SC - Platina - questions

[Jennifer D. Miller]

Excerpts from internet.listserv.sca-cooks: 23-Jan-99 SC - Lupini
Beans-update by LrdRas at aol.com 
> for the poor on certain festival days. By the beginning of the Italian
> Renaissance , they disappear from culinary tomes and are not  mentioned again
> until after that period. 

That is not entirely correct -- both Platina and Castelvetro discuss
lupines.  Castelvetro says :Our womenfolk and littl4e children nibble at
lupin beans between meals during the hottest summer days.  They are very
bitter but can easily be sweetened by putting them in a canal or deep
stream of clear running water, in a thightly fastened bag securd to a
pole or hook, so that the current flows right through them.  The lupins
are left there for two or three whole days, until they have lost their
bitterness and become sweet.  Them they are peeled and salted and
nibbled more as a snack than anything else, the sort of thing that only
appeals to pregnant women or silly children.  Dried lupins are used to
fatten pigs and other animals.  (He also mentions that lupin beans can
be used to drive away moles and enrich poor soil)

Platina doesn't talk about the beans, but does advise cooking and eating
the stalks like you would asparagus.  From the description, "harsh" and
"they are very bitter", it is likely the same plant.

toodles, margaret

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