Materialities of Boiling and Steaming: SEM Microscopic and Experimental archaeological Study on East and Southeast Asian Cooking Technologies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Food and Foodways: Emerging Trends and New Perspectives" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological and ethnographic data indicates that East and Southeast Asian cuisines have long been characterized by diverse boiling and steaming repertoires and techniques. These practices and resulting flavors and texture of foods are imbued with rich sociocultural meanings. This paper explores charred food remains as an “ecofactual artifact.” By applying a “life-history” approach, the transformation process of cooking and various food materialities can be compared and differentiated microscopically under SEM. Following the rising academic interest in the once-overlooked amorphous charred food remains from archaeobotanical flotation samples or ceramic food crust, this research focuses on the SEM microscopic approach to boiled and cooked cereal food, aiming to provide a referential dataset to study past cooking technologies archaeologically. Based on existing ethnographic data and historical resources, a food categorization framework is formulated. Controlled cooking experiments of different boiling and steaming techniques were carried out at Butser Ancient Farm, followed by controlled carbonization. The resulting cooked cereal products were described through SEM observation to differentiate modes of boiling and steaming of East/Southeast Asian prehistoric cereals, such as rice (Oryza Sativa), foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Food and Foodways: Emerging Trends and New Perspectives   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39609.0