SC - RE: sultanas & Sugar-OOP

[LrdRas@aol.com]

> ----------
> From: 	david friedman[SMTP:ddfr at best.com]
> Sent: 	Sunday, February 15, 1998 2:19 PM
> To: 	sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
> Subject: 	RE: SC - nightshades
> 
> At 10:31 AM -0600 2/15/98, Decker, Terry D. wrote:
> 
> >My opinions:
> >
> >The tomato was available within the SCA period, but was not used as a
> food
> >at that time.
> 
> Except that it was described, in period, as eaten in Italy fried.
> 
Interesting.  Does it seem to be a localized, late period recipe like the
German recipe for roast potatoes or do fried tomatoes seem to be widely
prepared Italian fare?
 
> >The bad press about being
> >nightshades, probably comes later and is probably limited to various
> >localities with vocal proponents of the "deadly tomato".
> 
> Maybe. My suspicion is that the nightshade story was invented to explain
> why people in the past didn't eat tomatoes, by someone who thought it
> sounded plausible.
> 
Another possibility comes from James Trager's The Foodbook:

"The idea that tomatoes were dangerous is more likely based on their being
listed among the narcotic herbs in the deadly nightshade family by
Pierandrea Mattioli, the Italian herbalist, in his Commentaries on the Six
Books of Dioscorides first published in 1544.  Mattioli called the tomato
mala aurea, or golden apple, and associated it with belladona, henbane and
mandrake."

Trager also quotes Gerard as stating that tomatoes were eaten in Spain.   

> >If memory serves me, Jefferson was introduced to tomatoes in France while
> he
> >was the Ambassador and transplanted some plants to Monticello.  The tale
> of
> >his eating the tomato is probably an urban legend created by someone
> >replacing R.G. Johnson with Thomas Jefferson when telling the tale of the
> >tomato eating.
> 
> Of course, the Johnson story might also be an urban legend. Or do you have
> a contemporary source on that one?
> 
> David Friedman
> Professor of Law
> Santa Clara University
> ddfr at best.com
> http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
> 
Also a possibility.  There is supposed to be a contemporary newspaper
account of the occurrence, but I have not seen it.  There is also the
possibility that the newspaper account is worth about as much as the
Oklahoma newspaper account of the petrified screw.  

Bear
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