Broccoli
|
? Broccoli |
|||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | |||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
| Brassica oleraceaItalica Group |
Broccoli is a plant of the Cabbage family, Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae). It is classified as the Italica Cultivar Group of the species Brassica oleracea. Other cultivar groups of Brassica oleracea include cabbage (Capitata Group), cauliflower (Botrytis Group), kale and collard greens (Acephala Group), kohlrabi (Gongylodes Group), and Brussels sprouts (Gemmifera Group). The Chinese broccoli (Alboglabra Group) is also a cultivar group of Brassica oleracea.
Common varieties are Calabrese and purple sprouting broccoli.
Broccoli possesses abundant fleshy green flower heads arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible stalk. The large mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves. Broccoli most closely resembles its close relative cauliflower, but is green rather than white.
Broccoli is a cool-weather crop that does poorly in hot summer weather. It is usually boiled or steamed, but may be eaten raw and has become popular as a raw vegetable in hors-d'oeuvre trays. Broccoli is high in vitamin C and soluble fiber. Broccoli also contains the compound glucoraphanin, leading to an anticancer compound sulforaphane.
The word broccoli comes from the Latin brachium and Italian brocco meaning 'arm', or 'branch'. Broccoli is often referred to as a "cruciferous" vegetable. The Brassicaceae family (also known as the mustard or cabbage family) was formerly called the Cruciferae family, due to the fact that these plants often have four petals which can look like crosses.
Broccoli history
Roman references to a cabbage family vegetable that may have been broccoli are less than perfectly clear: the Roman natural history writer, Pliny the Elder, wrote about a vegetable which might have been broccoli. Some vegetable scholars recognize broccoli in the cookbook of Apicius.
Broccoli was certainly an Italian vegetable, as its name suggests, long before it was eaten elsewhere. Its first mention in France is in 1560, but in 1724 broccoli was still so unfamiliar in England that Philip Miller's Gardener's Dictionary (1724 edition) referred to it as a stranger in England and explained it as "sprout colli-flower" or "Italian asparagus". In the American colonies, Thomas Jefferson was also an experimentative gardener with a wide circle of European correspondents, from whom he got packets of seeds for rare vegetables such as tomatoes, noted the planting of broccoli at Monticello along with radishes, lettuce, and cauliflower on May 27, 1767. Nevertheless, broccoli remained an exotic in American gardens. In 1775, John Randolph, in A Treatise on Gardening by a Citizen of Virginia, felt he had to explain about broccoli: "The stems will eat like Asparagus, and the heads like Cauliflower."
Commerical cultivation of broccoli in the United States can be traced to the D'Arrigo brothers, Stephano and Andrea, immigrants from Messina, Italy, whose company made some tentative plantings in San Jose, California in 1922. A few crates were initially shipped to Boston where there was a thriving Italian immigrant culture in the North End. The broccoli business boomed, with the D'Arrigo's brand name 'Andy Boy' named after Stephano's two-year-old son, Andrew, and backed with advertisements on the radio.
A cross between broccoli and cauliflower, the broccoflower - also known as Romanesco - was first cultivated in Europe around 1988. It has very pale green heads densely packed like cauliflower, but with the flavor of broccoli.
Broccoli in culture
Broccoli is frequently referred to in popular culture as a vegetable that parents try to force their unwilling children to eat.
In a Halloween episode of The Simpsons, Homer is killed by eating broccoli. When examining the body, Dr. Hibbert said that broccoli was one the of deadliest plants, that warned people with its bad taste.
United States President George Bush (41st) was known to have an active disdain for broccoli, having actually said so in an offhand remark during his presidency. In response, a powerful broccoli agriculture lobby sent several tons of it to the White House.
Also, in the TV sitcom Seinfeld, Newman refers to broccoli as a "Vile weed!". In the animated series Family Guy's episode " I Never Met the Dead Man", Stewie Griffin invents a weather control device in an attempt to wipe out global production of the vegetable.
Dana Carvey did a sketch on Saturday Night Live where he sang an entire song about broccoli to Sigourney Weaver. The sketch was a big hit, and the song became quite popular.
Broccoli even appeared as a contestant on a cartoon game show on an episode of MTV's Liquid Television. The character could only repeat its name, and did so for every answer it gave.