"The consumption of chiles doubled in Europe in the fifteenth century and by 27% in the sixteenth" > Food a Culinary History by Jean-Louis Flandrin et al.
Hmm. The first part of this statement is at least mathematically accurate. As far as I am aware the first mention of chiles by a European was in a 1493 diary entry by Colombus. This leaves seven years for European chile consumption to double, from 0. And 2x 0 is...
But a 27% increase on zero in the following century?
As I have noted before, Asian food must have been a little bland before the spread of chiles out of Central America.
They have only been used in Szechuan cuisine for example since the 19th century....
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