[Ansteorra] folklore and wive's tales: fact or fallacy

[elizabeth at crouchet.com]

On 19 Jan 2005 at 21:45, Susan Hill wrote:

> Good gentles,
> 
> Please pardon the intrusion, but I received an email today that my gut
> tells me is full of misconceptions and inaccuracies. 
> 
> > > Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid
> > > content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning
> > > and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or
> > > so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
> 

I'll jump in here.  

Tomatoes are a member of the Nightshade Family. We all know about "deadly 
Nightshade". The plant, all it's green parts and even the immature fruits are poisonous. 
The cows or other livestock would eat the plants and die and so everyone was 
convinced tomatoes were poisonous, no without reason. 

Interestingly, when the fruit matures, just before or as it turns color, the deadly 
compounds are converted and are no longer poisonous. That is why you can eat "fried 
green tomatoes" but you must be careful to select only mature ones. I just wait until they 
turn color. 

I also believe that in period tomatoes were yellow not red. They were referred to as 
"golden Apples" or maybe that term came later but certainly before tomatoes were a 
normal part of our cuisine.

So tomatoes as part of a normal diet were quite controversial for a long time. Benjamin 
Franklin spent part of his life convincing people that tomatoes were not poisonous. He 
was apparently successful since the tomato has become a staple in many cuisines 
certainly since that time. 

The fad for the red tomato came sometime post period. I am not sure what color 
tomatoes Ben Franklin was eating. Now some yellow tomatoes are "in style".

I learned much of this through my research into growing food as an undergraduate at 
A&M and also in my continuing home studies on food and food history since then. 

History is fun, Food history is More fun because you get to eat the research!

Claire Shayahn