SC - Yams/Sweet Potaoes

[Kerry Romano]

Hi, Katerine here.  Clare St. John writes:

>Considering that most vegetables and fruits were considered unhealthy when
>eaten raw or needing a food item that countered the ill effects, maybe
>parboiling  (adding heat) countered the raw onion.  I can look in the
>various herbals tonight and see.  I'm sure I've missed much but was gone a
>week on vacation and unsubscribed rather than receive thousands of
>messages.
>
>It's a modern thought that raw vegies and fruits are good for you and I do
>know that pre-modern people ate raw stuff but I know the herbals and
>medical stuff often warn about raw fruits and vegies.  I'd be happy to
>check and let you know.

One must be careful in interpreting how practices correlated to medical
tracts and information in herbals.  If one read modern similar tracts,
one would infer that 20th C Americans ate little beef, but lots and
lots of fresh herbs.

We have a great deal of evidence that medievals ate raw fruits and
vegetables *daily*, at least when they were in season.  Further, 
recipes often specify that onions are to be parboiled, even when they are
later cooked again (indeed, in virtually all cases, they are cooked
again).  We don't see that kind of direction for, say, apples.

This seems to be specific to onions (and the note I read in the 
"Cooking tips" section of a manuscript specified onions explicitly).
I don't think it had anything to do with a prejudice against raw foods
in general.

Cheers,

- -- Katerine/Terry

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