Scientists have reconstructed the cooking techniques of the early inhabitants of Puerto Rico by analysing the remains of clams.
Led by Philip Staudigel, who conducted the analysis as a graduate student at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff University, the team has used new chemical analysis techniques to identify the exact cooking temperatures at which clams were cooked over 2500 years ago.
With cooking temperatures getting up to around 200oC according to the new analysis, the team believe the early Puerto Ricans were partial to a barbeque rather than boiling their food as a soup.
The study, which also involved academics from the University of Miami and Valencia College, has been published today in the journal Science Advances.
Whilst the results throw new light on the cultural practices of the first communities to arrive on the island of Puerto Rico, they also provide at least circumstantial evidence that ceramic pottery technology was not widespread during this period of history – it's likely that this would be the only way in which the clams could have been boiled.
Lead author of the study Dr Philip Staudigel, currently at Cardiff University's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, said: "Much of peoples' identity draws upon on where they came from, one of the most profound expressions of this is in cooking. We learn to cook from our parents, who learned from their parents.
