SC - Fwd: Addition to potato debate from Rialto discussion

[Bronwynmgn at aol.com]

<< C. Kevin Kellogg (kellogg at rohan.sdsu.edu) wrote:
: VJARMSTRONG (VJARMSTRONG at UALR.EDU) wrote:

: : Mentioned in herbals but what context? Surely not as a food item at that
: : early date, more likely simply as plant oddities from the New World. 

: 	Unfortunately that site, as wonderful as it is, does not
	Well, I looked for biographic data on Clusius in SDSU's library.
I couldn't come up with much.  Everyone agrees that he had something to
do with potatoes (the Enclyclopaedia Britannica is more interested in
crediting (blaming?) him for tulips in Holland).

	I did, however, find the interesting book, _The History and
Social Influence of the Potato_, by Redcliffe Salaman, 1949, Cambridge
University Press.

	He quotes John Gerard's 1599 herbal:

	...The roote is thicke, fat, and tuberous; not much differing 
	either in shape, colour, or taste from the common Potatoes
	[this in reference to Peruvian sweet potatoes], saving that
	the roots hereof are not so great nor long; ...

	This, to me, indicates that at least Gerard ate a potato
prior to 1600, otherwise he could not have commented on it's taste.

	Salaman also quotes from a translation of Gaspard Bauhin's
1596 _Phytopinax_:

	...The root if of an irregular round shape; it is either
	brown or reddish-black, and one digs them up in the winter 
	lest they should rot, so full are they of sugar. ...

 	... We have further learnt that this plant is also known
	under the name of tartuffli, doubtless because of its
	tuberous root, seeing that this is the name by which
	one speaks of Truffles in Italy, where one eats these
	fruits in a similar fashion to truffles.

	This would indicate that the Frenchman Bauhin believed
that the italians were eating potatoes prior to 1600.

	Salaman quotes from a translation of the _Theatre d'
Agriculture et Mesnage des Champs_ by Olivier de Serres, published
in 1600.

	This shrub, called Cartoufle, bears a fruit of the same
	name comparable to truffles, and is so called by some.
	It came from Switzerland to the Dauphine, a short time
	ago. ... One keeps them during the winter in sand...
	Some do not trouble to layer this plant, but let it grow 
	and fruit at its will, harvesting the crop in due season,
	but the tubers do not do so well in the air as in the 
	ground, thus conforming to the habit of true truffles,
	which the cartoufle resembles in shape, though not so well
	in colour, as they are lighter than truffles!  The skin
	not being rough but smooth and moveable.  That is the
	difference between these fruits.  As to the taste, the cook
	so dresses all of them so that one can recognize little
	difference between them.

	So here we have another reference to eating potatoes in
the fashion of truffles.

	Carolus Clusius (remember him, this was supposed to be about him)
wrote in his 1601 _Historia Rariorum plantarum_:

	... The first mention I recieved of this plant is ... toward
	the beginning of the year 1588, ... The Italians do not know
	whence they first obtained it, but it is certain that they
	got it either from Spain or America.  ...although it was so
	common and frequent in certain parts of Italy, for it is
	said that they used to eat the tubers of it cooked with mutton
	in the same manner as they do with turnips and the roots of
	carrots.  They actually employed it for fodder for pigs.
	... But now it has become sufficiently common in many gardens
	in Germany since it is so fecund.

	I think this is enough evidence to support the eating of

potatoes for very late period German, French, Italian, English,
and Swiss personas, cooked either in the manner of root vegetables
or truffles. 

		Avenel Kellough

 >>

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