fd-New-World-msg – 11/17/13

16th Century food of and from the New World.

NOTE: See also the files: fd-Caribbean-msg, fd-Spain-msg, turkeys-msg, pineapples-msg, berries-msg, spices-msg, 16C-Tomato-art, tomato-hist-art, tomatoes-msg, chocolate-msg, vanilla-msg.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************

From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Recipe direction
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 11:09:46 -0400

> We are planning our event for next year.  The autocrat loves my idea of"
> Defending the Americas."  Doing an Incan/Mayan/Am Indian vs Spanish 
> menu for our Defending the Gate.
>
> I can find SOME Mayan recipes, but not enough.  Any direction ya'll can head
> me in? Yes, we always have dual feasts.
>
> Soffya Appollonia Tudja

well, as it happens, I've been doing some research in that direction, and
I've been discussing it with Gene Anderson, since he spends a fair amount of
time every year involved in Mayan archaeology. I've been cooking a
conjecturally period meso-American meal at Pennsic every year.

The first thing that you need to keep in mind, is that, just as many
foodstuffs we use today came from the New World, and thus aren't generally
period for our European reenactments, many european foods were equally 
not available in the New World until late.

The meso-americans ate a very lean diet- they didn't have the pigs for fat
until the europeans brought them over, so fried foods are very unlikely.
Thus, I use anasazi beans, boiled, rather than fried, or refried.

Tortillas were available, but corn tortillas, not the flour kind, and were
basicly used as a wrap for whatever might have been cooked- they were also
eaten alone, as we might eat a piece of bread.

Fish and waterfowl provided a large part of their protein intake. Hot
peppers seem to have been generally available, tomatoes less so. Turkey was
fairly available, but venison tended to be reserved for the upper 
classes.

Pototoes were available, but different sorts, depending on the  when/where.
sweet potatoes would have been fairly likely, our white potatoes, as I
understand it, weren't found until fairly late, when the interior of the Sa
continent was broached.

Chocolate/chocolatl was considered strictly a ceremonial drink, usually
mixed with hot peppers. There is some evidence that it was sweetened, but
again, only in very limited areas. since the european honey bee is an
import, they got some sweetening from a couple varieties of wasps, now
almost extinct, and ants- apparently this honey didn't travel very well.

The meal I make, other than the boiled beans, consists of duck enchiladas,
sauced with a tomato/hot pepper sauce- one year, thanks to akim, we included
venison enchiladas. Gene, however, told me the following:

Wasps etc yeah, but most of the pre-Columbian honey came from a
domesticated stingless bee, Melipona beecheyi.  It survives but has become
rare; there are attempts to propagate it again.  Most honey today is from
European bees, but Africanization has made those risky and hard to work
with.  Those African bees really do sting!
Duck enchiladas:  probably not.  Try stewing the duck with achiote and
allspice and chiles, thickening the sauce with corn flour, and then baking
it in a pie with crusts made of corn meal made into dough with the stock
from boiling the duck.  More authentic.  Major pre-Columbian dish.
Incidentally, cacao is a Maya word (loanword into English).  But they don't
seem to have used it much in sauces, unlike the Aztecs (from whom the word
"chocolate" comes).
best--Gene

I'm still looking, but I hope this helps ;-)

Phlip


Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2003 12:33:02 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [SCA-cooks] Recipe direction

Sophie Coe did a book called
America's First Cuisines which was published
in 1994.
Her husband Michael Coe is the Mayan expert
who was at Yale. He's the author of a number of
Mayan books.

Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway


Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 06:45:30 +0100
From: UlfR <parlei at algonet.se>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] pre-Columbian foods
To: SCA Cooks <Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Christine Seelye-King <kingstaste at mindspring.com> [2003.11.02] wrote:
> We are thinking foods that were here when the Westerners got to
> land.

If you are looking for actual pre-contact food you may want to take a
look at The Billetin of Primitive Technology
(http://www.primitive.org/backissues.htm). There have been several
articles about food, and one issue (#13, still available according to
their web-site) focussed on the subject. This is where you'll find
people who are at least as fanatic about authenticity as we are here,
but with a plaeolithic focus (done "right" a stone age tool has to be  
made
using stone age tools).

Considering the season acorns come to mind. Properly leached -- hull¸
grind, rinse, rinse, rinse... -- they are quite good.

Also the fall hunt would have been going on (last chance for migratory
birds, etc).

UlfR
--  
UlfR Ketilson                               ulfr at hunter-gatherer.org


Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2003 10:13:28 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pre-Columbian Foods
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

ranvaig at columbus.rr.com wrote:
> New World foods include key lime
>
> Ranvaig

Key Limes as I understand them from my readings on citrus fruits
(I did read about things other than oranges.) are representative of the
limes that developed in the New World after the Conquest. The Spanish
took citrus trees with them on the early voyages and they rapidly took
off in the islands and Central America in the later part of the 16th
century.

Other works that might prove helpful to the topic at hand are:

Todorov, Tzetan. The Conquest of America. 1982, 1984.
Rozin, Elisabeth. Blue Corn and Chocolate. 1992.
Super, John C. Food, Conquest, and Colonization in Sixteenth-Century
Spanish America. 1988.
Hays, Wilma and R. Vernon. Foods the Indians Gave Us. 1973.
Weatherfors, Jack. Indian Givers. 1988.
Kavasc, Barrie. Native Harvests. 1979.
Sokolov, Raymond. Why We Eat What We Eat. How the encounter between the
New World and the Old chnaged the way everyone on the planet eats. 1991.

There are dozens more including a number of modern cookbooks that
feature Native American foods.

See also--
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/welcome.html
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/emeritus.html
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/history/welcome.html
feature details about the Smithsonian's Celebration of the Columbian
Exchange in the early 1990's. The bibliography is at:
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/bibliography.html

Johnnae llyn Lewis


Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2003 10:40:14 EST
From: Devra at aol.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] New World Food
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Sophie Coe's book is 'America's First Cuisine', a very 
Interesting book.

Devra Langsam
www.poisonpenpress.com


Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 10:22:23 -0500
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Pre-Columbian Foods
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Another cookbook  worth checking out:
The Plymouth Plantation New England Cookery Book
by Malabar Hornblower. 213 pages in the paperback edition. Harvard 
Common Press. December 1990. It's OP but available used.

Johnnae llyn Lewis


Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:24:54 -0500
From: "Marcha" <nigsdaughter at satx.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Old World vs. New World
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Anybody have a handy list or web site with Old World and New World  
> fruits and veggies?
>
>  -Helena

Try "A Boke of Gode Cookery on How to Cook Medieval"  It lists not only
what was available then but what was not. i.e.: New World vs. Old World. It has really helped me.   Bertha


Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 10:51:45 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Old World vs. New World
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Anybody have a handy list or web site with Old World and New World
> fruits and veggies?
> 
> -Helena

We have an article with some such information towards the end of the
recipe section of the _Miscellany_.

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/miscellany_pdf/Miscellany.htm
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com


Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 15:15:34 -0400
From: <kingstaste at mindspring.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Re: Old World vs. New World Fruits
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Old World Fruits include:
apple, pear, quince, apricot, peach, cherry, grape, raisin, orange 
(sour), watermelon and other melons,*  strawberries, berries, fig, 
plum, pomegranate, date, currant, and prune. Pineapple and bananas were 
known, but unusual.
Nuts available were hazelnut, almond, pistachio, pine nuts, walnut, and 
chestnut.

*Period varieties of these fruits, as well as other vegetables and even 
some now-extinct game animals, are similar to those we can get readily 
today, such as cantaloupe, honeydew, cranberries, blueberries, 
zucchini, and domestic rabbit.


New World Fruits include:
pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, cranberry, raspberry, blackberry, 
black raspberry, custard apple, papaya, guava, avocado, currant, 
crabapples, gooseberry, coconut, chayote, star fruit, key lime, cacao 
(chocolate), tomatoes, tomatillos, ground cherry (a relative of 
tomatillo, not a cherry);
Nuts include brazil nuts, black walnuts, pecan, hazelnut(Corylus 
americana), cashew, pumpkin seeds.

(other New World Foods)
bison, wild pig, turkey, moscovy duck, rabbit, fish, shrimp, shellfish, 
crawfish, lobster, eggs of duck and other birds, frogs, dog, iguana, 
guinea pigs;
corn, wild rice, amaranth, quinoa, sunflowers, arrowroot, cassava 
(yuca), beans, lima beans, peanuts, zucchini, pumpkin and squash 
(yellow-flowered squashes), potato, sweet potato, green beans, 
jerusalem artichokes


Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 23:04:30 -0800
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] New World Foods
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Vincenzo wonders...
> In addition, the historical record is probably incomplete --
> can we say with certainty, when, for example, vanilla appeared
> in German cuisine?  ... etc.

This is a very good question, and if you read German, it may be answered in
THE NEW HERBAL OF 1543 by Leonhart Fuchs, available in a modern facsimile
copy.  I do not read German but the index is in Latin species names, which
helps.  Many of the plants are pictured including "Turkish Corn" [maize],
capsicum peppers and various squashes like pumpkins.

Selene


Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:20:02 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] New World Foods
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I would start with a webbed text in English by a Spanish author who
discusses the foodstuffs marginalized in both the New and Old Worlds by the trade established between the two.  I don't have the URL or any other info handy, but it was a superb piece of work which you should be able to find with Google.

Bear


Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:45:03 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Some recipes from Nova Scotia c.1610( still
	period ??)
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I own one called A Taste of Acadie.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/2162/review2.htm
http://www.gooselane.com/gle/recipe.htm
http://www.villagehistoriqueacadien.com/onlinestores.cfm

There are a number of Plimoth colony cookbooks. The best of them
used Markham and Murrell as their sources, but most seem OP at the moment.
http://www.plimoth.org/   is a good place to look.

Johnnae

Micheal wrote:
>  Dishes from Port Royal ( the order of good cheer 1610 time period)
> http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/cheer/recipes.html
>  Just thought I throw out that one unfortunately there are no  
> references and only a modern interpretation recipes are available .
>  But fast on a track of a book which is of the same period and place  
> with some originals. Hope springs eternal. Called a taste of Arcadia  
> anyone hear or have such a book. Has anyone ever gone over the any  
> possible books from the first settlements in America. Like Plymouth  
> Rock, since I have found a reference to that area under minced meat.


Date: Tue, 01 Mar 2005 18:13:01 -0500
From: "Denise Wolff" <scadian at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Some recipes from Nova Scotia c.1610( still
	period ??)
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

http://www.plimoth.org/learn/history/recipes/recipelist.asp


Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 11:04:37 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] New Netherlands (was Re: When DID the
	Renaissance	End???(was:Nocino,period cordial or not
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Christiane wrote:
> Oh, and for the food-related content: what is a typically Dutch dish  
> for the 17th century period in the New World?
>
> Gianotta

Check out the work of Peter Rose.
http://www.peterrose.com/
This is her area.

Johnnae


Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 06:45:47 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Turkeys ARE Period!
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> The quote means that "Turkeys are Period" in certain places in Europe and
> England by 1500=1540... That doesn't mean that it was period for prior to
> that time (not Italian quadrocento, not "Viking", not the Court of Richard
> II of England, not Anglo-Saxon.

1527 rather than 1500 with the first goodies from the newly conquered lands
in Mexico.

> Johann, isn't there also some reason to think that the Turkey came in
> through the trade routes from the middle East and thought of as native to
> India or Turkey?
>
> Regina

I'm not Johann, but I can answer that with an almost definitive "No."  While
several things are thought to have come into Europe from North America via
Asia, the connection is the Spanish trade between the Philippines and the
West Coast of Mexico and South America, the Manila galleons.  The Spanish
did not enter the Philippines until 1543 and the trade with Mexico didn't
start until 1564.  The entrance of the North American turkey into Europe
pre-dates both of these events.

Chili peppers, although Fuchs identifies them as being from India, appear in
his herbal of 1541, so they obviously came in the front door.  White
potatoes, however, appear at such a late date, that there is speculation
they came into Europe from Chile via the Manila trade.

Bear


Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:26:06 -0600
From: "otsisto" <otsisto at socket.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Turkeys ARE Period!
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

I think you are thinking of maize as the new world food that was thought to
have come from Turkey. Gerard refers to it as Turkey corn And clarifies to
the reader that it does not come from Asia minor which is the domain of
Turks but through Spain from the Americans.
De

-----Original Message-----
> Johann, isn't there also some reason to think that the Turkey came in
> through the trade routes from the middle East and thought of as  
> native to India or Turkey?
>
> Regina

I'm not Johann, but I can answer that with an almost definitive "No."  While
several things are thought to have come into Europe from North America via
Asia, the connection is the Spanish trade between the Philippines and the
West Coast of Mexico and South America, the Manila galleons.  (snip)

Bear


Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 23:33:06 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Turkeys ARE Period!
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

There was quite a bit of confusion as to where things came from.  Fuchs
(1541) refers to chili peppers as Indische and Calcuttisha Pfeffer and maize
as Turkishe Korn (if I got the spellings correct).  That beats out Gerard by
half a century.

In the case of maize, it probably came into Europe on Columbus's first
voyage and was transferred to the Ottoman Empire via Northern Italy (read
Genoa or Venice).  The Turks were early adopters and European travelers who
encountered these new crops in Asia Minor may have been rightly confused
about their actual origin.  In the case of maize and chili peppers, it may
have been the Turks who introduced them to Central Europe.

There is also the consideration that tying foods to Turkey or India may have
initially been a marketing ploy.  Columbus found the New World in 1492.
Around 1501, Amerigo Vespucci floated the idea that South America was a
separate continent from Asia.  And in 1521, Magellan took off on the voyage
that would prove the Americas were not Asia.  So even if the original
thought was the East and West Indies were the same islands, it didn't last
long.

Bear


Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 09:35:31 -0800
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Turkeys ARE Period!
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> There was quite a bit of confusion as to where things came from.   Fuchs
> (1541) refers to chili peppers as Indische and Calcuttisha Pfeffer and maize
> as Turkishe Korn (if I got the spellings correct).  That beats out  
> Gerard by half a century.

If I remember correctly, Finan, John J., Maize in the Great Herbals,
suggests that maize was referred to as "Indian corn" not out of a
confusion between the New World and Asia but because Pliny described
something that sounded similar called "Indian corn" and maize was by
some misidentified with that.
-- 
David/Cariadoc


Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 14:01:55 -0500
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Turkeys ARE Period!
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

On Dec 16, 2006, at 12:35 PM, David Friedman wrote:

>> There was quite a bit of confusion as to where things came from. Fuchs
>> (1541) refers to chili peppers as Indische and Calcuttisha Pfeffer and maize
>> as Turkishe Korn (if I got the spellings correct).  That beats out
>> Gerard by half a century.
>
> If I remember correctly, Finan, John J., Maize in the Great Herbals,
> suggests that maize was referred to as "Indian corn" not out of a
> confusion between the New World and Asia but because Pliny described
> something that sounded similar called "Indian corn" and maize was by
> some misidentified with that.

I think part of the problem may be with license taken in illustrating
certain grains on the ear, either when an artist is working from a
description of an item he has not actually seen, or in taking
shortcuts for convenience (for example, the illuminations of mail
armor that looks like chicken wire). It occurs to me that there might
have been illuminators or printers that could look at, or have
described to them, an ear of sorghum, which has a largish, oblong
ear, and a multitude of grains speckled on it more or less randomly,
like giant, mutant millet, and portray it with a series of straight
lines in a grid pattern (as we tend to get with maize). If you've
never seen either, it's not a problem. It's a foreign grain from the
Mysterious Orient, a.k.a. Turkish Grain. If you're familiar with
Asian or African sorghum, it's not that much of a stretch; you shrug
and move on. It's only when you're only familiar (or mostly familiar)
with maize that it's really easy to assume that that is a depiction
of an ear of maize.

In short, it could be a coincidence that the illustrated ears of
Turkey Corn could look more like maize than what they might actually
be intended to depict.

If ya folla...

Adamantius


Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 21:52:28 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Turkeys ARE Period!
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

>> There was quite a bit of confusion as to where things came from.  Fuchs
>> (1541) refers to chili peppers as Indische and Calcuttisha Pfeffer and maize
>> as Turkishe Korn (if I got the spellings correct).  That beats out Gerard
>> by half a century.
>
> If I remember correctly, Finan, John J., Maize in the Great Herbals,
> suggests that maize was referred to as "Indian corn" not out of a
> confusion between the New World and Asia but because Pliny described
> something that sounded similar called "Indian corn" and maize was by
> some misidentified with that.
> -- 
> David/Cariadoc

Fuchs didn't connect maize with Pliny's Indian corn, which I think may have
been pearl millet, rounder and smaller than maize seeds but similar enough
to be confusing if you have never seen a specimen.

Dodoens copied Fuchs and expanded on Fuchs' work making the connection to
Pliny's Indian corn.  Dodoens severed the connection in the 1583 edition of
his herbal.  Gerard copied Dodoens but I don't recall him making the
connection to Pliny, so he may have used a later edition.

The best information I've found on this conundrum is a small article from
the New England Historical Geneological Society discussing how the Pilgrims
identified Indian corn which can be found at:
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/publications/NEA/6-5_018_Pilgrim.asp

I particularly like footnote 8.

Bear


Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 11:05:06 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gastronomica on Spice Trade, Apicius and
	Martino
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Perhaps Lady Brighid can fill you in more on the Spanish manuscripts
> which include New World foods. I don't remember if there are any New
> World foods in her translation of Ruperto de Nola's 1529 "Libre del
> Coch" or not, but she may be familiar with later manuscripts as well.

There are no New World foods in de Nola.  Granado (1599) has some,
probably taken from the Italian, Scappi.  (Mistress Helewyse could tell
you better than I what's in Scappi.)  Granado contains recipes for
turkey and guinea pig, and possibly New World beans and squashes.  No
tomatoes.

I've seen some mid-18th century tomato recipes, but that's not helpful
for this question.  In the absense of cookbooks, the answer might be
found in household accounts, letters, and other records of daily living.
-- 
Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom


Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2007 09:46:08 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] the Peacock Harper Culinary Collection
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

The Peacock Harper Culinary Collection "headquartered" in glorious
Blacksburg, Virginia, home of Virginia Tech
now has a webpage. http://www.culinarycollection.org/aboutus.htm

They are doing a lot on cookery and Jamestown this year.
http://www.culinarycollection.org/history.htm
They also publish a culinary newsletter
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/culinary/CulinaryThymes/

Johnnae


Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:58:06 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Forthcoming titles Fall 2008 LONG
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

As promised sometime back here's a list of some forthcoming
fall 08- winter 09
titles that might be of interest to readers of this list.
They cover a full range of topics.
I've included details, descriptions or links where I have them.
A number of the lists I used didn't record prices possibly because
they were not yet set.

Johnnae

-----------------
*Savage Barbecue: Race, Culture, and the Invention of America's First
Food by Andrew Warnes  208 pages*.* University of Georgia Press (1 Aug 
2008)I haven't seen a copy
yet, but the descriptions are promising:
Savage Barbecue: Race, Culture, and the Invention of America's First
Food by Andrew Warnes. This is a University of Georgia Press volume and
is available in both hardcover and paperback.
It's described as "Starting with Columbus's journals in 1492, Warnes
shows how the perception of barbecue evolved from Spanish colonists'
first fateful encounter with natives roasting iguanas and fish over
fires on the beaches of Cuba. European colonists linked the new food to
a savagery they perceived in American Indians, ensnaring
barbecue in a growing web of racist attitudes about the New World.
Warnes also unearths the etymological origins of the word barbecue,
including the early form barbacoa; its coincidental similarity to
barbaric reinforced emerging stereotypes."
May be very interesting or it may be too academic ?


To: Authentic_SCA at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: on white and sweet potatoes
Posted by: "Katherine Throckmorton" katherine.throckmorton at gmail.com 
Date: Mon Jan 5, 2009 12:13 pm (PST)

I've been thinking for awhile about why I object to New World foods at
feasts. It isn't the fact that they aren't period. Its more the fact that
it seems that when things like potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate and turkey were
served, they would have been a novelty. These foods would have been new and
exotic and serving them at a feast would have made a statement. Serving
them as a ordinary part of a feast, with no effort to get people to think
about how 16th century people would have seen these foods has the effect of
pulling us into the modern world, where a dish of mashed potatoes is
commonplace.

-Katherine


Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:22:13 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Conquest of Mexico bibliography
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

Off on another research tangent for someone not on the list,
I came across this bibliography and discussion of
The Conquest of Mexico .An Annotated Bibliography 
Dr. Nancy Fitch,  Professor of History
California State University, Fullerton

It's up on the American Historical Association website.
http://www.historians.org/tl/LessonPlans/ca/Fitch/conquestbib.htm
I think it would prove helpful for those looking into descriptions of
foods found in the Americas.

Johnnae


Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:14:26 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period substitute for tomatoes?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

<<< That does indeed put the correct complexion on the problem. Where  would I 
go to look up the recipes from my area of interest (Near East,  North 
Africa, Arabian Peninsula, and India) that were the first to  incorporate 
tomatoes and potatoes?

Judith / no SCA name yet >>>

If you're looking for period recipes in those regions, forget about it. 
Tomatoes don't show up in recipes until the mid-18th Century, although Grewe 
makes a case for their use prior to that date.  While I'm fairly certain 
tomatoes were eaten in Spain and Italy before 1600, their use3 was almost 
certainly limited.

The Irish potato doesn't show up as a foodstuff until 1570 and knowledge of 
the plant is extremely limited.  Gerard doesn't receive samples until 1586 
and Carolus Clusius, who was the premier botanist of the period, only 
recieves a specimen in 1587.  We do know that potatoes were eaten in 1591 
boiled in water then peeled(?) and cooked in butter.  The source is a letter 
from Landgraf Wilhelm IV von Hesse to Kurfu:rst Christian I von Sachsen, 
which suggests that it was a culinary experiment with samples from the 
Landgraf's botanical garden.

What you are more likely to find are recipes for sweet potatoes, which the 
Portuguese spread to Africa and Asia during the first quarter of the 16th 
Century.  Unlike sweet potatoes, maize, turkeys, chili peppers and squash; 
tomatoes and white potatoes seem to have been late in getting spread around 
and eaten.

Bear


Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 15:38:11 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Ottoman Foodstuffs was Plantains: Period for
	Old World?

I wrote:
<<< 1. Most New World ingredients didn't enter the Ottoman Empire - which
encompassed most of North Africa (including Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt),
the Levant (now Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel-Palestine, Iraq, and
Anatolia) - or Persia and Central Asia until the ** 18th ** century. >>>

Bear puzzled:
<<< But they quickly adopted, maize, chili peppers, and squash, which leaves me
wondering why those items and why not others? >>>

My comments are based on what i've read in books and essays by modern 
Turkish and European scholars and writers on food, cuisine, and 
dining culture (including an essay on McDonald's vs. traditional 
"fast" food).

I guess it depended on when the plant arrived. I know chilis and 
squashes entered pretty early. When was maize adopted? Since what 
i've read tends to focus on courtly and on urban food, there's little 
mention of maize It doesn't feature much in urban food of the 
"better" classes.

I know from reading it was more often eaten by the less well off - i 
am guessing it also had to do with the local environment.

In Indonesia, there is wet rice cultivation on Java and Bali and most 
of Sumatra. But there is also dry rice cultivation as one goes east 
of the Wallace line and also much use of maize.

So i'm guessing that in more arid regions of Anatolia maize was 
readily adopted... but i'm just guessing.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 18:32:12 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Ottoman Foodstuffs was Plantains: Period for
	Old	World?

<<< My comments are based on what i've read in books and essays by modern 
Turkish and European scholars and writers on food, cuisine, and dining 
culture (including an essay on McDonald's vs. traditional "fast" food).

I guess it depended on when the plant arrived. I know chilis and squashes 
entered pretty early. When was maize adopted? Since what i've read tends 
to focus on courtly and on urban food, there's little mention of maize It 
doesn't feature much in urban food of the "better" classes.

<clipped>> -- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM) >>>

Leonard Fuchs refers to maize as Turkische Ko:rn in his herbal around 1543, 
but the best evidence is from Leonard Rauwolf who traveled between Tripoli 
and Baghdad in 1573-75.  Along the Euphrates, Rauwolf observed, "Indian 
millet (maize) six, seven or eight cubits high."

Bear 


Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 15:09:33 -0400
From: Ginny Beatty <ginbeatty at gmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The truth about Green Beans Savory in
	Meridies

For said bean, I found a reference to a woodcut in Fuchs, as discussed
here on Clifford Wright's site.

http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/6/id/5/
"The earliest depiction of a New World bean in Europe is thought to be
the woodcut in the herbal published by Leonhart Fuchs in 1543. "

Gwyneth


Date: Fri, 4 Sep 2009 00:50:53 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The truth about Green Beans Savory in
	Meridies

The particular entry in Fuchs is that of Smilax hortensis or Welsch Bonen. 
As this text was published in Basil, "Welsch Bonen" probably takes the Swiss 
translation of "French Bean" AKA P. vulgaris.  If you want to view the wood 
cut try here, http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/fuchs/406-7.gif .

Leonard Fuchs's Herbal is extremely important because it contains the first 
appearance of a number of plants from the New World.  That being said, keep 
in mind that the appearance of a plant in an herbal doesn't mean it's being 
used culinarily, just that someone somewhere has a sample.  In the case of 
green beans, they were probably in limited use before Fuchs was published. 
There is a record of New World beans being given to the Pope in 1528 and an 
apochryphal tale of them coming to France with Catherine de Medici.

Bear

<<< 
Hmm...
I am serving green beans this weekend at Harvest Day/Tournament of
Chivarly- without cheese, though, just a side of bacon vinaigrette.
Cheese is more expensive than meat. Bacon's been very popular in the
Midrealm lately, to the point of evoking battle cries of "Baco
Invictus!"

For said bean, I found a reference to a woodcut in Fuchs, as discussed
here on Clifford Wright's site.

http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/topic_id/6/id/5/
"The earliest depiction of a New World bean in Europe is thought to be
the woodcut in the herbal published by Leonhart Fuchs in 1543. "

Gwyneth >>>


Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:10:19 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Villa Farnesina Art

While answering the other post earlier today, I came across this article
on the Villa Farnesina and paintings there of maize and squashes.

http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/agricultures/past/fall2008/Features/Feature%205.html

 The first European images of maize can be found in Rome on ornate  
ceilings in the Villa Farnesina, created between 1515 and 1518 by  
Italian painter and architect Giovanni da Udina. The same ceiling  
shows a mixture of cucurbits such as melon, bottle gourd, watermelon  
and cucumber from the Old World as well as squash and gourds unique to  
the New World.

The villa is preserved as part of Rome's rich architectural and  
artistic history, but to Jules Janick, a Purdue University  
horticulture researcher for more than 50 years, it's part of an  
agricultural timeline. A plant geneticist and breeder, Janick has long  
been interested in horticulture history. He's dedicated the latter  
part of his distinguished career to piecing together the history of  
horticulture crops through antiquities from the art world.

-------------

There is an academic paper on the subject.

The abstract is here. In part it reads:

 The Cucurbit Images (1515?1518) of the Villa Farnesina, Rome

JULES JANICK and HARRY S. PARIS
? Background The gorgeous frescoes organized by the master Renaissance  
painter Raphael Sanzio (1483?1520) and illustrating the heavenly  
adventures of Cupid and Psyche were painted between 1515 and 1518 to  
decorate the Roman villa (now known as the Villa Farnesina) of the  
wealthy Sienese banker Agostino Chigi (1466?1520). Surrounding these  
paintings are festoons of fruits, vegetables and flowers painted by  
Giovanni Martini da Udine (1487?1564), which include over 170 species  
of plants. A deconstruction and collation of the cucurbit images in  
the festoons makes it possible to evaluate the genetic diversity of  
cucurbits in Renaissance Italy 500 years ago.

? Findings The festoons contain six species of Old World cucurbits,  
Citrullus lanatus (watermelon), Cucumis melo (melon), Cucumis sativus  
(cucumber), Ecballium elaterium (squirting cucumber), Lagenaria  
siceraria (bottle gourd) and Momordica balsamina (balsam apple), and  
two or three species of New World cucurbits, Cucurbita maxima, C. pepo  
and, perhaps, C. moschata (pumpkin, squash, gourd). The images of C.  
maxima are the first illustrations of this species in Europe.

http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/2/165

Johnnae


Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:08:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com>
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Squash was Re:Helewyse's latest feast

David/Cariadoc wrote: 
Looks pretty unambiguous to me--yellow flowers. New World squash.

Thanks. Also for the descriptions of how to cook them.

Does this make squash the only New World food for which we have not 
merely evidence that someone, somewhere in Europe, cooked and ate it 
before 1600, but evidence that it was a reasonably familiar 
ingredient with a good deal of information on what was done with it? 
I don't think tomatoes or potatoes satisfy that--what about Turkey? 
Capsicums?
--------------

This is pretty much the class I taught, I believe, two or three pennsics ago.  New World Foods in Old World menus.  It started with trying to verify the section in Massimo Montanaris book, Italian cuisine a cultural history, that stated that recipes for the new world foods, maize, beans, squash and turkey, were contained in Scappi.  Very much like the squash example I gave you I sought information from at least three independent sources for each food, including obscure academic Italian books.  I sumarized the evidence for each and gave at least one of the recipes.  The presence of these foods was in all cases additionally confirmed by the depiction of them in art work of the time.  I ended up with a lot of research, and came to the conclusion (much as the eminent Italian food scholars themselves had done) that indeed these foods, more so the beans, squash and turkey, were quickly and seamlessly incorporated into Italian cuisine remarkably quickly.  The corn a little less so, with little/no evidence for chilis/tomatoes and potatoes.

I ended up using a modern crop science research paper to go some way to explain the rapid spread of these foods.  
According to horticulturists the success of new crops depends on several factors, some of these were as relevant in the 16th century as they are today [1]. These include:

a. Do they grow in the new agro climate? I.e. crops requiring the same temperature, humidity and photo period will do better in the same areas (tropical plants do not grow in arctic climes). The higher the genetic diversity in the introduced plants the more likely a "fit" will be found.
b. Easy adaptation to the cultural practices common in the main crops of the new region. It is easier to grow a plant if you can use the same system you are using currently.
c. Prolonged production and supply periods - a crop that fruits or yields for an extended period of time will be preferred over one which has a short few weeks of production.
d. Resistance to transport and handling, and extended post harvest life - can you get it to market in one piece
e. Can it be sold through existing marketing channels
f. Attractive to consumers, suitable taste for consumers - do they want it
g. Easy to consume or prepare - can they cook it in familiar ways?
Prohens, J., A. Rodriguez-Burruezo, and F. Nuez, New crops: an alternative for the development of horticulture. Food, Agriculture & Environment, 2003. 1(1): p. 75-79.

Once you start fitting the various crops into this list you can see why some crops/animals (e.g. beans) fit right into the existing system.  The answer was in the positive for all of them.  And why some crops (e.g. tomatoes) really didn't.  
I really recommend that you read the article it is in the florilegium and also on my web page (www.geocities.com/helewyse/newworld.pdf )
I spent a lot of time pulling the research for it and am relatively certain that formentone (large wheat) listed in scappi is maize not einkorn (as scully has it translated) but that is based on one single Italian academic source which gives all the names used for maize in Italy (and there are lots of them).  
If you search google books I discorsi di M. Pietro Andrea Matthioli is now there, page 417 has a great picture of formento indiana (or indian wheat), along with a full description of how it is planted, harvested and made use of.  In the same book, for contrast, is the first mention of the tomato, which gets a whole two lines in the two page section on eggplant (pg 1135-6).
At the bottom of my article is also a list of suggested art works to look up for images from about 1540 onwards, some from Italy others from Flemish artists.  All of which show accurate pictures of new world crops.

I make pains to point out in the article that the proofs I gathered are strictly for late 16th century Italian peninsula and that for other countries and time points people will have to do their own research.  What was true in Italy may not hold true for Germany, France or any other country. 

Helewyse


Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:45:53 -0400
From: Sharon Palmer <ranvaig at columbus.rr.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Squash was Re:Helewyse's latest feast

<<< Does this make squash the only New World food for which we have not 
merely evidence that someone, somewhere in Europe, cooked and ate it 
before 1600, but evidence that it was a reasonably familiar 
ingredient with a good deal of information on what was done with it? 
I don't think tomatoes or potatoes satisfy that--what about Turkey? 
Capsicums?
--
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com >>>

Rumpolt's Ein New Kochbuch is very late period, 1581, but has 
multiple menu listings and 21 recipes for "Indianischen Hanen", 
including a picture, so there is no question what bird was meant. 
It's listed at least once on most of the Fleichtag menus for each 
level from Emperor to Lords.

There are also two menu listings and 4 recipes for "Indianishen 
Schwein", "Indianische Schweinlein" or "Indianische Fercklein", 
perhaps guinea pig.

Recipes for "Meerschwein", modernly translated as guinea pig, but the 
picture appears to be a porcupine.

And two menu listings for "Indianische Bonen", presumably new world 
beans.  I'd guess that shell beans were meant not green beans.  One 
doesn't give any indication how to cook them, one says cooked, in a 
salad.

There are also recipes for Ostrich, which is native to Africa.

All of these apparently familiar enough that Rumpolt had no need to 
explain what was meant, and have no more and no less detail than 
other foods.  There may be still other recipes in sections I haven't 
transcribed yet.

Dr Gloning said he had finished transcribing Rumpolt over a year ago, 
but the remaining sections are not on his website yet, so I've 
resumed transcribing sections that I want to translate.

Ranvaig


Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:39:34 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Squash was Re:Helewyse's latest feast

<<< There are also two menu listings and 4 recipes for "Indianishen Schwein", 
"Indianische Schweinlein" or "Indianische Fercklein", perhaps guinea pig.

Recipes for "Meerschwein", modernly translated as guinea pig, but the 
picture appears to be a porcupine.

Ranvaig >>>

Modernly, porcupine is das Stachelschwein.

Ferkelein refers to a small suckling pig.  Ferkelmaus is a common zoological 
name for guinea pig.  As a guess, I would say it is likely "Indianische 
Ferklein" is a reference to guinea pig.

Bear 


From: Craig Daniel <teucer at pobox.com>
Date: December 12, 2009 8:00:38 AM CST
To: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Subject: Re: documentation for cactus pears

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 3:18 AM, Stefan li Rous
<StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
<<< Greetings Jaume,

I would like to see your documentation for cactus pears. As you may have
noticed, I have lots of unusual items in the Florilegium. Is this for cactus
pears in the New World or Old? >>>

New, I'm afraid - but it comes with instructions for preparing them.
The source is Naufragios (Shipwrecks), by Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca;
it's his account of Panfilo de Narvaez's failed attempt to found a
colony in the new world. The expedition began in 1528, landing in
Florida just north of Tampa. They then followed the gulf coast until a
hurricane stranded them at Galveston, Texas, after which the four
survivors (including Cabeza de Vaca) travelled across the continent,
down the western coast of Mexico, and east again to Sinaloa, where
they finally met other Spaniards who returned them to Spain in 1537.
His account of the journey was published in 1542.

There's a full translation online at
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/cdv/rel.htm, or, if you read Spanish,
the original is on Wikisource at
http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Naufragios.

Some quotes relating to food:

"They warned me that if the Indians suspected my intention of going on
they would murder me; to succeed, we would have to lie quiet until the
end of six months, when these Indians would migrate to another part of
the country for their season of picking prickly pears. People from
parts farther on would be bringing bows to barter and, after making
our escape, we could accompany them on their return. Consenting to
this counsel, I stayed.

The prickly pear is the size of a hen's egg, bright red and black in
color, and good-tasting. The natives live solely on it three months of
the year."

"They are a merry people, considering the hunger they suffer. They
never skip their fiestas and areitos. To them the happiest time of
year is the season of eating prickly pears. They go in no want then
and pass the whole time dancing and eating, day and night. They
squeeze out the juice of the prickly pears, then open and set them to
dry. The dried fruit, something like figs, is put in hampers to be
eaten on the way back. The peel is beaten to powder.

Many times while we were among this people and there was nothing to
eat for three or four days, they would try to revive our spirits by
telling us not to be sad; soon there would be prickly pears in plenty;
we would drink the juice, our bellies would get big, and we would be
content. From the first talk like this we heard to the first ripening
of the prickly pears was an interval of five or six months. This
period having lapsed and the season come, we went to eat the fruit."

"The thirst we had all the while we ate the pears, we quenched with
their juice. We caught it in a hole we hollowed out in the ground.
When the hole was full, we drank until slaked. The juice is sweet and
must-colored. The Indians collect it like this for lack of vessels.
There are many kinds of prickly pear, some very good; they all seemed
so to me, hunger never leaving me the leisure to discriminate."

"The very evening of our arrival, some Indians came to Castillo
begging him to cure them of terrible headaches. When he had made the
sign of the cross over them and commended them to God, they instantly
said that all pain had vanished and went to their houses to get us
prickly pears and chunks of venison, something we had tasted of
precious little."

"Rain caught us. We traveled the day in the wet and got lost. At last,
we made for an extensive scrub wood stretch, where we stopped and
pulled prickly pear pads, which we cooked overnight in a hot oven we
made. By morning they were ready." (Note that this one's about the
leaves of the cactus, eaten as a vegetable in parts of Mexico, rather
than the fruit; the Spanish text says "hojas de tunas.")

"We stayed in that place overnight. In the morning the Indians brought
us their sick, beseeching our blessing. They shared with us what they
had to eat--prickly pear pads and the green fruit roasted. Because
they did this with kindness and good will, gladly foregoing food to
give us some, we tarried here several days."

"They eat prickly pears and pine nuts; for small pine trees grow in
that region with egg-shaped cones whose nuts are better than those of
Castile because of their thin husks. The nuts are beaten into balls
while still green and so eaten; if the nuts are dry, they are pounded
with the husks and consumed as meal." (This occurs in New Mexico,
where the local species of pine is known as the "nut pine" precisely
because of these good nuts.)

- Jaume


Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:38:16 +0200
From: Ana Vald?s <agora158 at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Columbus and salt

By the way, a charming and well written book about Columbus and the impacts
of his trips in the diet of the whole world.

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Eat-What-Columbus/dp/0671797913

I am not able to judge the accuracy of his sources but the book is
entertaining.
Ana


Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 09:24:30 -0600
From: Jennifer Carlson <talana1 at hotmail.com>
To: Cooks list <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Large birds for feasts

I wonder what the time lag is between a food item's introduction and it's first recorded recipe.  Columbus observed turkeys on his 1502 voyage.  In 1511 King Ferdinand of Spain ordered every ship returning from the Indies to bring five male and five female turkeys, presumably for breeding stock.  There are records of prominent churchmen sending the birds as gifst and keeping private flocks in the 1520s and 30s.

A few years ago the Price Tower in Bartlesville, OK mounted an exhibition of bronzes by Giambologna (1529-1608), and one of the pieces was an amazing turkey.  He'd actually made the bird look noble.  (His boar was pretty amazing, too).  The statue had been commissioned by Cosimo di Medici in 1567, and it was apparently not the first art piece the Medici commissioned of a turkey - they ordered a turkey tapestry in 1545 and a grotto painting earlier than that.

So, you are seeing in correspondence and art the better part of a century of turkeys in Spain and Italy, but the first recipe appeared when?  And for how long after their introduction, some time between 1502 and 1522, were they novelty items and a luxury food before there were enough birds for a wider dissemination?  How long before cooks got enough experience working with turkeys to figure out the best ways to prepare, season, and serve them?

Just pondering,

Talana


Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 05:18:35 -0400
From: "Jim and Andi Houston" <jimandandi at cox.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Spirit of the Earth by Beverly Cox

Just in case there are any others out there doing research on pre-Columbian
New World cuisine, do not bother reading Spirit of the Earth: Native Cooking
from Latin America by Beverly Cox (ISBN 1584790245). The author gives much
lip service to Sophie Coe and then spits on her research by including Old
World ingredients in EVERY SINGLE RECIPE. This book should not even be used
as a tertiary source in artsci projects, it's too misleading. I'm working on
a pre-contact Mayan feast for November and I had such high hopes when I
found this book, only to have them dashed. I am just disgusted.

Madhavi
Trimaris


Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:13:53 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spirit of the Earth by Beverly Cox

I would say the comments are facetious rather than sarcastic.

You're thinking of the Mayan codices of which there are three legible that 
are known to exist.  There is a fourth which may be a good forgery.  A 
handful from gravesites that may or may not be preseved and made readable. 
And many forgeries.  None, to my knowledge, have any recipes.  Most of what 
we know about native cuisine comes from European texts written in 16th 
Century.

Sopie Coe's work in culinary historical anthropology mixes historical 
description, archeological information, and anthropological study of region 
to produce a very rational and thorough examination of the culinary 
practices of the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incans.  She was a professor of 
anthropology and a translator (from Russian) of at least one text on the 
Mayan language.  Her husband Michael is an eminent archeologist of 
Pre-Columbian societies.  Her book, America's First Cuisines, is a superior 
example of the work you are describing.

I think I'll go with Coe rather than Cox for pre-Columbian historical 
cooking.

Bear

<<< Can't tell if this is sarcasm. Pre- Colombus generally refers to the
Americas unless otherwise specified to be different. Pre Colombus in the
Americas you probably won't find recipes, though I do recall some
texts/manuscripts in Mayan that had some sort of recipes but i think it is
medical. You pretty much have through archeology the regional veggies and
critters with type of cooking. Then a comparison of current home cuisine 
and cooking traditions, influence(Spanish -Central and South Amer. and
Spanish,French, Dutch, and English for N.Amer.) and what is found through
archeology which gets you a possible basis for an very old recipe. It 
isn't very exact. >>>


Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 18:06:19 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Peanuts are New World?

On Oct 14, 2013, at 4:56 PM, Stefan li Rous wrote:
Cariadoc posted on the SCA FB group, where there is some discussion of Old World/New World foods and the demo game:
<<< Peanuts are from the New World. Some early sources thought they were African, but apparently that's because the Portuguese introduced them to West Africa early and they caught on. >>>

I thought myself, from discussion here I thought, that peanuts came from Africa with the black slaves.
=========

"PEANUTS
(Arachis hypogaea), also widely called "groundnuts," originated between southern Bolivia and northern Argentina. In pre-Columbian times, they were found throughout Brazil, Peru, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Early in the sixteenth century, European explorers transported them to Africa and Asia. From the beginning, peanuts were ground into paste and used as a flavoring in soups, stews, and other dishes.
Through the slave trade, peanuts were introduced into the British North American colonies. Slaves grew peanuts in their gardens and introduced them into mainstream cookery. Hand-ground peanuts appeared as an ingredient in American recipes by the 1830s."

See: Smith, Andrew F. Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.

SOURCE:
Smith, Andrew F. "Peanut Butter." Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. Ed. Solomon H. Katz. Vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003. 56-57. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

Johnnae


Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 17:39:13 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Peanuts are New World?

This has popped up several times over the years so I'm surprised you don't 
have any of the discussions in the Florilegium.

Arachis hypogea is a New World plant originating somewhere in central South 
America (Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia have all been mentioned). 
Peanuts have been eaten for at least 8,000 years with the earliest specimens 
appearing in Peruvian archeological sites.  Cultivation in South and Central 
America appears to have been widespread, so they may have entered the 
Columbian exchange early on.

They appear to been brought to Africa and Asia by the Portuguese and were 
probably food in the slave trade by 1560.  The first African slaves in 
English North America were sold in Jamestown in 1619, but prior to 1700, 
there were only about 20,000 African slaves in the colonies.  The peanut 
probably arrived in North America from Africa in the 18th Century with the 
massive influx of slaves for the Southern plantations.

Peanuts were likely quickly added to the African diet because they are very 
similar to the Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) and the Hausa groundnut 
(Macrotyloma geocarpum).

Bear


Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:55:32 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Peanuts are New World?

I'm partial to Bermejo and Leon, Neglected Crops 1492 from a Different 
Perspective http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0646e/t0646e00.HTM#Contents .

Bear

----- Original Message ----- 
There is a book I love: "Why We Eat what We Eat: How the Encounter Between
the New World and the Old Changed the Way Everyone on the Planet Eats" by
Raymond Solokov. A very complete register of New World food.
Ana

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	fd-New-World-msg	26 of 26