Spinacia oleracea, the ‘prince of vegetables’ according to the 12th-century Arab writer Ibn al-Awam, originated in Persia, where some inedible wild relations still grow, and where it was under cultivation in the 4th century ad or earlier. Its name in English and in many other languages derives, via Arabic, from an old Persian name, aspanākh.
The plant had travelled east to China via Nepal by the 7th century, but only reached Europe in the 11th century, when the Arabs who invaded Spain brought it with them.
Spinach was a better green vegetable than the goose-foots, sorrels, orach, and leaf beets (see chard) which were widely used in medieval Europe, and gradually usurped their place. However, it was still a novelty in Italy in the 16th century (according to Matthiolus) and did not become established in Britain until the middle of that century. Before being accepted as a food plant, it was used for medicinal purposes; it has a mildly laxative effect, due to the oxalic acid which it contains.
The nutritional qualities of spinach have been much lauded, in part at least because of its high content of iron. However, the availability of the iron is reduced because the oxalic acid combines with it making it less easily absorbed, and the same is true of the calcium it contains.
Spinach is valued as a vegetable cooked on its own, but is also conspicuously versatile as an ingredient in other dishes, providing delicate fillings for pastry and pasta, combining well with eggs, etc. Part of its appeal comes from its subtle, faintly bitter-sweet taste, but part also from its attractive deep green colour. This spreads readily into any mixture in which spinach plays a part. Spinach or spinach juice have often been used purely for colour, for example in making certain kinds of pasta. No other common plant gives such a strong green.
Medieval recipes, both European and Asian, often called for spinach—or, in European examples, maybe for the more common leaf beet, which then was replaced by spinach as that plant became more accepted—as an ingredient for sweet dishes. For example, it could be combined with egg, honey, almonds, and spices, and used as a filling for a tart or flan. The habit of adding nutmeg to cooked spinach may be seen as a survival of these practices. Another such survival, as Jane Grigson (1978) pointed out in giving the recipe, is the Provençal tarte d'épinards au sucre, often eaten on Christmas Eve. The same author gives, for the benefit of those who like to go back to origins, a Persian recipe for spinach kuku (an omelette with spinach, which may be likened to the Niçois trouchia, made with leaf beet); and gives a full account of the remarkable ability of spinach to absorb butter (cf. the aubergine's absorption of olive oil). The French define egg and fish dishes made with spinach as à la Florentine.
Spinach is notorious for shrinking greatly when cooked. A large saucepan full of raw spinach soon reduces to about a tenth of the volume. This surprising reduction is of course avoided when fresh young spinach leaves are used in salads.
Spinach substitutes are numerous. The excellence of spinach has caused its name to be applied to many other leafy vegetables which reflect, even slightly, its characteristics and merits. That is why some unrelated plants have names such as New Zealand spinach, Chinese spinach, vine spinach (see basella), mountain spinach (see orach), and so forth.
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.
Grigson, Jane (1978), Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book, London: Michael Joseph.
