Beta vulgaris ssp cicla. Also called Swiss chard, leaf beet, seakale beet, white beet, and spinach beet. It is related to sugar beet, but it produces large leaves and fleshy stalks, rather than a bulbous root. Its leaves taste something like spinach, but are coarser. There are many varieties, some verging towards the leafy sort (the old European, Indian, and Japanese leaf beets), and others where more emphasis is on the stalk (the Swiss chards). The stalks may be a pale celadon colour or vivid scarlet (rhubarb or ruby chard). The stalks and leaves are generally cooked separately, in different ways.
The history of chard has been traced back to the famous hanging gardens of ancient Babylonia, and the vegetable evidently has a long history in the Arab world. From the Arabic name silq came the Spanish acelga. However, the word ‘chard’ derives from the Latin and French words for thistle, although chard is not related to the thistle, and eventually came to mean the stalk or ribs of some vegetables such as chard or cardoon which is related to the thistle. By the 19th century seed catalogues were adding ‘Swiss’ to the name. This was presumably to distinguish it from cardoon, but it is not clear why the term ‘Swiss’ was chosen, although Jane Grigson (1978) evidently believed that the epithet originated in Dutch. Evelyn (1699) had not used it; he referred to the ‘Rib of the White Beet (by the French call'd the Chard)’ with approval and made the interesting comment that it ‘melts, and eats like Marrow’.
The cicla in the vegetable's scientific name derives from sicula, which refers to Sicily. Before spinach spread from the Middle East towards western Europe in the later Middle Ages, beet was an essential green leaf found, for instance, in Roman and medieval pottages (it was introduced to Britain by the Romans). Today, it survives in numbers of traditional recipes around the Mediterranean: in the Greek islands, Provence, Nice, and Catalonia (including the Balearic Islands, where the leaves are often prepared with pine nuts and raisins, a combination that also crops up in the Provençal tarte aux blettes). A Moroccan tagine of chard, Marak silk, has chard leaves and stalks, onion and coriander, all chopped, and rice cooked together. Paula Wolfert (1973) observes that ‘in Tetuán this dish is often accompanied by a dish of boiled lentils’.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Evelyn, John (1699), Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets, facsimile edn, London: Prospect Books (1982).
Grigson, Jane (1978), Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book, London: Michael Joseph.
Wolfert, Paula (1973), Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco, New York: Harper & Row.
