegian palette may be as follows:

20oz reinsskav 5oz bacon sliced 3oz goat’s cheese 1 carrot, chopped 2 sticks of celery, chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 or 3 cacao beans roasted, cured and finely ground sufficent red wine

1 gill milk 2 gill rømme 7oz mushrooms, sliced 5 juniper berries, lightly crushed 5 cowberries 1 bay leaf 1oz fine meal for thickening

It is often thought that chocolate was introduced into the diet of Europeans only after the discovery of the New World by Columbus in 1492. But if this is the case, how is it that we do not find the same culinary use of chocolate in the kitchens of southern Europeans, by whom we include anyone who lives south of the coastline of the nordic countries, excluding Denmark? In the deep south of Europe garlic takes the place of chocolate and as we move further north onions slowly replace garlic as a favoured flavouring in many recipes. Is it merely then a matter of geography, and what grows well in the different climes? Well, it is fairly obvious that it is not the case. The cacao plant from whose bean chocolate is derived is no more suitable for growing in the Nordic regions than it was in the Aztec empire, which also had to import it from their neighbours.

Looking into oral traditions we find however that long before the southern Europeans ever dreamed about opening up the northwest passage, there was a northern trade route much like the Silk road across Asia. The trade route was not always accessible, but when it was it provided a valuable resource in the northern regions and the route along which the beans of the cacao plant were able to travel.

The ancient Lapp peoples, just as other ancient nations, conducted trade for resources which they could not otherwise obtain, across sometimes difficult and dangerous terrains, though terrain is not an entirely accurate representation of the northern passage. One of their near neighbours are the Inuit people of what is now Canada. As soon as the northern passage became available they would be able to cross the ice and exchange valuable commodities for what they saw as a far more valuable commodity, the fruit of the cacao plant. In many ways this trade was similar to the spice trade, in particular of cloves, conducted between Europe and the East Indies.

The northern passage was formidable in its difficulty and the dangers it presented. The traders who used it could have been forgiven for giving up at any point to return back to their homes, but they were driven on by the lingering memories of the delicate and pungeant aromas of roasting and curing beans which filled the air during the dark winter months.

Arriving among the Inuit people trade would begin. The Inuit had prepared for this day by obtaining sacks of beans from their southern neighbours the Cree, who in turn had obtained the supplies from the Hopituh Shinumu (Hopi) and their neighbours just north of Mexico. The Lapps never met the Cree, except perhaps for the odd individual who had taken up residence among the Inuit, but that was a rare occurance. Such were the hardships of life among the Inuit, the Cree, who for the most part were nomadic, preferred to move south in the winter to follow the flocks and herds on which they depended, and few there were who would remain in the north for when the Lapp traders would arrive.

The Cree did not understand why anyone would be so keen to obtain the beans, which they considered to be quite disgusting. They had themselves sought to use the beans as food, but the methods of preparation used gave them the impression that they were not eating food but the ground in which the food grew! If ever, in their minds, a fruit deserved the name ground nut, then the fruit of the cacao plant did. If the beans were not good for food, of what use were they?

The Hopi had tried to explain to them that there was a people to the south, the Aztecs, who, so it was rumoured made a drink out of the bean, which was considered to be most desirable and indeed the chief drink among the rulers of that people. The Cree listened politely and bought the beans anyway. In the minds of the Cree, the story about the Aztecs, was probably nothing more than a marketing ploy to talk up the value of the beans. But the Inuit were prepared to pay well for good quality supplies of beans, so as spring came the Cree would travel north with their precious cargo of beans to exchange them for pelts, oils, and most prized of all the dried fish which provided an essential supplement to their diet.

The Inuit in turn would carefully store the beans over the summer whilst they awaited the arrival of the Lapps later that year when the northern passage once again became passable.

Histerical noteOver the years 1519 to 1525 the price of the cacao beans to the Hopi fell. News had begun to reach the Hopi of the arrival of ‘popoloca’ among the Carib people a few years earlier and there was much speculation as to whom these people were. They then heard that the popoloca had been the cause of some serious disruption in the Aztec empire which had reduced the demand for beans from those who had previously paid tribute to the Aztec rulers. The greater availabilty of beans therefore reduced the price. They sought to retain the old trading levels with the Cree, but the news could not be held back indefinitely and eventually the price fell. This was good news for the Lapps, but meant that profits from the trade fell for the American merchants, even though the quantity of beans traded increased. In 1585 the situation appeared to reverse. There was suddenly a shortage of suitable beans. The following year few beans could be obtained. The Lapps obtained their last major shipments from the crop which had originally been harvested in 1585 in the winter of 1586 and which they subsequently delivered home in the spring of 1587. Thereafter only very small quantities, and at a very high price, were available. Some years later news filtered across the European continent to the Lapps through the Norwegians that in Spain, and a few other parts of southern Europe, the nobility, princes and rulers were drinking a liquor called chocolatl, which was made from the ground, roasted and fermented beans of the cocoa plant found in the newly discovered meso-america. It was considered to be a most desirable drink and endowed with considerable medicinal properties. Extraordinary, they thought.