Sources on culture and cuisine

A Comparative study on the effects of Yaji (Suya Meat sauce) and its spice constituents on the male reproductive profile of adult male Sprague Dawley rats

Adejoke Elizabeth Memudu, Francis Ikechukwu Duru · JBRA Assisted Reproduction 25(4): 509–523 · 2021

Academic paper · Read in full · Low reliability

An animal experiment by anatomists. Read through Europe PMC in two passages only: the paragraph of the introduction that says what yaji contains, with the earlier Nigerian works it cites, and the paragraphs of the methods on the mixture used. Competent as a secondary account of what goes into yaji and for the statement that the quantities are not standardised. Its experiment and its conclusions are not cited, and the catalogue takes nothing about health from it.

doi.org/10.5935/1518-0557.20210020

Also listed under: Food science and processing

A Review of the Uses and Medicinal Properties of Dennettia tripetala (Pepperfruit)

Sylvia Oghogho Iseghohi · Medical Sciences 3(4): 104–111 · 2015

Academic paper · Read in full · Low reliability

A short review by one author at the University of Benin, read as the full text held by Europe PMC from the introduction to the section on antioxidant effects; the last sections, on further pharmacology, were not read. Cited only for its introduction: the Nigerian names, that the fruit is eaten for its spicy taste, the colour of the fruit, the fruiting months and the drying of the seed by traders. It describes a tree 12 to 15 m tall where the taxonomic revision describes a shrub of 1 to 5 m. Rated low: it is a pharmacological review, and none of its claims about health is cited.

doi.org/10.3390/medsci3040104

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Chemistry; Food science and processing; Standards and trade

A survey of laxoox/canjeero, a traditional Somali flatbread: production styles

Erin Wolgamuth, Salwa Yusuf, Ali Hussein, Antonella Pasqualone · Journal of Ethnic Foods 9: 22 · 2022

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

Structured interviews on how the fermented flatbread laxoox or canjeero is made and eaten, at nine places in southern Somalia, Puntland, Somaliland and the Somali region of Ethiopia. The introduction, the description of the survey, the passages on flavourings and on what the bread is eaten with, and the captions of figures 7 and 8 were read in full; the sections on fermentation and baking were not read through. Competent for the bread, its flavourings and its accompaniments. It is about one bread: it does not describe how Somali stews, rice or pasta are spiced, and it does not mention xawaash.

doi.org/10.1186/s42779-022-00138-3

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Assessing Ethnophsiological Use of Spices and Condiment in Prepared Dishes in Bahir Dar city, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia: Ethnophysiological Qualitative Study

Dessalegn Demeke, Biruk Getahun · Journal of Food Technology & Nutrition Sciences 2(1): 1–5 · 2020

Academic paper · Read in full · Low reliability

Interviews with 169 people in three markets of Bahir Dar about the spices and condiments they prepare, by two staff of the city’s university. Read in the publisher’s open PDF: the abstract, the methods on sampling, Table 2, which lists the spices that go into eight condiments, Table 4, which ranks six of them by preference, and Table 5, a paired comparison of spices by how much they are used. The other tables and the discussion were not read. Competent for what its informants put into mekelesha, shiro, mitmita, siljo and spiced butter, and for the ranking. It is rated low: the journal is a minor one, the text is carelessly edited, and the table gives English names without saying which plants they are. The title is spelt as printed.

doi.org/10.47363/JFTNS/2020(2)102

Assessment of wild leafy vegetables traditionally consumed by the ethnic communities of Manipur, northeast India

Konsam, Thongam, Handique · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 12: 9 · 2016

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A survey of 68 wild species sold as vegetables in the markets of Manipur, by the Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development, Imphal. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC: the description of the state and its communities, the summary of results, the row of Table 1 for Houttuynia cordata, the passage on frequency of use and its row in the table of scores. Competent for what was on sale, when each plant is collected and how each was classed. It records a use in a few words and does not say which community uses a plant so or in which dish.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-016-0080-4

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Burma: Rivers of Flavor

Naomi Duguid · Artisan · 2012

Book · Medium reliability

Burmese home cooking recorded across Myanmar’s regions and peoples, including the curry base, the oil-returning (sibyan) method, ngapi and the Burmese masala. Competent for Burmese practice; a cookbook rather than scholarship.

ISBN 9781579654139

Comparative Analysis of Fermented Flatbreads in the Horn of Africa and the Southern Arabian Peninsula: A Picture of Biocultural Diversity

Erin Wolgamuth, Salwa Yusuf, Francesca Vurro, Antonella Pasqualone · Foods 15(8): 1333 · 2026

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A comparison of Ethiopian injera, Sudanese kisra, Somali laxoox or canjeero and the lahoh of southern Arabia. The paragraphs on the ingredients, baking and serving of the Somali bread were found by searching the text and read; the rest was not. Competent for those paragraphs, which add to the 2022 survey that tea flavoured with spices is made alongside the bread and that the bread is served beside a dish and not under it.

doi.org/10.3390/foods15081333

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Comparison of volatile organic compounds in different parts of Houttuynia cordata Thunb. via E-nose, GC–IMS, and multivariate statistical analysis

Zhao, Zou, Luo, Tang, Lei · Frontiers in Nutrition 13: 1861403 · 2026

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

An instrumental comparison of the plant’s parts. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC, and only in one paragraph of its introduction, which says how the rhizome and the shoots are eaten in south-west China and how the rhizome tastes. That paragraph is the authors’ general knowledge, supported by a citation not read here. The experiments were not read and nothing is cited from them.

doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2026.1861403

Also listed under: Chemistry; Food science and processing

Crónica de una especiería muy particular

Nicole Marie Anne Ooms Renard · Antrópica. Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades 10(19): 125–145, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán · 2024

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

An ethnographic chronicle, in Spanish, of a family spice stall in the Santiago market of Mérida and of the man who makes its mixtures, written by a researcher at the national university after more than two years of visits. Read in the journal’s open PDF: the abstract, and pages 126, 132, 133 and 140 whole; pages 128 and 139 in the passages that mention recados and the chilli. The rest, including the account of pressing oil from squash seed, was not read. Competent for what one maker sells, how he burns the chilli for the black recado, what he grinds with it, how the red recado is adulterated by others and how the pastes were wrapped. One maker’s practice as told to the author, who was not allowed to watch the burning. It gives no proportions, and the maker keeps them to himself. The translation is ours.

revistaantropica.uady.mx/index.php/AntropicaRCSH/article/view/420

Also listed under: Food science and processing; Standards and trade

Development of Chincho (Tagetes elliptica Sm.) Essential Oil Organogel Nanoparticles through Ionic Gelation and Process Optimization with Box–Behnken Design

Cerrón-Mercado, Salva-Ruíz, Nolazco-Cama, Espinoza-Silva, Fernández-López, Pérez-Alvarez, Viuda-Martos · Gels 8(12): 815 · 2022

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A food-technology paper on wrapping the oil in chitosan particles, by the group that later published the oil’s composition. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC, and only in its abstract and the opening paragraphs of its introduction; the experiments were not read. Cited for two sentences: that the herb goes into stews and dressings with meat and is among the most eaten in Peru, and that earlier work found myrcene, epoxymyrcenes and a tagetenone leading its oil. Both rest on works it cites, which were not read.

doi.org/10.3390/gels8120815

Also listed under: Chemistry

Development of instant garcinia (Garcinia atroviridis) tom-yum mix as a high acid seasoning

S. Siripongvutikorn, C. Thongraung, W. Usawakesmanee, T. Buatoom, P. Thammarutwasik · Journal of Food Processing and Preservation 33(1): 74–86 · 2009

Academic paper · Abstract read · Medium reliability

Read in the abstract only, as Europe PMC holds it. Competent for the fact that a dried tom yum seasoning mix soured with this fruit was made and that tasters preferred the soup from it to one from a commercial mix. The abstract does not say that the fruit is a customary souring agent of tom yum, and the record does not say so either. Its antioxidant measurements are not cited.

doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-4549.2008.00238.x

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Effect of Added Garcinia Fruit on Total Phenolic Compound Content, Antioxidant Properties and Quality Changes of the Southern Sour Curry Paste, Keang-hleung, during Storage

Preeyaporn Promjiam, Sunisa Siripongvutikorn, Worapong Usawakesmanee, Santad Wichienchot · Food and Nutrition Sciences 4(8): 812–820 · 2013

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A storage study of a southern Thai curry paste from Prince of Songkla University, read as the publisher’s open PDF: the abstract, the introduction, the materials and the tables and discussion of acidity and water activity. Competent for what the southern sour curry is, what its paste is made of and what it is soured with, for where the dried fruit was bought, and for the acidity of the paste with and without it. The sections on phenolic content, antioxidant assays and microbial counts were not read closely and are not cited, and its remarks on what the fruit’s acid does in the body are not cited. The journal is not one of the stronger ones; the paper is cited for plain description and two measured values.

doi.org/10.4236/fns.2013.48106

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Ervas Aromáticas do Alentejo, in Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses

Direção-Geral de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural (Portugal) · 2001

Government publication · Read in full · Medium reliability · Speaks for Portugal

The entry for the aromatic herbs of the Alentejo in the same inventory. Read in Portuguese, in full. Competent for which herbs the inventory counts, what it says they are used in and how coriander, anise and pennyroyal are sown and cut. It treats the herbs together: it lists the dishes they go into without saying which herb goes into which.

tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt/pt/cat/outros-produtos-vegetais/298-ervas-aromaticas-do-alentejo

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Ethnobotanical knowledge of wild edible plants for empowering food and nutritional security in the Garo Hills, India

Hanamaraddi Kencharaddi, Amchi C. M. Marak, Thillophina B. Marak, Shridevi B. Teli, Sabyasachi Majumdar, Natasha R. Marak, Jyoti V. Vastrad, Mayengbam Premi Devi, S. Dinesha · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 22: 29 · 2026

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A survey of edible plants used by Garo communities in Meghalaya. Read through Europe PMC for roselle only: the rows for Hibiscus sabdariffa and Hibiscus cannabinus in the general table of plants, the sentence of the results that names the dishes most eaten, the row for roselle in the table of products sold, and the caption of the plate that shows a roselle pickle. The rest of the paper, including its use indices, was not read. Competent for the Garo name of the plant, the parts eaten, how the leaves are cooked and the names of the dishes. The table gives the parts, the preparation and the dish names in cells shared by roselle and kenaf, so it does not say that either species is cooked differently from the other, or which of the three named dishes is which preparation. Read again in 2026 for fish mint: the description of the Garo Hills and the Garo, row 133 of the same table and the paragraph on products made from the plants.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-026-00868-7

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Ethnobotanical review of Ethiopian spices and condiments: traditional uses, cultural significance, and applications

Nigussie Amsalu, Liyew Birhanu, Ashebir Awoke · Journal of Ethnic Foods 12: 35 · 2025

Academic paper · Medium reliability

A systematic synthesis of the Ethiopian ethnobotanical literature, with taxonomic verification of names: which plants are used, which parts, in which dishes, butters and drinks, and where they are grown. Competent for Ethiopian culinary and cultural use; a secondary synthesis, and its summaries of medicinal use are not health evidence.

doi.org/10.1186/s42779-025-00296-0

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Standards and trade

Ethnobotanical study of the wild edible and healthy functional plant resources of the Gelao people in northern Guizhou, China

Xie, Liu, Jia, Zhao, Liu, Luo, He, Liu, Wu · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 18: 72 · 2022

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A survey of 151 wild plants eaten by Gelao residents of three counties. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC, in its abstract and the row of its species table for Houttuynia cordata. Competent for the name it records, the parts eaten and the ways of eating them. Its English is rough in places: the table gives “fried bacon” for what is cured pork, and romanises the plant’s name in its own way.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-022-00572-2

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Ethnobotanical study on wild edible plants used by three trans-boundary ethnic groups in Jiangcheng County, Pu’er, Southwest China

Cao, Li, Zhou, Song, Quan, Hu · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 16: 66 · 2020

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A survey of 211 wild food plants among Dai, Hani and Yao villagers of a county that borders Laos and Vietnam. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC: the study area, the row of Table 1 for Houttuynia cordata and the key to the table. Competent for the three names, the part eaten, the uses, whether it is gathered or grown and whether it is sold. The names are in the survey’s own romanisation.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-020-00420-1

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Fish consumption pattern among adults of different ethnics in Peninsular Malaysia

Nurul Izzah Ahmad, Wan Rozita Wan Mahiyuddin, Tengku Rozaina Tengku Mohamad, Cheong Yoon Ling, Siti Fatimah Daud, Nasriyah Che Hussein, Nor Aini Abdullah, Rafiza Shaharudin, Lokman Hakim Sulaiman · Food & Nutrition Research 60: 32697 · 2016

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A cross-sectional survey of 2,675 adults in Peninsular Malaysia, February 2008 to May 2009, using three-day food diaries. Read through Europe PMC: the abstract and the section on cooking styles with its table, which describes each style of cooking fish and seafood and how often it was recorded. Competent for which Malaysian fish dishes are described as cooked with asam gelugur and with tamarind, and how often each appeared in the diaries. It is a nutrition survey, not a cookery source: each dish is described in a line, and no quantity of any seasoning is given.

doi.org/10.3402/fnr.v60.32697

Food of Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies

Najmieh Batmanglij · Mage Publishers · 2011

Book · High reliability

Iranian cooking, its ingredients and its ceremonial and historical context, including golpar, musir, dried limes and the Persian spice mixtures. Competent for Iranian practice and food culture; its historical sections are a cook’s synthesis rather than primary research.

Also listed under: History and archaeology

Gathering, agriculture, and exchange: an ethnoecological approach to the study of food patterns and feedstuff sources in communities of the Central Andes, Peru

Pancorbo-Olivera, Parra-Rondinel, Torres-Guevara, Cruz-Soriano, Casas · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 20: 69 · 2024

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A study of everything two Quechua communities of Quisqui district, Huánuco, ate through a year, Cani at about 2,800 m and Monte Azul at about 3,200 m, from interviews with 24 households, walks and plant collections lodged in the herbarium of the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC: the study area, the methods, the section on wild, weedy and ruderal food plants, the rows of Table 3 for the three species of Tagetes with the key to its codes, and one sentence of the discussion. The nutrient estimates and the supplementary lists of dishes were not read, so no dish is cited from it. Competent for what those households gathered and how they classed its use. Its table codes a use as vegetable, beverage or dessert and condiment and says no more about how a plant is cooked.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-024-00705-9

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Indigenous food systems of the Garo Hills of Meghalaya: nutritional composition and potential health benefits of traditional green leafy vegetables

Nongthombam, Marak, Devi, Marak, Kumar, Singh, Das · Frontiers in Nutrition 13: 1829858 · 2026

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A study of the leafy vegetables of the Garo Hills with a table of how each is used. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC, in the row of that table for matchaduri and the caption of its photograph. Cited for the name and for how the leaf is eaten. Its nutrient measurements and its statements about health were not read and are not used.

doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2026.1829858

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art

Shizuo Tsuji · Kodansha International · 1980

Book · High reliability

Japanese home and restaurant cooking by the founder of the Tsuji Culinary Institute, including its seasonal aromatics — mitsuba, myōga, yuzu, shiso and sanshō — and how and when each is used. Competent for Japanese practice; not a botanical or chemical source.

Kanzuri (Niigata green tourism, visitor information)

Niigata Prefectural Government · 2026

Government publication · Read in full · Low reliability · Speaks for Japan

A short visitor-information page from the prefecture’s rural tourism office, in Japanese, about the maker in Myoko; the whole page was read. Competent for the snow exposure of three or four days and for the outline of the process. It is promotional and describes one company.

www.pref.niigata.lg.jp/green2rhythm/370503.html

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Kimchi throughout millennia: a narrative review on the early and modern history of kimchi

Reggie Surya, David Nugroho · Journal of Ethnic Foods 10(1): 5 · 2023

Academic paper · Read in full · Low reliability

A narrative review of the history of kimchi. Read through Europe PMC in passages only: the sentences on the seasonings of kimchi in the introduction and under the early history, the paragraph on kimjang and its listing by UNESCO, the sentence on North Korean kimchi, and the section on disputes over origin. Competent for what the seasonings are and for kimjang. It is rated low because its historical argument is not reliable: it states that the chilli is native to Korea and has been there for an impossible length of time. Those claims are recorded only as a disputed claim.

doi.org/10.1186/s42779-023-00171-w

Also listed under: History and archaeology

Ko’oten a Túuntej. Ven a probar. Recetario de la 2.a Muestra Gastronómica de Yaxché, Valladolid, Yucatán

Lilia Emma Carrillo Sánchez (ed.), Margarita Clarisa Jiménez Bañuelos (ed.) · Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán · 2023

Cultural authority · Read in full · Medium reliability

The second collection of recipes from the same community’s food fair, edited by the same two researchers. In Spanish with Maya dish names. Read in the centre’s open PDF: the title and citation page, and the five pages on which a recado is named, 8, 10, 12, 18 and 20, each whole. Where a recipe runs on to another page that page was not read, and the other recipes were not read. Competent for the three ingredients one cook gives for the white recado, for the dishes it goes into and for how it is dissolved and used. Household recipes from one community. The translation is ours.

www.cicy.mx/Documentos/CICY/sitios/CircuitoEtnobiologico/Repositorio/Etapa3/Comunidades/Recetario-Yaxche.pdf

Ko’oten a Túuntej. Ven a probar. Recetario de la Muestra Gastronómica, Yaxché, Valladolid, Yucatán, 27 de agosto del 2022

Lilia Emma Carrillo Sánchez (ed.), Margarita Clarisa Jiménez Bañuelos (ed.) · Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán and Secretaría de la Cultura y las Artes de Yucatán · 2022

Cultural authority · Read in full · Medium reliability

A collection of recipes written down by named cooks of the Maya community of Yaxché, in the municipality of Valladolid, for a food fair, and edited by two researchers of a public research centre with the state culture secretariat. In Spanish with Maya dish names. Read in the centre’s open PDF: the title and citation pages, and the five pages on which a recado is named, 20, 22, 30, 32 and 34, each whole. Where a recipe runs on to another page that page was not read, and the other recipes were not read. Competent for what these cooks put in the white recado, how much recado they use and in which dishes, and for one cook’s way of making the black paste for relleno negro. Household recipes from one community, not a survey; they give no account of history. The translation is ours.

www.cicy.mx/Documentos/CICY/sitios/CircuitoEtnobiologico/Repositorio/Etapa2/Publicaciones/2022-Recetario-Ven-a-probar.pdf

Massa de Pimentão, in Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses

Direção-Geral de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural (Portugal) · 2001

Government publication · Read in full · Medium reliability · Speaks for Portugal

The entry for the paste in the inventory of traditional products kept by Portugal’s agriculture ministry, which gives its own source as the three-volume Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses of 2001. Read in Portuguese, in full. Competent for what the paste is, where it is made, what it is called, how one producer makes it and what it is used for. It says its facts came from a producer whose family had made the paste for three generations, and its statement that the paste is centuries old is that producer’s. It gives no quantities and no number of days.

tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt/pt/cat/outros-produtos-vegetais/309-massa-de-pimentao

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Migas com entrecosto, migas com carne de porco, migas à alentejana, in Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses

Direção-Geral de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural (Portugal) · 2026

Government publication · Read in full · Medium reliability · Speaks for Portugal

The entry for one dish in the same inventory, compiled by the ministry from three named cookery books and a study of bread soups. The entry is undated, and the latest work it names is of 2016; the year given is that in which it was read. Read in Portuguese, in full. Cited only for its list of ingredients and for how the pork is seasoned. Its account of the dish’s history is not used.

tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt/pt/cat/pratos-a-base-de-carne/989-migas-com-entrecosto-migas-com-carne-de-porco-migas-a-alentejana

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Niigata no kyodo ryori: nihonshu to no food pairing no susume (Local Cuisine of Niigata: A Recommendation of Food Pairing with Sake)

Tomoko Yamaguchi · Dento Shokuhin no Kenkyu (Quest for Traditional Food) 51: 32–40 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

The record of a lecture on the local dishes of Niigata, in Japanese. Read in the open PDF: section 2 as far as it concerns the districts, and Table 1, the list of thirty dishes. Competent for one statement, that kanzuri is among the dishes handed down mainly in the Joetsu district. The running head prints 2024 for the issue; the publisher’s record gives July 2025.

doi.org/10.69331/questtraditionalfood.51.0_32

Oaxaca al Gusto: An Infinite Gastronomy

Diana Kennedy · University of Texas Press · 2010

Book · High reliability

Regional Oaxacan cooking recorded village by village, including its local chillies (chilhuacle, chile de agua, pasilla oaxaqueña), herbs such as pápalo and hoja santa, and the moles. Competent for Oaxacan practice.

Other herbs and spices: mango ginger to wasabi, in Handbook of Herbs and Spices, second edition, vol. 2, pp. 557–582

Ravindran, Pillai, Divakaran · Woodhead Publishing (volume edited by Peter) · 2012

Reference work · Read in full · Medium reliability

A chapter of short entries on minor herbs. Read as the text held by Europe PMC, and only in section 28.9.3, the entry for the chameleon plant, which was read whole. Cited for three statements: that there are two types differing in flavour, that the leaves go into salads and fish dishes, and that myrcene and 2-undecanone are the main contributors to flavour. The entry gives no references in its text and contains one plain error, naming Eryngium foetidum as Vietnamese coriander, so it is used with that caution. Its statements about medicine are not used.

doi.org/10.1533/9780857095688.557

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Chemistry

Paio de Beja IGP, in Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses

Direção-Geral de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural (Portugal) · 2026

Government publication · Read in full · Medium reliability · Speaks for Portugal

The entry for one protected sausage in the same inventory. It is undated and names no source; the year given is that in which it was read. Read in Portuguese, and only in its paragraph on the method of production, which was read whole. Cited for what is mixed into the meat. The registered specification itself was not read.

tradicional.dgadr.gov.pt/pt/cat/salsicharia-fumados-presuntos-e-paletas/497-paio-de-beja-igp

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Plants Utilization and Perceptions in the Context of Novel Indigenous Food Spicing and Flavoring Among the Vhavenḓa People in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, South Africa

Mueletshedzi Manyaga, Ncobile Pretty Mhlongo, Maropeng Erica Matlala, Nonhlanhla Prudence Lubisi, Vhuhwavho Gelebe, Christeldah Mkhonto, Elizabeth Kola, Wilfred Otang Mbeng, Peter Tshepiso Ndhlovu, Salmina Ngoakoana Mokgehle, Maakanye Millicent Matlanyane, Ndivhuwo Liuvha, Nomusa Rhoda Dlamini, Luambo Jeffrey Ramarumo · Plants 14(13): 1962 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

An ethnobotanical study from the University of Mpumalanga: interviews with 360 people in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, in Limpopo Province, on the plants used to spice or flavour Venḓa foods. The abstract, the introduction, sections 2.1 and 2.2 and the rows of Table 1 for chilli, turmeric, wild ginger and Warburgia were read in full; the other rows, the perception results and the methods were not. Competent for which plants were named, by what share of those interviewed, how they are prepared and on what foods. It counts tomato, pumpkin and groundnut as flavourings alongside spices, and it describes one people in one district.

doi.org/10.3390/plants14131962

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Spicy Shiro flour and Berbere powder (an ethnic, indigenous food of Ethiopia)

Tesfaye Zeru, Temesgen Awoke, Teshome Assefa, et al. · Journal of Ethnic Foods 10: 28 · 2023

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A national survey of how Ethiopian shiro flour and berbere powder are made, from households, producers and retailers across the country. Cited for its section on the kinds of shiro flour, read in full, which names mekelesha as the spice mixture in nech shiro. Open access under CC BY.

doi.org/10.1186/s42779-023-00175-6

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Tastes of sustainability: a regional journey through Chilean traditional diets

Rebecca Kanter, Mariana León V, Viviana Azúa Aros, Karla Jordan Manríquez · Cadernos de Saúde Pública 42: e00264725 · 2026

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

An interview study by nutrition researchers at the Universidad de Chile of how adults in the Metropolitan Region and in La Araucanía regard the traditional dishes of each region. The abstract and the one-line descriptions of the culinary preparations were read; the results on sustainability and the discussion were not. Competent for which dishes the study treats as traditional in the two regions and for the ingredients its descriptions name. It is not a study of seasoning: each dish is described in a line, and it covers two of the country’s regions.

doi.org/10.1590/0102-311XEN264725

The Elephant Walk Cookbook: Cambodian Cuisine from the Nationally Acclaimed Restaurant

Longteine de Monteiro, Katherine Neustadt · Houghton Mifflin · 1998

Book · Medium reliability

The best-known record in English of Khmer home cooking, written by a Cambodian cook in exile to preserve dishes the Khmer Rouge years put at risk. Competent for Khmer recipes and practice, including kroeung; a cookbook rather than scholarship.

ISBN 9780395892534

The Food of Sichuan

Fuchsia Dunlop · W. W. Norton / Bloomsbury · 2019

Book · High reliability

Sichuanese cooking, its flavour combinations (including mala and the named compound flavours), ingredients such as red and green Sichuan pepper and chilli bean paste, and their use. Competent for Sichuan practice only.

The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia

Darra Goldstein · University of California Press · 2013

Book · High reliability

Georgian cooking and its seasonings — khmeli suneli, blue fenugreek, marigold, adjika, Svan salt — with the regional distinctions between them. Competent for Georgian practice.

Also listed under: History and archaeology

The Oxford Companion to Food

Alan Davidson, Tom Jaine (ed.) · Oxford University Press · 2014

Reference work · High reliability

Reference entries on foods, dishes, ingredients and culinary traditions worldwide. Competent for culinary identity, usage and naming; its short history entries are syntheses rather than primary research. Third edition.

Also listed under: History and archaeology

Uchi no kyodo ryori (Our local dishes): Kanzuri, Niigata Prefecture

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan

Government publication · Read in full · Medium reliability · Speaks for Japan

The entry for kanzuri in the ministry’s register of local dishes, in Japanese; the whole entry was read. Competent for where it is made, what goes into it, the outline of how it is made and how it is eaten. The photograph and the process outline, with its salt figure, are credited to the one company that makes it, so this is in effect the maker’s account published by the ministry. Its history is offered as tradition. The page carries no date.

www.maff.go.jp/j/keikaku/syokubunka/k_ryouri/search_menu/menu/kanzuri_niigata.html

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Use of Cinnamomum spp., Cichorium intybus, Trigonella foenum-graecum in type II diabetes mellitus

Dimka Ivanova, Dimana Dimitrova · Varna Medical Forum, 2021, supplement 1 (Medical University of Varna) · 2021

Academic paper · Read in full · Low reliability

A student review, in Bulgarian, of three medicinal plants. Read in the journal’s PDF: the title page and the opening paragraph of the section on fenugreek only. Cited for one statement in that paragraph: that Trigonella foenum-graecum, which it calls sminduh, is a familiar spice of traditional Bulgarian cooking and part of the mixture for sharena sol, a name it prints in Cyrillic. It is a review by a pharmacy student and her teacher, not a botanical identification of what is sold as sminduh, and it does not say which part of the plant is used. Nothing it says about diabetes or any other effect on health is cited.

doi.org/10.14748/vmf.v10i2.7936

Vegetarian ethnic foods of South India: review on the influence of traditional knowledge

Srinidhi K. Parthasarathi, Ananda Vardhan Hebbani, Padma Priya Dharmavaram Desai · Journal of Ethnic Foods 9(1): 42 · 2022

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A descriptive review of the traditional vegetarian dishes of South India and how each is prepared. Read in full; open access (CC BY). Competent for documenting what is done in those kitchens, including the finishing of dishes with spices fried in ghee; it is not a chemical study and its statements about health are not relied on.

doi.org/10.1186/s42779-022-00156-1

Wild edible vegetables of ethnic communities of Mizoram (Northeast India): an ethnobotanical study in thrust of marketing potential

Lalmuanpuii, Zodinpuii, Bohia, Zothanpuia, Lalbiaknunga, Singh · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 20: 58 · 2024

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A survey of wild vegetables among the Hmar and Paihte of Aizawl district, with a market survey. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC: the passage on the communities studied, row 42 of the species table with its key, and row 26 of the table of species sold. Competent for the name, the part eaten, the way it is eaten and the season and unit of sale.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-024-00680-1

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Standards and trade

Wild food plants and fungi sold in the markets of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR

Łuczaj, Lamxay, Tongchan, Xayphakatsa, Phimmakong, Radavanh, Kanyasone, Pietras, Karbarz · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 17: 6 · 2021

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A record of the wild plants and fungi on sale in the open-air markets of one Lao town, visited 38 times across four seasons. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC, in its abstract and the row of its list for Houttuynia cordata. Competent for the name it was sold under, the part sold, the seasons in which it was seen and the use recorded. It does not say which language the local names are in.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-020-00423-y

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Standards and trade

Yonuz Eriği’nin Türk Mutfak Kültürü’nde Kullanımı: Çorum’da Nitel Bir Araştırma (Dishes Made with Yonuz Plum (Prunus divaricata var) in Turkish Cuisine: A Qualitative Research in Çorum)

Ali İzzet Yılmaz · Journal of Tourism and Gastronomy Studies 13(1): 856–889 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A qualitative study from Hitit University that interviewed 227 people, 120 women and 107 men, about a wild plum of Çorum province; 220 of them were questioned at four markets between 4 September 2020 and 3 February 2021. Read in Turkish in the journal’s PDF: the abstract in both languages, the introduction and literature review by keyword, the method, and the findings on where the plum is gathered and sold, the table and descriptions of the seven ways of keeping it, and the entries for the dishes cited here. The remaining dish entries, the fruit analyses and the discussion were not read. Competent for what those people said they make and cook. Its botanical name is the author’s, taken from a handbook; its table of plum dishes in other provinces and its Ottoman history are drawn from works not read, and are not cited. Its health statements are not cited.

doi.org/10.21325/jotags.2025.1586

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Food science and processing

Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition

David Sterling · University of Texas Press · 2014

Book · High reliability

The cooking of the Yucatán peninsula recorded by region, with its recados — the red, black and other seasoning pastes — and the dishes built on them, including recado negro, chilmole and relleno negro. Competent for Yucatecan practice.

ISBN 9780292735811

Yuzugosho, Yuzu Peel and Chili Pepper Paste

Yoshie Kamiya · Journal of Cookery Science of Japan 54(4): 201–205 · 2021

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

An article in the practical section of the Japanese cookery-science society’s journal, in Japanese, by a college lecturer in Oita who has made and taught the paste for more than ten years. Read whole. Competent for what the paste is made of, where it is said to come from, what the word means locally, the salt levels she has met, how its use has spread and how its colour fades. She states at the start that it is her own view, and it is a practitioner’s account: nothing in it is measured. Her method is given with quantities and is not reproduced.

doi.org/10.11402/cookeryscience.54.201

Also listed under: Food science and processing

A Comparative Study of the Naming of Lanna Food in Chiang Mai Province and Tai Yai Food in Taunggyi, Shan State

Thu Zar Oo, Theera Butsabokkaew · Manutsat Paritat: Journal of Humanities 47(1), January–June 2025 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A study in Thai, by a student and a lecturer at Mae Fah Luang University, of how 153 Lanna dish names taken from the Chiang Mai University library’s Lanna food pages and 131 Tai Yai dish names collected by interview in Taunggyi are put together. Read in the Thai original, in the passages that mention the fermented soybean: the introduction, the analysis of two dish names, and the concluding comparison of seasonings. The rest was not read. Competent for the Tai Yai word for the bean as the authors write it in Thai letters, for the two forms they name, for one Tai Yai dish and one Lanna dish name, and for the statement that Tai Yai cooking seasons with it where Lanna cooking uses fermented fish and crab paste. A study of names, not of cooking: it does not say how any dish is made beyond a line each. The Shan-script spellings it prints did not survive extraction from the file and are not reproduced.

so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/mpjh/article/view/278865

Also listed under: Food science and processing

A different perspective on food and well-being in migrant-founded communities: seeing a Oaxacalifornia food system

Daniela Soleri, Violeta Jimenez, Karina Valera, Isaí Pazos · Frontiers in Nutrition 13: 1771121 · 2026

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

Food and well-being among Oaxacan migrant communities in California, with tejate as the maize and cacao drink central to Zapotec household diets and identity in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. Read in full through Europe PMC; cited only for the place of tejate. It does not describe the flower that flavours it. Open access under CC BY.

doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2026.1771121

Baniwa Jiquitaia Pepper (Pimenta Baniwa Jiquitaia)

Organização Indígena da Bacia do Içana (OIBI), Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Rio Negro (FOIRN), Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) · Instituto Socioambiental, São Paulo; OIBI, São Gabriel da Cachoeira; FOIRN (ISBN 978-85-8226-067-8) · 2018

Cultural authority · Read in full · High reliability · Speaks for Brazil

The English edition, translated by Tony Gross, of a book of some 62 pages published by two Baniwa and Rio Negro Indigenous organisations with a Brazilian non-governmental institute; copyright is OIBI’s. It names its Baniwa researchers and collaborators and reports research with communities of the Içana basin between 2007 and 2009. Read in the PDF in ISA’s open archive: the credits, the introduction, the sections on what jiquitaia is, on its origins and significance to the start of the first narrative, on rites of passage in part, on pepper diversity, the first entries of the list of varieties, and the sections on preparation, salt, uses and markets to the start of the pepper houses. The narratives, most of the variety list, the recipes by chefs, the glossary and the list of sources were not read. Competent for what the Baniwa organisations say of their own product and practice. It is also the initiative’s own account of a product it sells, and its praise of the product and its claims for health are not cited. The book carries a notice that Brazilian Federal Law no. 13.123 of 2015 protects traditional knowledge against unlawful use.

acervo.socioambiental.org/acervo/publicacoes-isa/baniwa-jiquitaia-pepper

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Food science and processing; Standards and trade

Culinary and medicinal wonders of the wild: An ethnobotanical review of native herbs and spices in Thailand

Angkhana Inta, Prateep Panyadee, Ratchuporn Suksathan, Wittaya Pongamornkul, Kittiyut Punchay, Terd Disayathanoowat, Natcha Chaisoung, Thirawut Phichonsatcha, Katesarin Maneenoon, Lixin Yang · Heliyon 11(4): e42470 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A synthesis of 76 ethnobotanical studies, chiefly of northern Thailand: 46 wild herbs and spices, the part used, the ethnic groups using each and the dishes they go into. Read in full through Europe PMC. Competent for which communities use which plant in which kind of dish; a secondary synthesis, and its medicinal use reports are not health evidence. Open access under CC BY-NC.

doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e42470

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Diversity of Spice Plants, Their Use and Function as Additive in Traditional Ethiopian Gastronomies and Culinary Recipes

Abenezer Wendimu, Wondimagegnehu Tekalign, Abrham Shumbulo, Elias Bojago, Yitbarek Abrham · Pakistan Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, Series B: Biological Sciences 68(1): 8–23 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

Interviews with spice collectors, sellers and users in the Boditi and Bedessa markets of Wolaita, southern Ethiopia: 29 spice plants, their Amharic and Wolaita names, the dishes, drinks and mixtures each goes into and how those are prepared, including mekelesha. Read in full. Competent for what these informants say; some species identifications in its table are doubtful (it gives long pepper for the Ethiopian timiz), and what it says of one district is not a national account.

doi.org/10.52763/pjsir.biol.sci.68.1.2025.8.23

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Exploring Indigenous Knowledge and Practices: Cultural and Ecological Dimensions of Spice Diversity in Hadiya and Kambata-Tembaro, Central Ethiopia

Osie Mulatu · Journal of Agriculture and Environment for International Development 119(2): 137–162 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · Low reliability

Interviews, group discussions and observation on 35 spice plants in two zones of central Ethiopia, by one author at Wachemo University. Read in the journal’s open PDF for the abstract and the rows for thyme in Tables 2, 4 and 6. Cited for the local names tosina and tosign and for the uses it records: crushed into spice mixtures for meat and lentils, in tea, and for flavouring meat and soup. It names the plant Thymus vulgaris, which other sources give as two wild Ethiopian species. Rated low: the tables give uses in a few words each and the identifications were not checked against specimens in what was read.

doi.org/10.36253/jaeid-18286

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Food science and processing; Standards and trade

Harissa, knowledge, skills and culinary and social practices (Tunisia): element page, Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

UNESCO, Intangible Cultural Heritage · 2022

Cultural authority · Read in full · High reliability

The page for the element inscribed in 2022 at the seventeenth session of the committee. The description on the page was read whole. The nomination file and the committee’s decision, which sit behind a browser check, were not read. Competent for what the listing says harissa is, how and by whom it is made and how the knowledge is passed on. A short summary written for the listing, on Tunisia’s own nomination; it gives no proportions and no history.

ich.unesco.org/en/RL/harissa-knowledge-skills-and-culinary-and-social-practices-01710

Also listed under: Food science and processing

Hawaiian Ethnobotany Online Database: kukui (Aleurites moluccana)

Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum

Museum or collection · Catalogue or database entry · High reliability

The museum’s database record for kukui, read whole. It summarises Hawaiian uses of the tree with a reference for each, and lists sayings that name it. Competent for the statement that the roasted kernel was eaten as the relish ʻinamona, which it takes from Handy, Handy and Pukui (1972, p. 231), a book not read here. It does not say how the relish was made or what was eaten with it.

data.bishopmuseum.org/ethnobotanydb/ethnobotany.php?b=d&ID=kukui

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Healing war wounds and perfuming exile: the use of vegetal, animal, and mineral products for perfumes, cosmetics, and skin healing among Sahrawi refugees of Western Sahara

Gabriele Volpato, Pavlína Kourková, Václav Zelený · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 8: 49 · 2012

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

Fieldwork among Sahrawi refugees in the camps near Tindouf on products used for perfume, cosmetics and the skin. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC for the methods paragraphs on language and for one row of its table, Ammodaucus leucotrichus. Cited only for the Hassaniya names it records, kammuna and kammuna t-rag, and for where the fruit is obtained. The uses it records for the fruit are on the skin, not in food, and are not cited.

doi.org/10.1186/1746-4269-8-49

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Standards and trade

Indigenous and traditional foods of Sri Lanka

Sachithra Mihiranie, Jagath K. Jayasinghe, Chamila V. L. Jayasinghe, Janitha P. D. Wanasundara · Journal of Ethnic Foods 7: 42 · 2020

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A review of Sri Lankan traditional food: the meal, rice and its additions, the curry types, the herbs and spices and the thuna paha spice base, accompaniments, sweetmeats and preserved fish. Read in full. Competent for what Sri Lankan cooking uses and how it is described; a review, and its remarks on health are not cited. Open access under CC BY.

doi.org/10.1186/s42779-020-00075-z

Influence of Maranao gastronomic experience on customer satisfaction in Northern Mindanao, Philippines: the mediating role of cultural awareness

Bea Ella Mariz Palangan, Jupert Jasser Abellana, Beatriz Fina Cañedo · African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development 25(10): 28301–28325 · 2025

Academic paper · Medium reliability

A tourism and hospitality study from Mindanao State University–Iligan Institute of Technology that documents Maranao foods, naming palapa as the famous Maranao condiment and sibujing, a native Lanao plant, as its main ingredient. Competent for the cultural standing of Maranao dishes; not a recipe or botanical source.

doi.org/10.18697/ajfand.147.26420

Medicines in the Kitchen: Gender Roles Shape Ethnobotanical Knowledge in Marrakshi Households

Irene Teixidor-Toneu, Sara Elgadi, Hamza Zine, Vincent Manzanilla, Ahmed Ouhammou, et al. · Foods 10(10): 2332 · 2021

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

Interviews with 30 women and 27 men in Marrakech, who listed the plants used in their households as food, as medicine or as both. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC: the abstract, the results paragraph on the three ready-made mixtures, and the rows of Table 2 for ras lhanūt, msakhn and woolly cumin; the rest was read only in passing. Table 2 counts, for women and for men, how many named each item as food, as medicine or as both. Competent for what these 57 people said. It gives no composition for any mixture, and it is one city.

doi.org/10.3390/foods10102332

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Participatory ethnobotany: comparison between two quilombos in the Atlantic Forest, Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil

Thamara Sauini, et al. · PeerJ 11: e16231 · 2023

Academic paper · High reliability

Plant uses recorded with two Afro-Brazilian quilombo communities, including urucum (Bixa orellana) used to make colorau, the food colouring. Competent for the local name and use; it glosses colorau as "paprika" in English, which is the confusion the annatto profile warns about. Open access under CC BY.

doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16231

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Pimenta jiquitaia na Amazônia e em Roraima: conhecer para valorizar

Cleudimar Brito dos Santos, Karla Janine Rodrigues, Maria Fernanda Berlingieri Durigan · Revista Ambiente: Gestão e Desenvolvimento 11(1): 193–202 (Universidade Estadual de Roraima) · 2018

Academic paper · Read in full · Low reliability · Speaks for Brazil

A short literature review from a symposium on agroecology, searching SciELO, Google Scholar and Embrapa’s database. Read in Portuguese in the journal’s PDF: the abstract, the introduction, the method and the section on the pepper trade in Brazil; the sections on nutrition and health were not read past their opening and are not cited. Cited for one thing: that jiquitaia is made in Indigenous villages of Roraima by women known as pimenteiras, which it reports from an earlier study that was not read. It names no people or village. Its page range is as the journal’s running heads suggest and was not checked against the last page.

doi.org/10.24979/159

Also listed under: Food science and processing; Standards and trade

Plant identification guide, Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park

United States National Park Service

Government publication · Read in full · Medium reliability

A visitor leaflet on the plants of a Hawaiian historical park, undated. The entry for kukui was read whole; the other entries were not. Competent only for the sentence that the nuts are roasted and eaten as a relish called ʻinamona. A leaflet without references.

www.nps.gov/puho/learn/nature/upload/Plant-ID-508.pdf

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Saberes tradicionais das pimentas Baniwa: uma análise bibliométrica e patentométrica

Kissia Layane Cordeiro dos Santos, Célia Regina Simonetti Barbalho, Cleiton Mota de Souza, Mateus Rebouças Nascimento, Sammy Aquino Pereira · P2P & Inovação 10(2): 1–18, e-6885 · 2024

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability · Speaks for Brazil

A study from the Federal University of Amazonas that counts the scientific papers and patents concerning Baniwa pepper. Read in Portuguese in the journal’s PDF: the abstracts and the introduction; the theoretical sections, the method and the results were not read beyond the abstract’s statement of them. Cited for two things: that the product has been sold in Brazil and abroad since 2013, which it gives on another author’s word, and its finding that no intellectual-property protection directed at the product turned up in its search of patent records. It did not search registers of geographical indications, and its description of how jiquitaia is made repeats the Baniwa organisations’ book.

doi.org/10.21728/p2p.2024v10n2e-6885

Also listed under: Standards and trade

Samoan Material Culture (Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 75)

Te Rangi Hīroa (Peter H. Buck) · Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu · 1930

Book · Read in full · High reliability

An ethnography of the made things of Samoa by a Māori anthropologist, from six months there that began with a Bishop Museum expedition to Tutuila in September 1927. Read as the scanned text held by the Internet Archive, in the chapter on food only: the graters on p. 105, the preparations of the coconut on pp. 128–129, turmeric on p. 135, and the candlenut, the summary of cooking and the passage on relish on pp. 136–138. Competent for what he saw prepared and was told. The scan’s text is machine-read and its page breaks are not always marked, so a page number here may be one out. Samoan words are given as he prints them, without the macrons and glottal stops of modern spelling.

archive.org/details/hiroa-1930-samoan-material-culture

Also listed under: History and archaeology

Species richness, cultural importance, and prioritization of wild spices for conservation in the Sudano-Guinean zone of Benin (West Africa)

Konoutan Médard Kafoutchoni, Rodrigue Idohou, Anthony Egeru, Kolawolé Valère Salako, Clément Agbangla, et al. · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 14: 67 · 2018

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

Interviews with 218 people in the Sudano-Guinean zone of Benin between March and August 2016 about fourteen wild spices. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC: the abstract, the study area and sampling, the results on use values, and the rows for Lippia multiflora in Tables 4, 5, 11, 12 and 13; the statistics on cultural importance were read only in part. Competent for the names its informants gave the plant and what they said the names mean, for how they prepare it, and for its place among the wild spices of that zone. It is one zone of one country.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-018-0267-y

Also listed under: Plants and growing; Food science and processing

Spice Boxes Create Community: Paula Newman Pollachek, Havdalah Besamim Set

Jewish Museum Berlin · 2021

Museum or collection · Read in full · High reliability

An interview published by the Jewish Museum Berlin with the maker of a set of Havdalah spice boxes in its collection: how the boxes are passed round and smelled at the close of the Sabbath, which spices the maker chooses, and that flowers and fresh herbs have been used in place of a box. One maker’s account, published by a museum; not a history of the rite or a survey of practice across communities.

www.jmberlin.de/en/interview-paula-newman-pollachek

Also listed under: History and archaeology

The ecology of plant ingredients, food heritage, and adaptation among Syrian, Afghan, and Egyptian Coptic diasporas in Northwestern Italy

Mousaab Alrhmoun, Naji Sulaiman, Laura Longhi, Ajmal Khan Manduzai, Abdullah Faiz, et al. · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 21: 64 · 2025

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

Semi-structured interviews with 64 people from three migrant communities in north-western Italy, carried out between March 2023 and August 2024. Read as the full text held by Europe PMC: the abstract, the passage of the background on Syrian cooking, the account of recruitment, and the passage of the results on dishes that have become rarer and the ingredients replaced. The tables and the statistics were not read. Competent for what its Syrian participants said about ingredients they could not find. It does not say how many said so, and it does not describe how pomegranate molasses is made or used.

doi.org/10.1186/s13002-025-00815-y

Traditional Use of Wild Edible Plants in Slovenia: A Field Study and an Ethnobotanical Literature Review

Andreja Papež Kristanc, Samo Kreft, Simona Strgulc Krajšek, Luka Kristanc · Plants 13(5): 621 · 2024

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

Wild food plants named by Slovenian informants and in the ethnological literature, with the part used and the dishes it goes into. Read in full through Europe PMC. Competent for which wild plants are used in Slovenia and how; counts are of mentions, not of consumption. Open access under CC BY.

doi.org/10.3390/plants13050621

Also listed under: Plants and growing

Tüketicilerin Biber Salçası Tüketim Tercihlerini Etkileyen Unsurlar: Osmaniye-Bahçe İlçesi Örneği, Türkiye (Factors Affecting Consumers’ Preferences for Consumption of Pepper Paste: Example of Osmaniye-Bahçe District, Türkiye)

Nuran Tapkı, Ayşem Saçmalıoğlu · Türkiye Tarımsal Araştırmalar Dergisi 10(2): 191–198 · 2023

Academic paper · Read in full · Medium reliability

A questionnaire put to 160 family members in the centre of Bahçe district, Osmaniye, in October and November 2021, chosen by convenience; 148 were women. Read in the PDF on DergiPark, in Turkish: the abstract, the introduction, the method, and sections 3.2 to 3.4 with Tables 2 to 9. Section 3.1 and the conclusion were not read. Competent for how much pepper paste these households said they used, whether they made or bought it, and why. It records no recipe and names no dish, and it is one town.

doi.org/10.19159/tutad.1291217

Also listed under: Standards and trade

Turmeric and Cumin Instead of Stock Cubes: An Internet Survey of Spices and Culinary Herbs Used in Poland Compared with Historical Cookbooks and Herbals

Łukasz Łuczaj, Jarosław Dumanowski, Cezary Marszałek, Fabio Parasecoli · Plants 12(3): 591 · 2023

Academic paper · Read in full · High reliability

A survey of the seasonings used by Polish respondents, set against Polish cookbooks and herbals from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, with a short history of each spice in Poland. Read in full through Europe PMC. Competent for Polish use and its history as the authors read their sources; the respondents were mostly urban women with degrees, which the authors say biases the sample. Open access under CC BY.

doi.org/10.3390/plants12030591

Also listed under: History and archaeology

Established culinary practice

Customary practice · Reliability not yet assessed

Widely repeated, consistently observed cooking practice with no single authoritative publication behind it. Cited so that conventional knowledge is visibly labelled as convention rather than presented as research. It is not a substitute for a citation and may never support a safety or health claim.

Also listed under: Food science and processing