SC - Re: Orach vs Spinach, kinda long
ChannonM at aol.com
ChannonM at aol.com
Mon Jun 19 08:18:33 PDT 2000
In a message dated 6/19/00 10:26:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time, > Akim
Yaroslavich
> writes:
>
> > You have used spinach for orach, which is a related
> > but different potherb common in the Mediteranean
> > region then and now.
Okay, messes are now cleaned up and I had a moment to look at Platina. BTW,
thanks Akim for you input, I love picking apart these recipes and ensuring
that they are "right on", you are encouaging me in that endeavor :)
Orach vs Spinach
This is not a complete analysis of the issue, only a commentary on what
Platina himself, says on the matter, (this was my original rationale for the
choice, I just didnt post the info).
In Platinas 7th Chapter he discusses orach in the following way;
I would think that orach is what the country people call spinach from the
spines which it produces on seed .
This is a derogitory statement in that he implies country people to be
uneducated and dont know the difference. However, he goes on to say
Some would want orach not to be what they call spinach, although it has
similarity and almost the same force, for orach softens the bowels and is
good for people with jaundice, that is, those with golden disease, so
called from gold on account of spattered gall, as Varro says. It cools a warm
liver and represses inflamed bile
OTOH, Platina gives spinach a definite place among herbs and describes
spinach and chard thusly;
Spinach is the lightest kind found among garden vegetables. I would believe
it is divided into two kinds, since there is black and white. Black grows
almost with a head like onions, cabbage, and lettuce, and there is almost no
garden vegetable greater in breadth. Some think the nature of spinach inert
and with out force, even if it usually distrubs the bowel even to the bile.
Taken in food, it soothes excessive menstruation in women, but chard, which
is white, maintains a mean. It is most usefully given to those with liver and
kspleen illnesses, with sweet spices which temper its saltiness. It likewise
relieves the heat of summer, revives those who are disinterested in food
because of squeamishness, and fills nursing women with a lot of milk. Eaten
with its own juice, it moves the bowels, but eaten alone, with the juice
thrown away, it constricts them.
I believe that Platina is describing white spinach (chard) at the end,
however it may be argued he is referring to either, if you re-read the orach
commentary it implies that spinach in general has similar properties. Either
way, it seems to me that spinach is a reasonable and justifiable substitution
to orach.
Hauviette
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