Potatoes

Before European explorers arrived in the New World, the potato had already spread through the Andes and into Central America after being initially domesticated in ancient South America. Similar to how we use potatoes today, the ancients boiled, baked, and mashed them. To augment their diets of salty meat and hard bread, sailors brought potatoes back to Spain on their ships as they left the area. In the 1500s, inhabitants of Spain and Portugal who had attained civilized status did not believe potatoes were fit for human sustenance. Its usage increased progressively throughout Europe, becoming accepted as a meal fit for both soldiers and peasants. The potato had become popular in France by the late 18th century and was widely consumed in Britain and Ireland.

In the 18th century, the English colonies brought the potato from the Old World to the New. It was widely grown and consumed on both sides of the Atlantic by the middle of the century. It has the benefits of being cheap and quite simple to grow, as well as suitable for long-term storage. The potato was viewed suspiciously by the Catholic Churches, both Roman and Eastern Orthodox, the former because it was produced underground and the latter because it was not mentioned in the Bible.

There is a persistent myth that the potato chip was created in America in 1853 by a chef in Saratoga, New York. However, recipes for the snack were kept for many years before that. There is no doubt that the potato originated in the Americas, and throughout the following centuries, the rest of the world only reluctantly accepted it as a source of sustenance. In the modern world, there are around 5,000 different varieties of potatoes, and 99% of them can be linked by DNA to a variety that originated in ancient Chile.