Consuming Passions: Dates

Dates may seem like just another unexceptional dried fruit, but they are a food with a long history. In this latest contribution to the Consuming Passions series Joel Haber, an independent food scholar specializing in Jewish food, shows the many diverse ways in which this fruit can be enjoyed.

By Joel Haber

For an ancient food, dates hide some pretty modern surprises. Healthful, tasty, and well-known, what makes them truly passion-worthy is their versatility in the kitchen.

Where do dates come from?

The date palm is one of the earliest domesticated trees, native to the broad Middle East region. As a fairly nutritious fruit that was able to be grown in arid climates, dates became a staple food, particularly in deserts where little else reliably grew. The Oxford Companion to Food highlights the fruit’s high amount of protein, but further notes that they were typically paired with dairy products, creating a balanced nutrition source. For desert-dwellers, that dairy came from the sheep or goats they herded, or the camels on which they traveled.

Ancient sources from the Middle East show how prominent dates were in the region. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ishullanu the gardener wins the love of the goddess Ishtar with “baskets filled with dates to no end.” The Torah (the Jewish Bible) lists seven species with which the Land of Israel is blessed. Dates are among the five fruits and two grains, which were collectively the first species to have been domesticated during the Agricultural Revolution. These seven facilitated the birth of human civilization.

The date’s persistent importance, particularly in the deserts of the region, explains why they appear twenty-two times in the Koran, written well over a millennium later. One of the most famous references is in Sura 19, about Mary giving birth to Jesus. A divine voice tells her to eat fresh dates to ease her labor pains. Interestingly, this connection made its way forward to medieval Europe, where dates were eaten to “strengthen the womb.”

As a dioecious tree (i.e., each tree is either male or female, with only the latter growing fruit), they can’t self-pollinate, making them highly susceptible to variations over time. Thus, today there are hundreds of date varieties, though only a few are internationally known. The majority are consumed locally, rather than traded.

One variety, in particular, is fascinating in that is both ancient and modern simultaneously. The Romans favorite dates came from the Judean city of Jericho. But still in antiquity, that Judean Desert date palm went extinct. In the 21st century, however, Israeli scientists were able to germinate a two-thousand-year-old seed of this variety, resurrecting the species. The male tree couldn’t produce fruit, but once they later germinated more pre-extinction seeds, some trees were female and have now produced dates which haven’t been eaten in at least 1,500 years!

Enjoying dates as they are

Unlike most other fruits, dates are typically eaten dried. But in the Middle East’s open-air markets, fresh dates, yellow and still attached to their stems, are commonly sold in late summer and early fall. They can be rather hard and somewhat grainy in texture, so a modern trick is to place them in the freezer overnight. Once they thaw, they are softer and ready to eat.

Beyond just eating fresh or dried dates on their own as a snack, however, people often dress them up for an appetizer or dessert. A classic preparation is to simply cut open pitted dates and fill each one with a half a walnut. — and there are plenty of more elaborate takes on the stuffed date formula, too.