carrots-msg - 10/21/14

Medieval and period carrots.

NOTE: See also the files: root-veg-msg, turnips-msg, vegetables-msg, potatoes-msg, beets-msg, raw-fruit-vg-msg, salads-msg, pickled-foods-msg, soup-msg.

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    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 11:54:02 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: SC - Carrots

<< I was taught that Queen Anne's Lace was poisonous.  Of course, I never
checked it out -- not being a cat ;-> >>

The one you want is> Daucus carota (The cultivated carrot is D. carota var.
sativa). The Field Book of Natural History, pg. 268 says: Native of Asia, but
naturalized from Europe. Now commonly established as a weed in fields,
pastures, and waste places. Found from coast to coast in N. America but may
be commoner in the East.  25 species in genus. FROM THIS SPECIES HAS BEEN
DEVELOPED THE VALUABLE CULTIVATED CARROT.

There is reference to the remote possibility that handling the leaves MAY
cause dermititis in some people. This warning is also included in the
reference to cultivated carrots. No mention is made of it being poisonous but
like any other wild plant you should be familiar with it before you eat it.
:-) After all there is an extremely remote possibility that you may confuse
it with Poison Hemlock. However, since the growing environment are very
dissimilar the odds are you would not mistake it. Also they are very
different in appearance so far as root structure, flowers, and leaves are
concerned.

Lord Ras


From: nweders at mail.utexas.edu (Nancy Wederstrandt)
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 11:37:12 -0600
Subject: Re: SC - Carrots

Concerning wild carrots:  I think caution is somewhat advised.  Many of the
the wild relatives of the carrot are edible, but bear a very close look to
the more poisonous kin.  Lord Ras is correct in that be sure before you
eat.  Most of the poisonous relatives of the wild carrot are nasty
smelling, and usually have purplish blotches on the stalks.  Here in
Ansteorra, wild carrot, wild parsley and hemlock can grow near enough to
each other to be confusing.  Also here are vast quantities of wild onion,
which have a companion plant called crow bane that looks very similar.  The
key is the smell.  I was fortunate enough to mundanely worked with a man
who wild plant foraged and learned a great deal about them.(He used to be
Society Master of Sciences early one)  He often ate things that I
personally wouldn't but were edible.  We rapidly had three lists of
plants... inedible, edible and gwilym edible.  His name in the SCA was
Master Gwilym the Smith.

Clare RSJ


Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 15:24:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - help-Queen Ann's Lace

Brid wrote:
> > << I thought Queen Ann's Lace was poisonous?

Ras replied:
> > Say what? Queen's Anne Lace is the wild carrot. If you take the seed palnt
> > it, grow it, dig it up and pick put the biggest roots, replant it, plant the
> > next years seed  and repeat the process for at least 3-5 years you will have
> > in your garden a 'period' white or red carrot. :-)

Ciorstan continued: 
> This, Lord Ras, is true-- however it is very easy for the new scavenger 
> to mistake hemlock for Queen Anne's Lace out in the wild, with very 
> unhappy results.
> 
> If memory serves, there's also a water parsnip variety (remember the 
> thread on skirrets a while back?) that is highly toxic as well.

From my old, scorched, stained copy of _Peterson's Field Guide
to Edible Wild Plants_:

Wild carrot, Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
A widespread _hairy-stemmed_ biennial.  Flower clusters flat-topped,
lacy; often with a singule _purple_ flower in center.  Old clusters
resemble _birds' nests_.  Bracts _stiff, 3-forked_.  Root white, smells
of carrot.  2-3 ft.... Prepare the first-year roots like garden
carrots.  CAUTION:  Early leaves resemble Poison Hemlock (below) but
stalks _hairy_.

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)
A tall, much-branched biennial.  Stems stout, hollow, grooved, _spotted
with purple_.  Ill-scented when bruised, unpleasant to taste.  Root
white, carrotlike.  2-6 ft.... WARNING: small amounts may cause
paralysis and death.  Similar to Wild Carrot (above) but leafstalks
_hairless_.

Water-hemlock, Spotted Cowbane (Cicuta maculata)
Tall, branching, with numerous flower clusters.  Stem smooth, _streaked
with purple_, chambered.  Leaves twice- or thrice-compound, often
reddish-tinged.  Root with fat tuberlike branches, white.  3-6 ft....
WARNING: Our deadliest species.  A single mouthful can kill.

Water parsnip (Sium sauve)
Similar to Water-hemlock (above), but stems _strongly ridged_ and leaves
_once-compound_ with 3-7 pairs of lance-shaped leaflets.  Basal leaves
very finely cut, often submerged.  Roots slender.  2-6 ft.... USE: roots
as cooked vegetable.  Boil until tender.  CAUTION: Because of its close
similarity to Water-hemlock (above), Water-parsnip is best ignored as a
possible food plant.

Does that make everything crystal clear?

					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu


Date: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 17:57:39 -0500
From: dangilsp at intrepid.net (Dan Gillespie)
Subject: Re: SC - Period veges

Elizabeth wrote: " But Menagier de Paris (late 14th c.) describes
                carrots as "red roots that you buy in the market".

When I travelled in India a year ago, the carrots in the market were almost
a true red color, or at least a rather dark very reddish orangey color.
Perhaps Europe in our period might have had a similarly colored variety.

<snip of comments and recipe on eggplant>

                                Take care,
                                        Antoine de Bayonne

Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA


Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 02:36:29 EST
From: DianaFiona <DianaFiona at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - pasternakes

<<
 You mean Dr Zhivago was written by somebody who wasn't sure if he was a
 white or a red?
 > In a message dated 97-12-16 20:46:13 EST, you (Cariadoc I think) write:
 >
 > << pasternakes being a general term for carrots or parsnips, >>
  >>
       (Grin) This reminds me of something I was meaning to mention. While
prowling in one of our bookstores the other day, I ran across a book whose
title was something like "The Kitchen Garden". It was a fairly small and
slender book--the type with a few recipes and some nice artwork. In this case
most of the art was 1700-1800 c., but there were two paintings that were late
1500s. Both of them were by painter's with Dutch sounding names. Anyway, there
were carrots in with the many other foodstuffs in both paintings. *Orange*
carrots! And, no, it wasn't just the reproduction, since in one of the
paintings there were other carrots that were very definitely red. So evidently
orange carrots *were* around, at least in the late 1500's. The info on the
artwork was unfortunately confined to the name of the paintings, and the
artist's name and born/died dates, so where the paintings were done isn't
available. :-(
        I may have to go back and get that book later, after the Christmas
buying is over, just for those paintings!

        Ldy Diana


Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1999 15:58:12 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Fw: carrot pie

And it came to pass on 6 Feb 99,, that Tim & Dee wrote:
> My name is lachlan and I am from Sunderoak in Aethelmarc
> I was wounderin if some good and wise gentle could tell me if carrot pie
> would be period or not?  It is prepared similar to pumpkin pie any info or
> leads where to look or document would be greatly appreciated.

M'lord Lachlan,

The only carrot pie recipe that I know is late period Spanish.
However, it does not greatly resemble a modern pumpkin pie.  Here
is a translation of the recipe; perhaps it will be useful to you.

Torta of Carrot
From: "Libro del Arte de Cozina", 1599

Wash and scrape the carrots, and remove them from the water and
cook them in good meat broth, and being cooked remove them and
chop them small with the knife, adding to them mint and marjoram,
and for each two pounds of chopped carrots [use] a pound of
Trochon cheese and a pound and a half of buttery Pinto cheese,
and six ounces of fresh cheese, and one ounce of ground pepper,
one ounce of cinnamon, two ounces of candied orange peel cut
small, one pound of sugar, eight eggs, three ounces of cow's
butter, and from this composition make a torta with puff pastry*
above and below, and the tortillon [pie pan?] with puff pastry all
around, and make it cook in the oven, making the crust of sugar,
cinnamon, and rosewater.  In this manner you can make tortas of
all sorts of roots, such as that of parsley, having taken the core out
of them.

*The word used here for pastry, "ojaldre" ("hojaladre" in the modern
spelling) means puff pastry according to my modern Spanish
dictionary, and the etymology of the word (from hoja, "leaf") would
seem to indicate that it is the period meaning as well.  There is a
recipe for a veal torta in the same cookbook which calls for the
same kind of pastry, and gives instructions for making it:

To Make Puff Pastry Pies of Veal Neck

Take wheat flour and knead it with egg yolks, tepid water, salt, and
a little bit of pork lard, and make it in such a manner that the dough
is more soft than hard, and pummel it very well on a table, and
make a thin torta, but swiftly, longer than wide and anoint all of it
with melted lard which is not very hot and begin to roll up the
narrow part, and make a roll the thickness of an arm which will
come to be solid, in such a manner that it can be cut, then cut a
round slice two fingers in thickness, and have separately another
firm dough well kneaded, made from wheat flour, egg yolks, water,
and salt without lard, and make of it a pie bottom which is of the
bigness of the pastry, and put in it a mixture made as in the
preceeding chapter [ie., the veal filling from the previous recipe],
keeping the same order to make the mixture high and pyramid-
shaped, because the cover that you make is of the same paste, in
cooking it can better become puffed [literally, "leafed"], and before
you put it in the oven anoint the pie with melted lard, which is cold
and not hot, because it clings better to the paste, and then put it in
the oven, which must be well swept, and clean, and level, and
moderately hot, and especially the upper part, so that the said puff
pastry can better puff, and as it begins to puff, anoint it with lard
with a feather fastened to a small cane without removing it from the
oven, which you will do two or three times, and being cooked you
must serve it hot dusted on top with sugar, and if you wish you can
put the broth which we have said in the previous chapter.  And be
aware that if the ceiling of the oven is low, that will be better,
because all the puff pastries want the fire hotter above than below.
Which you must beware of in the other pies with puff pastry.

The recipe then goes on to discuss an alternate (and inferior)
dough which is used in Rome, and other fillings that can be used
with this pastry.

Note that while the veal pie has puff pastry only on the top crust,
the carrot torta calls for puff pastry in the top *and* bottom crusts.
The "crust" of sugar, cinnamon, and rosewater I would interpret as
a sweet topping for the upper crust.  I haven't tried this myself, but
it sounds tasty, and with the quantities given, it shouldn't be too
hard to redact.  Remember that medieval eggs would be smaller.  If
you're not a pastry-baker, ready-made puff pastry can be found in
the frozen foods section of your local grocer.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 01:32:57 -0500
From: LYN M PARKINSON <allilyn at juno.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Questions about Archives and Carrots

>>. The orange carrot is a relatively modern invention.<<

There are late period paintings of big, fat, orange carrots.  I've never
seen a maroon one, though.  Check the beautiful paintings reproduced in
Castelvetro for a look at 16th and 17th C fruits and veggies.

Allison
allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA
Kingdom of Aethelmearc


Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 21:45:27 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Last Unanswered Buffet

And it came to pass on 17 Nov 99,, that Michael F. Gunter wrote:

> Cariota
> Roasted Carrots
>
> Roast carrots in the coals, then peel them, cleaning off the ashes, and
> cut them up.
[snip]
> The recipe listed in the book:
[snip]
> Scrub and scrape carrots, and brush lightly with oil. Either
> roast ine a 400 degree oven or arrange in one layer in a
> suitable dish for microwaving and microwave at full power,
> uncovered, 15 minutes. Slice into a serving dish and dress with
> minced herbs, oil, vinegar, wine, and salt and pepper to taste.

For what it's worth... De Villena, in _Arte de Cortar_ (1423 carving
manual) gives instructions for cutting various fruits and root vegetables,
as well as meats.  He says that roasted carrots should be cut into
quarters.  If they are particularly long, then each quarter may be cut into
two or three pieces.  Of course, Italian practice may have been different
than the Spanish.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 08:58:09 -0600
From: dhumberson at imailbox.com
Subject: RE:sca-cooks V1 #1808 - Re: SC - Late Fall/Early Winter Vegetables

Anahita al-shazhiya wrote:
>thought i'd ask experienced feast planners what late fall/early
>winter vegetables you've served and people have actually eaten :-)

The top 'seller' for Rowan and I has always been a glazed baby carrot dish known here as 'Rowan's Carrots'.  It is very rich, using a pound of butter per pound of brown sugar per eight pounds of soft-steamed baby carrots, and is also a complete pain to make.

To glaze properly, boil equal parts butter and sugar in a flat pan with about a teaspoon of water.
Add whatever hot spices your guests will tolerate( we started with ginger, are now using a ginger/galingale mix with a hint of white pepper).
The boiling mix will foam, up to three inches or so, which indicates the mix is ready for the carrots.
Add 1/4 of the total carrots for this batch, stir until the mix foams again, then transfer those carrots to a holding pan and repeat for the other 3 lots.  Be careful to fully heat the glaze mix between lots, if it's not foaming vigorously the carrots will sog.
After the 4th lot, mix all carrots in holding pan( we use steam table pans), bring the remaining glaze to a boil one more time, and coat the carrots with the mix.  Cover the holding pan, maintain at 160 degrees, and hold until served.
Garnish with a mint sprig and slice of the ginger used to make the syrup( if the cooks have left any).
We serve 16-24 oz per table of 8, and rarely get any back.

Ragnar


Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 10:47:57 -0500
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: SC - Carrots and Turnips-Period?

> Carrots are referred to rather infrequently in the known medieval
> European recipe corpus, but they did exist, if a bit closer 
> to a parsnip than a modern carrot.
> 
> Adamantius

The first reference to the orange carrot appears in the 12th Century and the
carrots I've found in 16th Century paintings are orange.  Orange carrots
were very likely the norm by the late Middle Ages.

In Antiquity, European carrots appear to have been white like parsnips and
indeed the Latin word for carrots and parsnips is the same.  Later authors,
writing in Latin add to the confusion by not differentiating.

Bear


Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2000 16:04:33 -0500
From: harper at idt.net
Subject: Re: SC - Confession is good for the soul

And it came to pass on 3 Nov 00, , that Jenne Heise wrote:
> Raw veggies: turnips, celery, and carrots. (Raw carrot eating appears to
> be unperiod, but I have references which may be to eating celery and
> turnips raw as snacks)
>  -- 
> Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net

Permit me to offer a period reference to raw carrot eating:

Enrique de Villena, _Arte Cisoria_ (The Art of Carving)
Spanish, 1423
(my translation)

The carrots, when eaten raw, are to be well cleaned of the dirt and 
the thin hairs that they have, scraped with the knife that cuts them; 
then remove their leaves with all of the green and cut it them into 
four parts, removing the core from each part, if they are thick and 
will allow it; [do] that upon serving them; and if they are long, divide 
each quarter in two or three parts; and if they are thin, there is very 
little core in them and know that you can eat everything together.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)


From: "Michael Gunter" <countgunthar at hotmail.com>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: RE [Sca-cooks] Royal Buffet post-mortem
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 15:31:43 -0500

>It all sounds delicious!
>Where was the roasted carrot salad from again?
>
>Lucrezia

Most of the dishes were from Pleyn Delit.
The carrot salad is called "Carrots Roste".
The carrots were roasted and dressed with
herbs (parsley, dill, thyme) and wine vinegar.
Salt and pepper and a bit of ginger (I believe)
and some olive oil.

The carrots were roasted al dente and tasted
very fresh and summery.

Gunthar


Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:11:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ruth Frey <ruthf at uidaho.edu>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] "Carrots Roste"

        Gunthar wrote:
> Most of the dishes were from Pleyn Delit.
> The carrot salad is called "Carrots Roste".
> The carrots were roasted and dressed with
> herbs (parsley, dill, thyme) and wine vinegar.
> Salt and pepper and a bit of ginger (I believe)
> and some olive oil.
>
> The carrots were roasted al dente and tasted
> very fresh and summery.

        We used this recipe as a feast dish for
Northrealms Banner War, and it worked quite well.
We originally used 1/2 parsley and 1/2 tarragon
for the herbs (not specified in the original),
which made a tasty test batch; however, the
weekend of the War, there was no fresh tarragon
to be had anywhere in town!  We went with 1/2
parsley and 1/2 thyme, and that worked, too.
To save time at a large event, we used pre-
packaged "baby carrots", which worked beautifully,
though I recall that the book tells you *not*
to use them, for some reason (we decided to live
dangerously and give 'em a try anyway).

        As has been noted by others, carrots
seem unpopular at feasts -- we had lots of this
dish left over at the end.  However, since it was
a 3-day event, we recycled them in a "leftover
stew" for dinner the next night, where they
provided extra flavor, and nobody had any
objections to them at all (they didn't even
need to be cut into smaller pieces!  I love
modern conveniences sometimes . . . .

        FWIW, I really like this method of
preparing carrots.  If they're cooked to just
a crisp-tender consistency, they're much nicer
than the average run of cooked root veggies.

        -- Ruth


From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
To: "'sca-cooks at ansteorra.org'" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Period food myths
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 09:54:18 -0500

Unfortunately, reality is quite a bit more complex than that.  There are six
colors of carrot known to precede the orange, white, yellow, purple, red,
green and black.

White carrots are the original carrot of Europe.  Purple (or possibly black)
carrots are from Asia.  Yellow carrots are a hybrid, possibly natural, which
are first noted in Asia Minor (Byzantine Turkey) in the 10th Century.  There
is some speculation that white, yellow and purple carrots have been eaten in
Asia Minor since prehistory.

The Asiatic carrots are introduced into Europe through Spain.  A manuscript
by a 12th Century Moor describes two types of carrots, red (which may have
been purple) and a green shading into yellow.  The red was the better
eating, according to the correspondent.  The first European reference to
carrots as other than white is in the late 11th Century.

The orange carrot is a hybrid obtained by crossing yellow and red carrots.
Most of this hybridization was done by the Dutch and the Flemish.  Orange
carrots appear in at least one late 16th Century Dutch painting (placing the
orange carrot arguably within period), but a formal written description of
the orange varietals does not appear until the 17th Century.  The Dutch
hybrids are where most of our modern carrots come from, as the Dutch were
hybridizing for better taste and texture.

Interestingly, you may find purple carrots at the grocery.  If you do, the
are probably not the purple carrot of Antiquity, but hybrids from a breeding
project by Leonard Pike of Texas A&M.

Bear


From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Carrots was [Sca-cooks] Period squash
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 20:51:12 -0600

>I was especially interested in the orange carrots.
>
>Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann

Red and purple carrots which are believed to originate in Afghanistan were
brought into the Mediterranean basin from Central Asia by the Islamic
expansion.

Yellow carrots are first noticed in Asia Minor during the 10th Century.
Yellow carrots are a mutation of the red and purple carrots and lack the
anthocyanins which produce the red and purple colors.  Red and yellow
carrots are recorded in 12th Century Andalusia.

The Asiatic carrots probably entered Christian Europe between the 10th and
11th Centuries and had largely replaced white carrots in northwestern Europe
by the 13th Century.  They are known to have been introduced into England by
the Flemings in the 14th Century.

In the 16th Century, Flemish hybridizers while trying to produce larger,
firmer, better tasting carrots bred yellow and red carrots together
modifying the anthcyanins to produce an orange color.  Our modern carrots
come from about five breeding lines of Flemish orange carrot.  These were
formally described in the 17th Century.

Because Buecklaer is a Flemish artist, you get orange carrots in his
late-16th Century paintings.

Bear


Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 19:08:35 +0000
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: sca-cooks at treaclemine.cix.co.uk (Amanda Baker)
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Period carrots

        Because I am fascinated by all purple foods, I've been doing some
research into period carrots.  So my eyebrows shot up when I saw the SCA
Cooks digest from Monday with the following message:

>From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period squash
>
>> > If you go to
>> > http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/b/beuckela/
>> > and look at the vegetable market, you can see some period Flemish
>> > squash.
>> >             Jeffrey Heilveil M.S.
>
>There are other paintings of food interest on the same site.  Among
>them:
>Pieter Aertsen, "Market Woman with Vegetable Stall"
>
>Joachim Beuckelar, "Vegetable Seller", "Market Scene", "Market
>Woman with Fruit, Vegetables, and Poultry", :Woman Selling
>Vegetables"
>
>Caravaggio, "Boy with a Basket of Fruit"
>
>I was especially interested in the orange carrots.

        I immediately pulled down the books, fired up my Web browser and
went hunting.  Now, Alan Davidson in his 'Oxford Companion to Food' states
in the entry on carrots (a) "The first sign of truly orange carrots is
in Dutch paintings of the C17th"; (b) "They [orange carrots] were first
described, also in the Netherlands*, in the C18th; (c) "From contemporary
botanists' descriptions, and in particular from a a paiting ('Christ and the
adulteress', Pieter Aertsen, 1559) it is clear that all these carrots were
pale yellow or purple".  So, I looked at the reproduction of that particular
painting on the Website cited above ... and the carrots looked orange to me.

        My preliminary conclusion is, therefore, that the apparent orange
colour of the carrots illustrated on this Website is only an artifact of the image reproduction technology, since the expert - Alan Davidson - and his sources, who have presumably seen the originals, describe the carrots in 'Christ and the adulteress' as 'pale yellow'.  Colours are notoriously difficult to
judge from reproductions, I believe.

        http://www.cals.wisc.edu/media/news/02_00/carrot_pigment.html
implies that Davidson's analysis is based upon reasonably old research
'About 40 years ago, a Dutch researcher used paintings depicting vegetables to gather historical information about carrots.'  So, has anyone on SCA Cooks seen the _originals_ of any of these paintings, or any more recent further discussion
of whether they depict orange, or pale yellow, roots?

        All the best from Wales,

        Amanda

* BTW, 'Holland' is a district of the country called in English, 'The
Netherlands', a bit like a UK county, a Canadian province or USA state.
Bit like calling the UK, 'England', or Canada, 'Alberta' or the USA,
'Maine', really :-)


Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 19:47:38 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Yellow carrots?
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> I just found a bunch of yellow carrots in the market. Anyone know how
> they are related to the medieval "white" ones?
>
> UlfR

The white ones are the European carrot although it probably originated in
Central Asia.  The reds and purples came out of Central Asia probably about
the time of the Islamic expansion.  The first reference to yellow carrots is
10th or 11th Century from Asia Minor.  The yellow carrot is related to the
red, but with only minimal amounts of the chemical that causes the red
pigmentation.  At least one Andalusian writer considered the yellow 
carrots inferior to the red.

The colored carrots entered Christian Europe from Spain around the 13th
Century.  They are believed to have been introduced into England in the 
15th Century by Dutch refugees.

The orange carrots we eat today are a Dutch hybrid developed in the 16th
Century.  All of our modern orange carrots come from about five strains 
Of Dutch carrots first cataloged in the 17th Century.

Bear


Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 13:22:53 -0400
From: "Sharon Gordon" <gordonse at one.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Siege Cooking Competition: Carrots and
	Competitions
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Stefan asked:
>>>
I wondered about that, too. But if you use the leaves/stems as well as
the roots is it a root vegetable? Are carrot tops even edible? Are
there period recipes which call for these? Perhaps salads?
<<<

***Carrot tops are edible.  They taste somewhat like parsley but stronger.
Some carrot tops are sweet but strong.  Others have a more bitter taste like
they may have been grown in a hot dry area. I have used small amounts of the
sweeter ones in soups.  For people to be able to eat any large amounts of
them, I think some breeders will need to work on getting the flavor milder
and sweeter such as has been done for beet or turnip greens.   At the moment
I can't think of a period recipe for carrot tops.  Here's a modern summary
of info on carrot uses and medical info:

http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Daucus+carota+sativus

<snip>

Sharon


Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 15:01:40 -0800
From: "Rikke D. Giles" <rgiles at centurytel.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The Purple Carrot Returns and then Some
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

William de Grandfort wrote:
> After my original inquiry, I did a little bit of research on the
> history of the carrot...
<snip>
>  A few botanical references indicate that what we know as the modern
> carrot today is a cultivated form of the
> common weed known as Queen Anne's Lace.

Yes, they are the same species as Queen Anne's Lace, Daucus carrota, I
think it is.  I've grown some of the new white, purple, yellow and red
varieties.  White is bitter, pithy and not sweet.  Purple is not very
easy to grow to any large size and not very tasty.  Yellow wasn't too
bad, but not as sweet as orange.  Red was pretty good, very carrot
flavor, best for juicing.  I'm not sure if every variety I've grown
corresponds to those in the picture, so I can't tell if they've made
advances or not.  The above is only my experience; perhaps in other
regions the colorful carrots taste better.

Queen Anne's Lace roots, btw, are white and purple around here.  They
are generally spindly, tough and not very flavorful.

Aelianora de Wintringham


Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 13:12:25 -0600
From: "margaret" <m.p.decker at att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The Purple Carrot Returns and then Some
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Weren't the 'original' carrots dark red?  I seem to recall reading that
> somewhere on this list.
> Or not.
>
> William de Grandfort

Carrots come in a number of colors.  White originates in Europe, dark red
originates in Central Asia.  The purple is an Asiatic carrot probably
hybridized in China.  The modern purple carrot was created by a project in
Texas to breed back to the original form.

Yellow carrots show up in Asia Minor around the 10th Century.  They and red
carrots show up in Andalusia around the 12th Century.  The modern orange
carrot is believed to be hybridized from the red and the yellow in the 16th
Century.  Scientific literature in the 17th Century identifies five orange
strains which are the strains our orange carrots derive from.

Bear


Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 22:40:33 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] The Purple Carrot Returns and then Some
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Queen Anne's Lace is the wild variety of Daucus carota.  It's root is white
and is difficult to differentiate from parsnips, so that it was not formally
identified as a separate plant until the 1st or 2nd Century.  Genus Daucus
is of Eurasian origin.  While the white Queen Anne's Lace became the
standard European carrot (probably in prehistoric times) while colored
carrots developed in various parts of Asia and the Near East.

The Romans probably ate white carrots, but at least one fresco suggests they
may have known about some of the Asiatic carrots.  Unfortunately, I haven't
seen much evidence beyond that.  The first reference to yellow carrots is
from an 10th Century Arab text locating them in Asia Minor.  An Andalusian
text comments on a taste test between yellow and red carrots (probably
brought from Central Asia during the Islamic Expansion).  In taste and
texture, the red was favored.

The Asiatic carrots apparently crossed into Christian Europe from Moorish
Spain in the 13th Century.

The orange carrot is most definitely Dutch.  The orange color is probably an
offshoot of trying to developed a sweeter carrot rather than a deliberate
attempt to make an orange carrot.  Orange carrots appear in late 16th
Century Flemish paintings and the orange varietals being bred in Holland
were recorded in the 17th Century.

BTW, The Dutch introduced the cultivation of colored carrots to England in
the 14th Century.

Bear


Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 07:13:56 -0800 (PST)
From: Huette von Ahrens <ahrenshav at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Carrots in Dutch paintings
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I posted a URL on another list of a painting that had a food scene in it.  Someone commented about the orange carrots, so I looked at more paintings done by Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer and found 14 painting that had carrots of various colors in them.  Some of the white carrots might be turnips.  It is hard for me to tell.

Huette

These have white carrots or perhaps turnips...
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=16236
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21319

These are hard to decide if they are white or orange...
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21617
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21611

These look more orange to me
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21613
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21614
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21618
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21619
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21327
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21318

These have purple, white and orange carrots
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21326
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21325
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21323
http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21330


Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 12:50:29 -0500
From: "Denise Wolff" <scadian at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Carrots in Dutch paintings
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history.html
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history2.html


Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2006 10:49:29 -0800
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Carrots in Dutch paintings
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> I posted a URL on another list of a painting that had a food scene
> in it.  Someone commented
> about the orange carrots, so I looked at more paintings done by
> Pieter Aertsen and Joachim
> Beuckelaer and found 14 painting that had carrots of various colors
> in them.  Some of the
> white carrots might be turnips.  It is hard for me to tell.
>
> Huette
>
> These have white carrots or perhaps turnips...
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=16236

If you mean the two carrots center bottom, lying on the edge of the
basket, I would have described them as orange--just about the color
of modern carrots. Are you seeing something else?
----------

> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21319

To me these are clearly white, and might be parsnips.

> These are hard to decide if they are white or orange...
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21617

bottom right corner? Look pretty orange to me.

> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21611

Bottom center. Hard to decide white or orange, and not entirely clear
that they are carrots, since you can't see much of them.

> These look more orange to me
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21613

Yes.  But no more so than the first ones (16236).

> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21614
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21618
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21619
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21327
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21318
>
> These have purple, white and orange carrots
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21326
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21325
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21323
> http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=21330

Neat.

So I assume your project is:

1. Determine from paintings the nature of all vegetables in Europe in
the 16th century.

2. Repeat for 15th, 14th, ....

3. Produce a vegetable time line, showing when carrots became about
the color of modern  carrots, when cardoons turned into artichokes,
...

Along the way producing an egg time line, showing just what modern
egg size is appropriate for each century, and a weight of chickens of
various sorts, ...  .

Go to it.
--  
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com


Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 06:50:34 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Carrots in Dutch paintings
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

There are records from 17th Century Flanders that show several different
strains of orange carrot from which all of our modern orange carrots appear
to descend.  The paintings show orange carrots in the 16th Century, so we
know they were in Flanders before the written record.  Flemish immigrants
introduced red and yellow carrots into England in the late 14th Century, but
there is no record of orange carrots.  This suggests that the hybridization
of the orange carrot took place in Flanders during the 15th or early 16th
Century and use was probably geographically limited until the 17th  
Century.

Bear


Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:50:43 -0700
From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Carrots, again
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

As the topic of carrots and their colors comes up from time to time,
i thought i'd add what Nasrallah has to say in the glossary section
of "Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens":
(p. 786)
jazar - carrots. Of the cultivated varieties:
1. Red-orange carrot (jazar ahmar) literally, 'red', described as
juicy, tender, and delicious. Poets compare it to carnelian, rubies,
flames of fire, and coral reeds.
2. Yellow carrot (jazar asfar), thicker and denser in texture than
the red (Ibn al-Baytar 164).
3. White carrot (jazar abyad) similar to parsnips, aromatic, and
deliciously sharp in taste. It is also described as having a pleasant
crunch.

Ibn al-Baytar wrote medical manuals in the first half of the 13th  
century.

So maybe the Dutch did not develop orange carrots after all. Perhaps
the cultivar made its way to Western Europe through other methods.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 10:50:43 -0700
From: Lilinah <lilinah at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Carrots, again
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

As the topic of carrots and their colors comes up from time to time,
i thought i'd add what Nasrallah has to say in the glossary section
of "Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens":
(p. 786)
jazar - carrots. Of the cultivated varieties:
1. Red-orange carrot (jazar ahmar) literally, 'red', described as
juicy, tender, and delicious. Poets compare it to carnelian, rubies,
flames of fire, and coral reeds.
2. Yellow carrot (jazar asfar), thicker and denser in texture than
the red (Ibn al-Baytar 164).
3. White carrot (jazar abyad) similar to parsnips, aromatic, and
deliciously sharp in taste. It is also described as having a pleasant
crunch.

Ibn al-Baytar wrote medical manuals in the first half of the 13th  
century.

So maybe the Dutch did not develop orange carrots after all. Perhaps
the cultivar made its way to Western Europe through other methods.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita


To: Authentic_SCA at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Carrots; was: Years covered by SCA
Posted by: "Labhaoise O'Beachain" labhaoise_obeachain at yahoo.com   labhaoise_obeachain
Date: Sun Jan 4, 2009 9:44 am (PST)

Sad but true, there are two purple carrot varieties that are often sold 
in rare/heirloom seed collections, neither of which are true heirlooms. 

The first is Cosmic, which has a purple skin, and that appears to be 
what is in your first picture, it was developed in 2005! Old or not 
they are quite fun.

The second is Dragon which is purple with a golden core, I don't know a 
date for that, but its been around for a while. 

If you would like to try a truly old purple carrot you need to join a 
seed exchange or you can actually get some in an open polinated blend 
here, they are about two thirds of the way down the page:

http://www.amishlandseeds.com/rare_seeds.htm

I was curious and went hunting, I couldn't find any heirloom varieties 
in ANY color that was older than 19th century. Some of that could be 
because of the nature of carrots, it is hard to collect seed AND know 
the specifics of where they came from. 

Even my grand parents just let a bit run wild in the corner of the 
garden and collected seeds of whatever did well... We ate lots of 
different varieties of many things, but it was big yellow tomatoes or 
one man squash!

Labhaoise


Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:00:56 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

 <<<  According to the _National Geographic_, modern bright-orange sweet 
carrots occurred as a true mutation discovered in an English field in the 
mid 1700s. Because they were so startlingly sweet, they spread like 
wildfire and caused the extinction of hundreds of other carrot varieties, 
including the earlier 'rusty' orange carrots, which-- like most carrots in 
the middle ages-- weren't at all sweet.

Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-
(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict >>>

Without an attribution or source, I consider the statement that orange 
carrots originating in an English field in the mid-1700s doubtful.  All 
modern orange carrots appear to stem from hybrids created in the 
Netherlands, the earliest of which is first described in 1721.  However, the 
orange carrots in the Netherlands appear to pre-date their description by at 
least 100 years.  Evidence of orange carrots written in English can be found 
in James Sutherland's Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis of 1683 about fifty years 
prior to the mutation referenced by National Geographic.

And just to make things more fun, John Stolcyzk has located a reference in 
the Bodelian Library, MS Ashmole 1431, folios 21v-22r (Bodley Herbal and 
Bestiary:  MS Bodley 130) written around 1100, which pictures orange 
carrots.  The drawings might be an artifact of faded red, but it is 
interesting.

Bear 


Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 08:40:06 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Cc: John Stolarczyk <john.stolarczyk at lineone.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Le Menegier on carrots,	Does anyone have
	documentation on Egyptian carrots

While carrots are grown in modern Egypt, historical references are few and 
far between and likely to be very questionable.  John has probably covered 
that far more thoroughly than I.  What I'm looking for now are references to 
carrot seeds from archeobotanical reports, but there isn't much readily 
available.  I haven't had time yet to peruse the current research of The 
Oriental Institute in Chicago.  I've been chasing references to various 
foodstuffs in Hakluyt.

It also occurs to me that cultivated carrots may not have come to Egypt 
until the Islamic expansion and that the limited rainfall might not support 
wild carrots.  If the latter is true, then it might be possible to determine 
the southernmost extent of the wild carrot by examining the paleobotany of 
Neolithic sites in the Levant.  Not a task I plan to tackle anytime soon.

Bear

<<< I forwarded Adamantius' reply about carrots in Menagier to John at the 
Carrot Museum and here is his reply. He's also wanting to know if anyone 
has documentation on carrots in ancient Egypt. Bear?

Again, his site has a lot of info on carrots. A lot that I haven't seen 
discussed here on this list.
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/

I'm pretty sure he'd appreciate any comments about the site or additional 
info on carrots.

Stefan >>>


Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 19:12:14 -0500
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

Just throwing in another reference.  The 1551 edition of the "Libro de
Agricultura" by Gabriel Alonso de Herrera has this to say about
carrots.

Delas zanahorias y chirivias.  Estas dos maneras de rayzes pone el
Platina en un mismo capi. aun que ellas son differentes en sus
colores: que las chirivias son blancas como los nabos salvo que son
mas delgadas y largas.  Las zanahorias son de la hechura de los nabos
ni mas ni menos: salvo ser unas de color de naranjas: otras muy
coloradas tanto que tornan en prietas.

Of carrots and parsnips.  Platina puts these two kinds of roots in the
same chapter even though they are different in their colors, because parsnips are white like turnips, except that they are thinner and longer.  Carrots
have the appearance of turnips, neither more nor less, except that
some are the color of oranges; others are so red that they turn dark.
[translation mine]

http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=X533701960

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:38:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

--- On Sun, 2/28/10, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at att.net> wrote:
<<< (quoting me)
According to the _National Geographic_,
modern bright-orange sweet carrots occurred as a true
mutation discovered in an English field in the mid 1700s.
Because they were so startlingly sweet, they spread like
wildfire and caused the extinction of hundreds of other
carrot varieties, including the earlier 'rusty' orange
carrots, which-- like most carrots in the middle ages--
weren't at all sweet. 

Without an attribution or source, I consider the statement
that orange carrots originating in an English field in the
mid-1700s doubtful.? All modern orange carrots appear
to stem from hybrids created in the Netherlands, the
earliest of which is first described in 1721.? However,
the orange carrots in the Netherlands appear to pre-date
their description by at least 100 years.? Evidence of
orange carrots written in English can be found in James
Sutherland's Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis of 1683 about
fifty years prior to the mutation referenced by National
Geographic.

And just to make things more fun, John Stolcyzk has located
a reference in the Bodelian Library, MS Ashmole 1431, folios
21v-22r (Bodley Herbal and Bestiary:? MS Bodley 130)
written around 1100, which pictures orange carrots.?
The drawings might be an artifact of faded red, but it is
interesting.

Bear >>>

    Please note that I differentiated between the Netherlands'  orange carrots, which I know quite well existed, and the modern sweet orange carrot. There are an immense variety of shades of orange. Witness this quote from Shakespeare: "The Count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well, but civil count, civil (Seville) as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion." We now speak of someone being green with envy, but they spoke of yellow- and thought it perfectly reasonable to use an orange as an example of something yellow.

    The shade commonly called orange in dyer's records in the early modern era we would call brick or rust. Many pictures from that era of food and kitchens show rust-colored carrots.

    However, the primary problem with modern bright-orange carrots is their intense sweetness. That's why some of the period recipes using carrots come out so very, very strange when our sweet carrots are substituted.

Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-
(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict

If you're doing your best, and your best isn't very good, that's life. If you aren't doing your best, _that's cheating_.


Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:33:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

--- On Sun, 2/28/10, Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> wrote:
<<< Honour

Could you please tell us the source for this National
Geographic statement? Which book or issue/year does it
appear?

National Geographic is not perfect in food history by any
means. I am sure we'd be interested in knowing what they are
using.

Johnnae >>>

    Unfortunately, the original died in my friend's house fire.
IIRC, it was a summer issue in the mid-seventies. Most larger libraries have National Geographic collections on disk nowadays; a search of that era's disk might prove fruitful. 

Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-
(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict


Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 11:29:06 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

Was it valid when it was written?  Or is it an apocryphal story that makes 
for interesting reading but bad history.

I've been through a number of research papers and references and have yet to 
find any reference to sweet or orange carrots originating as a mutation in 
England.  The general consensus is that all modern orange carrots (those 
extremely sweet carrots we get at the supermarket) derive from five to seven 
hybrid strains developed in the Netherlands between the 15th and 18th 
Centuries.  There is disagreement as to what extent the hybridization was 
between cultivated and wild carrots.

There is a possible connection between the Netherlands and England in that 
Flemish refugees settled in England and introduced carrot cultivation to the 
country.

Bear
-------
On Feb 28, 2010, at 8:33 PM, Honour Horne-Jaruk wrote:
<<   Unfortunately, the original died in my friend's house fire.
IIRC, it was a summer issue in the mid-seventies. Most larger  libraries 
have National Geographic collections on disk nowadays; a  search of that 
era's disk might prove fruitful. >>

<<< But is an article from 30 years ago in this case still valid, given
all the new research?

Johnnae >>>


Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 15:00:37 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

<<< Additional references towards carrots. I too thought the orange carrot was 
recent invention and that carrots were originally a dark color. As I 
understand they originated from Afghanistan?
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#carrots
This link also has the National Geographic article and a link to the 
carrot museum in the UK...

Aelina >>>

Daucus carota ssp. carota is the wild carrot.  It has had a tremendous 
natural range since prehistoric times and the point of origin is unknown. 
In Europe, it was commonly white and usually not differentiated from parsnip 
root.

Daucus carota ssp sativa is the cultivated carrot.  The oldest cultivated 
group of this subspecies are the anthocyan carrots, believed to have 
originated in the area of Afghanistan where the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush 
meet, with pigmentation produced by anthocyanins and anthochlors. 
Predominence of anthocyanins produce the darker colors, purples, violets, 
blacks and blues.  Predominence of anthochlors produces the yellow 
varietals.  As the cultivated carrot spread out from Afghanistan, it went 
through some adaptations creating several regional groupings that may be 
considered subspecies.  The cultivated carrot that found its way into Europe 
may be a cross between D. sativa and D. maximus (a wild varietal found in 
the Mediterranean basin), producing a carrot without anthocyans, but having 
anthochlors and carotene.  One of the varietals produced is a red carotene 
carrot.  It is worth noting that a number of Medieval authors considered the 
taste and texture of the red carrot superior, and it is my opinion they were 
referring to the carotene carrot.

The original orange carrots are probably pigmentation variants of the 
carotene carrot (and we have evidence of orange carrots from around 1100). 
These were possibly hybridized with anthoclor carrots and wild white 
European carrots to produce the orange carrots that became predominent in 
the Netherlands and were described by J. H. Knoop in the 18th Century. 
Among what Knoop described are the "Horn" cultivars that are the base stock 
for today's commercial carrots.  These particular orange carrot varietals 
probably didn't exist much before the 17th Century.

Bear 


Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 13:40:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Honour Horne-Jaruk <jarukcomp at yahoo.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

--- On Mon, 3/1/10, Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> wrote:
On Feb 28, 2010, at 8:33 PM, Honour Horne-Jaruk wrote:
<<<   Unfortunately, the original died in my friend's house fire.
IIRC, it was a summer issue in the mid-seventies. Most larger 
libraries have National Geographic collections on
disk nowadays; a search of that era's disk might prove
fruitful. >>>

But is an article from 30 years ago in this case still valid, given
all the new research?

Johnnae
==============

    I wouldn't have thought much of it even then, if it didn't happen to match carrot variety extinction patterns so closely. It was in the late 1700s that thousands of carrot types suddenly disappear from seed stocks and planting records-- always replaced by carrots listed as either "new" or "sweet."

   Corollary evidence is provided by the exact same extinction pattern following the supersweet  green pea mutation. (The greatest medieval pea, the Grey Field, had the same protein level as steak. It is now almost certainly extinct, shouldered out by the modern green sweet pea)

    Come to think of it, a century earlier New World beans did the exact same thing to Europe's huge range of broad beans, leaving only the Fava out of thousands of local cultivars. However, I feel morally obliged to point out that if the others tasted like Favas, the change was comprehensible, even if not good in botanical terms.

Yours in service to both the Societies of which I am a member-
(Friend) Honour Horne-Jaruk, R.S.F.
Alizaundre de Brebeuf, C.O.L. S.C.A.- AKA Una the wisewoman, or That Pict


Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 14:56:24 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: <yaini0625 at yahoo.com>,	"Cooks within the SCA"
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

<<< Now, I found "purple" carrots from an "Heirloom" company with the 
intention of growing "period" carrots. My Dad told me that the variety I have is actually modern and that the original purple carrots are extinct.
Aelina >>>

Not exactly true.  Purple carrots show up in local markets in Asia. 
However, the commercially available purple carrots are the product of 
Leonard Pike at Texas A&M who took some Brazilian carrots with purple 
blotches on the skins and  bred them back to purple carrots.  He has 
produced hybrids with the modern orange commercial carrot for better purple 
carrots with better taste and texture and he, at last report, was trying to 
hybridize his purple carrots with Chinese red carrots to increase the 
lycopene in his hybrids.

Now, a small technicality, extinction in its most precise usage is an event 
that happens to a species.  Since D. carota still exists, extinction has not 
occurred.  Purple carrots still appear naturally (in fact, all colors of 
carrots still appear), but they have been marginalized from general use by 
cultivated hybrids.

If you were able to find a natural purple carrot, there is no guarantee 
that, other than being a carrot, it is the same as a purple carrot of 500 
years ago.  Carrots are subject to natural hybridization, which made them 
excellent subjects for controlled hybridizaztion.  I wouldn't be too 
concerned about Pike's purple carrots not being truly Medieval.  Use them 
for verisimilitude and enjoy the add health benefits that have been grown 
in.

Bear


Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2010 16:01:31 -0800 (PST)
From: wheezul at canby.com
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Looking for references to orange carrots

Interestingly I have been combing through the Munich State Digital
Collection since the kind soul posted those German cookbook links and
would like to point folks in turn towards an author search for Walther
Hermann Ryff, who wrote medical treatises, health manuals, cookbooks,
childbirth manuals, botanical, apothocary confections and much more. 
(Also search for more cool stuff on google books).

I am buzzing about the following book because it pictures animals and
plants, gives uses and care instructions, and further medical uses as well
as culinary ones for all items concerning general health.  Really, I mean
buzzing!  (Ok, I know I'm new and enthusiastic...)

http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/ausgaben/uni_ausgabe.html?projekt=1174066449

search for
Ryff, Walther Hermann:
Lustgarten der Gesundtheit. - Frankfurt, 1546
Signatur: Res/2 Oecon. 89
[2008-10-08]
URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb00029507-1

The file is huge, but worth the wait.

The carrot is featured on page 247 of the pdf, with a notation that
acreage is grown of the 'gelb' carrot near Cologne, but a 'roter' is grown
near Strassburg. Since the descriptions both use the word r?be, which can
be translated as beet, I don't know if the discussion about the two types
means a yellow and a more reddish carrot or a yellow carrot and a red beet
or not.  It does seem that the illustration and attribution as daucia
signifies a carrot, and there is the notation that the gelb one is found
wild.  On page 217 is the description of the Mangolt with the note that
the large red ones from Meissen are known as rote R?ben.  However, Meissen
is not anywhere near Strassburg in the Alsace.   All I know at this point
is that there is so much to learn.

The woodcuts alone are worth the download wait.

Katrine who now has several more thousand pages of period books to read!
An Tir


Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:43:34 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Cooking methods for carrots

I just got an email from a lady who took my Spanish cookbook class at
Pennsic.  I had mentioned roast carrots, and she wanted to know if
there was a recipe in de Nola.  I thought others might be interested
in my reply:

No, the "Libro de Guisados" does not have a recipe for roasted
carrots.  The only mention of carrots it contains is #119 Cazuela
Moji, which is a recipe for an eggplant casserole that says at the end
that same recipe can be made with chard or carrots.

Roast carrots are mentioned in the "Arte de Cortar", a 1423 carving
manual which has not (to my knowledge) been translated into English.
It says that carrots roasted in the coals should have their skins
removed by hand -- no knife necessary -- and be cut into quarters.
The 16th century "Libro de Agricultura" by Gabriel Alonso de Herrera
goes into more detail.  I'm looking at the 1551 edition online.
Here's a quick and dirty translation of the relevant section:

"and they are very good roasted on the coals and well cleaned and cut
small and with oil and salt and vinegar and with cinnamon it makes a
very fine salad, stirring it with some leaves of parsley and mint."
http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=X533701960
(see image #251)

Herrera mentions other cooking methods.  Stewed/boiled carrots are
good as a treatment for dropsy.  Carrots are also good fried, coated
either with flour or with a thin, liquid "dough" (I assume this means
what we would today call a batter).  They make a good lectuary (a
medicinal kind of preserves).  They can be either fried or par-boiled
in a small amount of water, then cooked whole in honey or sugar.  Or
chopped, or even mashed, then mixed with cinnamon, ginger, or other
good spices.  He adds that the light-colored carrots are better than
the red ones for this purpose, as they're more tender.

Platina (15th c. Italian) has a recipe for roasted carrots called
"Cariota".  You'll find a translation of it on the website of the
Carrot Museum, which is itself and interesting and useful resource.
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/history2.html

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:11:24 -0400
From: Elaine Koogler <kiridono at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking methods for carrots

And then, from Urtatim's web page, there's the recipe for Jazr...I've served
it at several of our Middle Eastern feasts with great success!  The carrots
are cut up, boiled in salted water and then sauteed in a mixture of oil,
vinegar, garlic and crushed caraway or cumin seeds. Urtatim got the recipe
from David Waine's "In a Caliph's Kitchen" and states that it's 13th c.
Moroccan. She posits that it could be in the Anonymous Andalusian cookbook.

Kiri


Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:39:17 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking methods for carrots

Kiri wrote:
<<< And then, from Urtatim's web page, there's the recipe for Jazr...I've served
it at several of our Middle Eastern feasts with great success!  The carrots
are cut up, boiled in salted water and then sauteed in a mixture of oil,
vinegar, garlic and crushed caraway or cumin seeds. Urtatim got the recipe
from David Waine's "In a Caliph's Kitchen" and states that it's 13th c.
Moroccan. She posits that it could be in the Anonymous Andalusian cookbook. >>>

It is definitely not in the anonymous Andalusian. I hadn't checked at 
the time i first worked on the recipe, but i have since; it has 
several Moroccan recipes, but this isn't one of them. So it's 
probably from one of the other Andalusian cookbooks as yet 
untranslated into English.

Perhaps it's from the Fadalat by Ibn Razin al-Tujibi. Note that while 
his name is romanized as al-Tugibi in Spanish (since in that language 
j sounds like h), that's not standard for Arabic transliteration into 
English.
-- 
Urtatim [that's err-tah-TEEM]
the persona formerly known as Anahita


Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:16:49 -0700
From: David Walddon <david at vastrepast.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking methods for carrots

There are actually multiple "recipes" in Platina for Carrots.
Below is the analysis from the paper I gave at RSA on the first five books
of De Honesta and the ?recipes? contained within them.
The columns (which probably don't come through on the list) are defined
below as well. 
These are just the Cariota entries. There are approximately 157 total
recipes in the first five books.

Eduardo 

Total   Sub-Total   Var.    Book    Entry   Original Latin Title
Modern Recipe Title     Meat    Fruit   Veg.    Dairy   Misc.   Brief
Description
138    90                           4           16          De Cariota et
Pastinaca     Boiled Parsnips                                         X
These parsnips are boiled twice. The first boiling water is thrown
away and then they are cooked a second time with lettuce and seasoned with
salt, vinegar, coriander and pepper.

139    90a     X                     4    16                 De Cariota et
Pastinaca    Fried Parsnips                                            X
Par-boil the parsnips and then roll them in "meal" (farina) and fry them in
oil and fat.

140    90b    X                     4    16                 De Cariota et
Pastinaca    Boiled Carrots                                              X
Carrots are cooked the same way as parsnips. See recipe 91.

141    90c    X                     4    16                 De Cariota et
Pastinaca    Fried Carrots                                                X
Carrots are cooked the same way as Onions. See recipe 92.

142    91                               4    16                 De Cariota
et Pastinaca    Baked Carrots with Seasonings              X
Carrots are sweeter if they are cooked under "ash and coals" (cinere et
carbonibus) and then cut up and seasoned with salt, oil, vinegar, "condensed
must" (defructo) and "sweet spices" (aromata dulcia).

143    91a    X                     4    16                     De Cariota
et Pastinaca    Carrots with Sapa                                    X
A variation on the above carrot recipe, but using "must" (sapa) instead of
"condensed must" (defructo).


Total     ? a numerical account of the cumulative total recipes, including
all the variations.
Sub-Total ? a numerical account of the recipes that identifies each
variation.
Var. (Variation) ? Indicates whether the recipe is a variation.
Book ? Which book the recipe can be found in.
Entry ? Which entry, within each book, that the recipe can be found in.
Original Latin Title ? The original Latin title of each entry.
Modern Recipe Title ? A very short description of each recipe.
Meat ? Indicates if the recipe can be categorized as meat.
Fruit    ? Indicates if the recipe can be categorized as fruit.
Veg. (vegetable) ? Indicates if the recipe can be categorized as a
vegetable.
Dairy ? Indicates if the recipe can be categorized as dairy. Including milk,
cheese, and eggs. 
Misc. (Miscellaneous) ? Indicates if the recipe can be categorized as a one
of the above.
Brief Description ? A description of each recipe that includes any important
details.


Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:49:07 -0400
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking methods for carrots

On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 3:48 PM, emilio szabo <emilio_szabo at yahoo.it> wrote:
<<< Am I right to assume that the spanish word "zanahorias" is used to refer to
carrots? >>>

Yes, indeed.

<<< In the 1607 libro del arte de cozina there is a recipe "Cap. xcviij. De tortada de cahanorias" (!). And another one: "Cap. xcix. De cahanorias rellenas".

http://tinyurl.com/yata4zm >>>

And you overlooked the salad recipe:
Cap. XX.  Como se han de hazer canahorias para ensalada

<<< zanahorias, cahanorias ... Robin/Brighid, could you comment on these recipes? >>>

What kind of comments would you like?  The tortada is a pie whose
filling is made of boiled mashed carrots which are then cooked with
honey, sugar, white wine, and sweet spices.  The mixture is cooled,
then mixed with eggs and baked in a crust.  The stuffed carrots are
stuffed with a sweetened nut mixture, then fried.   There is a very
similar recipe in Granado (1599); it may be one of the hundreds he
plagiarized from Scappi.  The salad is made from baked carrots which
are then dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and oregano.

<<< Cap. xcviij. De tortada de ?ahanorias.
PAra una tortada toma quatro libras 
de ?ahanorias, y mondalas muy 
bien, y quitales los cora?ones, y echalas a 
cozer hechas tajadas, despues de cozidas 
majalas muy bien en vn mortero; y toma 
medio quartillo de miel, y media libra de 
a?ucar, y echa la miel en vn ca?o, y las 
?ahanorias, y vn poco de a?ucar, echales 
quatro marauedis de clauos, y quatro de 
canela, y echa medio quartillo de vino 
blanco, y hazlo cozer todo con esto, y despues 
de bien cozido, pon lo a enfriar, y 
encorporalo con quatro hueuos, y ten 
hecha tu massa fina, y al?a la tortada, y
echala alli: si quisieres ponelle tapadera 
de la mesma massa, ponla muy bien labrada: 
dale buena costrada con vn hueuos, y 
a?ucar sin tapadera, o con ella.

(Hernandez de Maceras, Libro del arte de cozina, 1607)
http://tinyurl.com/yata4zm >>>

Brighid ni Chiarain


Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:00:41 -0500
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] carrot cake or the likes

On Nov 19, 2010, at 9:36 PM, otsisto wrote:
<<< Out of curiousity, has anyone come across a recipe that comes close to
carrot cake? 

 De >>>

There are lots of websites that recite the same story that carrots  
were used as sweeteners
in the Middle Ages. Then all the accounts skip ahead to shortages  
during WWII and the popularity of carrot cakes in the 1960's.

The source appears to be
"In the Middle Ages in Europe, when sweeteners were scarce and  
expensive, carrots were used in sweet cakes and desserts. In  
Britain...carrot puddings...often appeared in recipe books in the 18th  
and 19th centuries. Such uses were revived in Britain during the  
second World War, when the Ministry of Food disseminated recipes for  
carrot Christmas pudding, carrot cake, and so on and survive in a  
small way to the present day. Indeed, carrot cakes have enjoyed a  
revival in Britain in the last quarter of the 20th century. They are  
perceived as 'healthy' cakes, a perception fortified by the use of  
brown sugar and wholemeal flour and the inclusion of chopped nuts, and  
only slightly compromised by the cream cheese and sugar icing which  
appears on some versions."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University  
Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 141)

see http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html#carrotcake

---
There is this rather nice 17th century recipe for candied carrots.
CLII. To Candy Carrot Roots.

Take of the best, and boil them tender, then pare them, and cut them  
in such pieces as you like; then take fine Sugar boiled to a Candy  
height with a little Water, then put in your Roots, and boil them till  
you see they will Candy; but you must first boil them with their  
weight in Sugar and some Water, or else they will not be sweet enough,  
when they are enough, lay them  into a Box, and keep them dry; thus  
you may do green Peascods when they are very young, if you put them  
into boiling water, and let them boil close covered till they are  
green, and then boiled in a Syrup, and then the Candy, they will look  
very finely, and are good to set forth Banquets, but hath no pleasant  
taste.

The queen-like closet; or, Rich cabinet ...By Hannah Wolley. london 1670
---
for the cheese
http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cheese/cheese2/whey/2006-10.asp#history

Johnnae


Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:13:55 -0600
From: Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>,	"otsisto"
	<otsisto at socket.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] carrot cake or the likes

on old versions of carrot cake, theres a lovely recipe for a sweet carrot pudding thingie in the Aceteria (John Evelyn, 1699)....

Pudding of Carrot. [Aceteria Appendix 26]
Pare off some of the Crust of Manchet-Bread, and grate off half as much of the rest as there is of the Root, which must also be 
grated: Then take half a Pint of fresh Cream or New Milk, half a Pound of fresh Butter, six new laid Eggs (taking out three of the 
Whites) mash and mingle them well with the Cream and Butter: Then put in the grated Bread and Carrot, with near half a Pound of 
Sugar, and a little Salt; some grated Nutmeg and beaten Spice; and pour all into a convenient Dish or Pan, butter'd to keep the 
Ingredients from sticking and burning; set it in a quick Oven for about an Hour, and so have you a Composition for any Root-
Pudding.

it's one of my faves :)
--Anne-Marie


Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:16:00 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: <yaini0625 at yahoo.com>,	"Cooks within the SCA"
	<sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Carrots in period

While other carrots fell out of favor of the orange hybrid in Europe, most 
colors of carrots can be found in Asia.

I would also point out that the definition of "heirloom" is not as cut and 
dried as you make it.  There are arguments over the cut-off date for the 
age of the cultivars, 1945 and 1951, being the most prominent.   There is 
also disagreement as to whether to limit "heirloom" status to only plants 
passed down between local gardeners or to include commercial varietals that 
have fallen out of favor and are no longer readily available.  Heirloom 
plants can be hybrids, but they can not have undergone genetic manipulation 
and they must have been open pollinated.  An heirloom must also no longer be 
in use in large scale agriculture.  There is a lot of wiggle room when a 
company uses the term "heirloom" and doesn't define their interpretation.

Bear

----- Original Message ----- 
<<< Funny this topic has been brought up again. I am studying biodynamic 
gardening and I have been receiving seed catalogs for heirloom and 
biodynamic plants. In two they have two purple heirloom carrots. Now, I 
always thought the purple carrots were breed out in favor of the orange. 
But, by definition an heirloom seed must be of the original stock or the 
oldest known variety.
Looking forward to trying them out in my garden.
Aelina >>>


Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:26:01 -0600
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Carrots in period

Oops, while there are references to orange carrots in the 17th Century, the 
serious botanical descriptions are 18th Century.

The first variety is the Long Orange Dutch, which was presumably described 
in 1721 (I haven't found the reference yet).  I think it may be a true 
breeding hybrid from the orange carrots referenced in 16th and 17th Century 
sources.  It is believed to be the progenitor of the "Horn" carrots, the 
Early Scarlet, the Early Half Long and the Late Half Long.  The Horn carrots 
are the basic stock for our modern commercial varietals.  I have seen 
non-contemporary references to at least three other varietals, but have no 
particular proof of their existence.  I tend to refer to five varietals, 
because I have encountered that particular information several times, but 
have not been able to validate the information.

For the descriptions try:

Knoop, J.H., 1752:  De beknopte huisholdijke Hovenier, Vol. 1, 309-310, 
Noordbeek, Leeuwarden.
Knoop, J.H., 1769:  Beschrijving van de moes -- en keukentuin, Ferwerda and 
Tresling, Leeuwarden.

I haven't located the original texts yet, although I have several references 
to them.

The Horn carrots are so named because they are connected to the village of 
Hoorn.  There are references to "carrots of Hoorn" as early asa 1610 (but no 
description), so it is probable that all four varietals listed above were 
around in the 16th Century.

Bear 


Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:00:05 -0700 (GMT-07:00)
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Early Period varieties of vegetables

Carrots are described thus in Nawal Nasrullah's Glossary section of her translation of Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's compendium of 9th & 10th c. recipes, "Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens" (p.786)
1. Red-orange carrot (jazar ahmar) literally, 'red', described as juicy, tender, and delicious. Poets compare it to carnelian, rubies, flames of fire, and coral reeds.
2. Yellow carrot (jazar asfar), ticker and denser in texture than the red (Ibn al-Baytar 164)
[Ibn al-Baytar lived in the first half of the 13th c.]
3. White carrot (jazar abyad), similar to parsnips, aromatic, and deliciously sharp in taste. It is also described as having a pleasant crunch.

Carrot is bloating and slow to digest. However, it is extremely effective in stimulating coitus, especially when eaten pickled in vinegar (murabba). Prepared ike this, it can warm up the stomach, stimulate the appetite and help dispel gases (Ibn al-Baytar 164; al-Nuwayri 1176)
[al-Nuwayri lived in the late 13th to early 14th c.]

I will add that i didn't find a place where Ibn Sayyar al-Warrq's recipes mentioned the color, so i'm not sure of the dates of the poets mentioned in (1).

Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)


Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2012 11:40:45 -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] Carrot Museum

<<< Greetings!  Am I one of the last folk to discover the online "carrot 
museum" at http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/index.html ?  If not, there's a 
link to their "history of carrots" that might be of interest.

Alys K. >>>

Probably.  The Carrot Museum pops up on the list every couple of years. 
There are some arguable historical points on the site, but by and large, it 
is accurate with some of the caveats underlined.  It is a good starting 
point for researching carrots.

What the site doesn't do is get deep into the scholarly papers that support 
John Stolarczyk's work.  John and I have conversed several times via email 
and have exchanged scholarly references.  He is definitely knowledgeable and 
enthusiastic on the subject of carrots.

It's certainly worth reposting the URL every so often for people who haven't 
found the site.

Bear


Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2014 16:50:31 -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] Carrots

John Stolarczyk of the World Carrot Museum ( 
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/ ) has co-authored an article on carrots for 
Chronica Horticulturae 
https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/pdfs/ch5102-carrot.pdf .

Bear


Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2014 15:44:10 +0000
From: Kathleen Roberts <karobert at unm.edu>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Carrots

If you haven't worked with them, beware that the red/purple carrots turn every other color in the pot dingy if not purple. These are best roasted.

Cailte

<<< Last month my ordinary supermarket was selling packages of four different colours of carrot, with the implication that they were heritage.  If I remember correctly, there were white, red, and yellow, as well as a couple of orange.  I don't know if they are still being sold.

Thorvald >>>

<the end>
Edited by Mark S. Harris	carrots-msg	32 of 32