A few of months ago, a headline in the Minnesota Daily proclaimed: “Paisley Purple potato debuts at local restaurant” (24 September 2024). This story is not a culinary review as such, but rather adds a new chapter to the history of potatoes. The story reports on the development of a new potato by researchers at the University of Minnesota College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. Described as an “unsweetened sweet potato,” the Paisley Purple also retains its deep purple color when it is cooked. It is not yet available commercially, but it has debuted at a few restaurants in the Twin Cities.

I was thrilled to read this story because potatoes are among the New World crops that began a globalizing journey in the 16^th century. References to potatoes surface fairly regularly in travel narratives and merchant accounts in the Bell collection. Potatoes are native to the Andean highlands where they were a staple part of the people’s diets. Indeed, the tuber was domesticated at least 7,000 years ago! While north Americans are fortunate if they can find six or seven potato varieties in a grocery store, Peru is home to more than 4,000 different types of potatoes, cross-bred over millennia.

When the Spanish invaded Peru in the 1530s, they became the first Europeans to see, taste, and export potatoes. As with many of the New World crops that crossed the oceans in this period, it is difficult to know exactly when the first potatoes reached Europe, but it was probably in the 1550s or 1560s. It is also difficult to know exactly which type or types of potatoes made it to Europe. Terms used in natural history descriptions include, “patata,” “papas,” “batata” (thought to refer to sweet potatoes, specifically), “botata” and eventually “pomme de terre” (French) and “Erdapfel,” “Erdbirne” or “Grundbir” (German), as well as others.

 

Because potatoes are quite easy to grow and have a high nutritional value they were cultivated and eaten in Spain shortly after their introduction – though mostly by poor people. In the rest of Europe it took longer for potatoes to catch on. One rumor was that potatoes caused leprosy, or were just generally poisonous because their flowers looked like those of the nightshade family. In the famous Encyclopédie, Diderot called the potato out for causing flatulence: “But what is flatulence to the vigorous organs of peasants and workers?” As late as the 1760s, when Frederick the Great attempted to gift the hungry inhabitants of Kolberg (in Prussia) a load of potatoes, they reportedly refused, saying: “the things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what are they to us?”

Nevertheless, by the end of the 18^th century, potatoes were cultivated and consumed all over Europe, as well as making the leap across the Pacific Ocean, where they became integrated into Asian cuisines in the course of the 19^th century. The potato has a fascinating history, and much has been written both about plant itself and about the history of potato cuisines.

 

 

And finally, yes!: the Paisley Purple is an homage to the Twin Cities’ own Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson). In 1998, Spice Girls star Mel B interviewed Prince and Dazed gives this bit of transcript: “The video begins with them both stating what they’d like to be called, Melanie and Spud – ‘Like a potato,’ asks Melanie, ‘Why?’ Prince smiles, ‘You know.’ But she doesn’t. I don’t. Does he? Do you?” Perhaps the scientists at CFANS were thinking of this interview when they named the Paisley Purple.