You say escabeche...

[albiston]

I was making zucchini alla scapece last night and I started chatting with a friend about the different theories that exist on the origins of this dish.

Scapece is a general Italian term describing dishes in which the main ingredients are flavored and preserved by the use a vinegar based marinade. The recipes can vary quite a bit but the term is found in central and (mainly) southern Italy.

I find the similarity of the Italian term, and technique, with the Spanish escabeche is hardly coincidental. In Italy there's a few different theories, all slight variations of two main ones, about the origin of this term and I was wondering if any of them has an equivalent in Spain or if there are alternative ones.

The first and most popular one claims that both scapece and escabeche come from the Latin esca Apicii, Apicius's sauce. This term should refer to a special liquamen recipe, invented by one of the many roman cooks who called themselves Apicius, made up of white wine vinegar, garlic, mint and probably garum.

Another theory claims that the term escabeche originated in South America and was brought to southern Italy by the Spanish where it became scapece.

What do the Spanish experts say?

[David Lerner]

I love zuchini scapece. Can you post your recipe? It's done very well in New York at Ottimo on West 24th Street, and at Benitos II in Little Italy (except that most food snobs won't visit Little Italy).

[vserna]

Very old hat, this. Linguists have had it down pat for decades. Escabeche and all other words derived from that Spanish term (it was the Spanish who brought it to Italy, probably to the Kingdom of Naples they ruled for a long time) comes from the Hispanic Arabic word assukkabáğ, which in turn comes from the Arabic sikbāğ, and this is related to the Persian term sekbā. And what do these exotic words mean? Simply, "meat stew with vinegar".

[Bux]

I guess the recipe also traveled west. Escovitch, is a Jamaican dish usually made with fish. From jamaica.com "Escovitch is a style of cooking using vinegar, onions and spices brought to Jamaica by the Spanish Jews. In Jamaican grocery stores you can also find bottled escovitch sauce to make the preparation easier." From foodnouveau.com "Escovitch was originally Portuguese, but is now found in dozens of variations around the Caribbean islands." Perhaps all Europeans looked alike to the natives. I know of escabeche as fish dish from Puerto Rico. Escabeche was always fish and usually one particular kind. I've also found reference to escovitch, in a Latin American web site, so this spelling is also known in Latin American circles. The dish is scabetche in North Africa apparently. Does anyone else see a resemblance to ceviche?

http://enciclopedia.us.es/index.php/Escabeche agrees that it came from the Arab sikbâ a meat stew with vinegar, although they offer another theory as well. They say the spelling escabeche first appeared in 1525.

[pedro]

Very old hat, this. Linguists have had it down pat for decades. Escabeche and all other words derived from that Spanish term (it was the Spanish who brought it to Italy, probably to the Kingdom of Naples they ruled for a long time) comes from the Hispanic Arabic word assukkabáğ, which in turn comes from the Arabic sikbāğ, and this is related to the Persian term sekbā. And what do these exotic words mean? Simply, "meat stew with vinegar".

When I asked chef Abraham García about this, he also pointed without hesitation to Arabic heritage. Venturing that vinegar could have been replaced on those latitudes with some juice of citrus.

[vserna]

No, I think it was always vinegar. The Persians and Arabs knew everything about vinegar - thousands of years ago.

[vserna]

Does anyone else see a resemblance to ceviche?

A subject of very hot discussion, the etymology of ceviche (or sebiche, or cebiche). Indeed one of the Peruvian theories is that it's a colonial era term and comes from escabeche de cebolla (onion escabeche).

[albiston]

Very old hat, this. Linguists have had it down pat for decades. Escabeche and all other words derived from that Spanish term (it was the Spanish who brought it to Italy, probably to the Kingdom of Naples they ruled for a long time) comes from the Hispanic Arabic word assukkabá?, which in turn comes from the Arabic sikb??, and this is related to the Persian term sekb?. And what do these exotic words mean? Simply, "meat stew with vinegar".

Thanks for the explanation. I ignored the Arabic origin, but it doesn't surprise me. I always thought the latin origin theory sounded a bit wooly since the recipe quoted as the original scapece was simply indicated as liquamen and I never found a direct reference to an "esca Apicii" anywhere. Must be another one of those cases where we Italians try too hard to give an historical tradition to our cuisine.

On the other hand the Roman recipe is very similar to what scapece is today so I wouldn't be surprised if the general technique was known a long time before the introduction of the term.

[albiston]

I love zuchini scapece. Can you post your recipe? It's done very well in New York at Ottimo on West 24th Street, and at Benitos II in Little Italy (except that most food snobs won't visit Little Italy).

Sorry for the wait, I had to find a little time to wirte it up.

I posted the recipe on RecipeGullet, here. Hope it does resemble the one you're looking for.

[chefzadi]

Very old hat, this. Linguists have had it down pat for decades. Escabeche and all other words derived from that Spanish term (it was the Spanish who brought it to Italy, probably to the Kingdom of Naples they ruled for a long time) comes from the Hispanic Arabic word assukkabá?, which in turn comes from the Arabic sikb??, and this is related to the Persian term sekb?. And what do these exotic words mean? Simply, "meat stew with vinegar".

Thanks for the explanation. I ignored the Arabic origin, but it doesn't surprise me. I always thought the latin origin theory sounded a bit wooly since the recipe quoted as the original scapece was simply indicated as liquamen and I never found a direct reference to an "esca Apicii" anywhere. Must be another one of those cases where we Italians try too hard to give an historical tradition to our cuisine.

On the other hand the Roman recipe is very similar to what scapece is today so I wouldn't be surprised if the general technique was known a long time before the introduction of the term.

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Alberto,

Have you learned nothing from all of my posts.

The Romans were in North Africa as well. The interplay between the Mediterranean countries goes back to the Phonician traders who set up their initial base in Carthage and quickly expanded their trading ports into Algeria, etc...

[torakris]

To add a bit more history the Portuguese brought it to Japan where it is referred to and nanban-zuke, literally "Southern barbarian style pickle".

[Apicio]

Close to four centuries of common history with Spain brought us escabeche that has gradually been adopted to local taste. Our version (Philippine) is still very close to the Jamaican version in that the fried fish is marinated in vinegar and onions seasoned with garlic and ginger, the last two being Asian condiments commonly used to tame the flavour of fish. But since it is most often eaten with fish sauce, it kind of harkens back to the Apician dish requiring liquamen. Liquamen, of course, being a simple equivalent of our patis (nuoc mam in Vietnamese). The time it is traditionally served too is a long observed Spanish usage, during the Catholic lenten meatless Fridays. It is also a highly desired alternative to bacalao a la vizcaina for the main meal of Good Friday.

[PPPans]

Close to four centuries of common history with Spain brought us escabeche that has gradually been adopted to local taste.  Our version (Philippine) is still very close to the Jamaican version  in that the fried fish is marinated in vinegar and onions seasoned with garlic and ginger, the last two being Asian condiments commonly used to tame the flavour of fish.  But since it is most often eaten with fish sauce, it kind of harkens back to the Apician dish requiring liquamen.  Liquamen, of course, being a simple equivalent of our patis (nuoc mam in Vietnamese).  The time it is traditionally served too is a long observed Spanish usage, during the Catholic lenten meatless Fridays.  It is also a highly desired alternative to bacalao a la vizcaina for the main meal of Good Friday.

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Adapted to our local taste also means it has some variations not unlike Oriental sweet & sour recipes.

[Eden]

They say the spelling escabeche first appeared in 1525.

That seems like about the right date.

In the Catalan 'Libre Guisados' of 1529 (a copy of a book from 1520) there are 3 recipes with the spelling Escabeche: one for fish, one for rabbit, one for eggplant.

Looking at earlier sources we have the following:

In the 14th c. Catalan 'Libre di Sent Sovi', the dish is called Escabeyg, also scabeig and esquabey

In the various 14th c. Italian cooking manuscripts we find schibecce, "pesci a schibeci", and minor variations of the spelling schibezie.

And FYI you can find a translation of a 13th century Andalusian recipe for Sikbâj here.