What year is the first known written mention of the word “paella”? The answer is 1840.
According to the English Wikipedia article on paella, a local Spanish newspaper first used the word “paella” to refer specifically to the rice dish in 1840. Before then, paella primarily referred to the wide, shallow pan used for cooking.
The dish’s culinary predecessors are older. Rice preparations associated with Valencian cooking appear in earlier manuscripts, including eighteenth-century recipes for arroz a la valenciana. However, those references do not necessarily use “paella” as the dish’s name.
The date can vary depending on whether the question concerns the cooking vessel, an early rice preparation, or the dish’s modern name. For the wording given—use of “paella” for the rice recipe—1840 is the best-supported answer. The stored 1582 date is not supported by the cited English-language historical account.