SC - On a Tangential, OT Note - Was: Potato salad+pasta salad- the mild O...

[Varju@aol.com]

Greetings to all Cooks

I'm glad to see my question intrigued so many. I haven'y looked at my e-mail
for a couple of days, being in the middle of cherry harvest on the family
orchard, and now I find a variety of querries and comments (but not answer
yet, alas). I'll try to deal with all in one message, rather than piecemeal.

As to tha language of the term. The author of the article I found the
reference in is Polish (at the University of Warsaw), and the article is
based on the customs-house registers of Cracow in 1604. Therefore I think we
can assume that "Tatar herb" is a direct and literal translation into
English of the Polish term (whatever it may be). (I could be wrong,
though -- we might also look in an OItalian dictionary).

It is definitely not saffron, both because the price is much less than that
of saffron, and because saffron is included under its own name
(frustratingly, the author gives the Polish word for Saffron [szafran],
though not the Polish for "Tatar herb").

As to the suggestion to see what herb is connected with the Tatar region, I
have tried the DOMOSTROI (a 16th century Russian household manual and recipe
book), which is the closest I have to a Tatar source, without luck. And I
would nopt be sure that its origin is the Tatar area, anyway. As someone
commented, many things get names connected which are not because of original
source (e.g. Turkey). Many things came *through* the Tatar area, as this was
one of the major East-West trade routes (think Marco Polo), and could pick
up such a moniker.

So we do get (I hope) a little closer. If there is anyone close to a nice
big university library, perhaps you could have a look in the reference
section. First use a nice little English-Polish dictionary to get the words
"herb" and "Tatar" (or guess on that last), then find the largest and most
daunting Polish-only dictionary and/or encyclopedia, and see if you can find
those words together in it. Even if you can't translate the entry directly,
copy it and we could bounce it about the list until we find someone who can.
(I'd do this myself, but I won't be finished cherry harvest and able to
travel the five hours to my favourite digging grounds at the University of
British Columbia for a couple of weeks.)

Thanks,
Francesco Sirene
David Dendy / ddendy at silk.net
partner in Francesco Sirene, Spicer / sirene at silk.net
Visit our Website at http://www.silk.net/sirene/

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