SC - Torta Bourbonnaisse and Bleta - non-member submission

[Thomas Gloning]

<< I redacted a version of the Torta Bourbonnaisse from Platina last
night -- yummy.  One question, though, the recipe calls for Bleta. 
After a bit of web searching, I believe this is what's known as
Strawberry Blite (Blitum), which is a European dunghill herb. ... >>

In case we are speaking about the "Torta Bononiensis" (Milham VIII.27):

Milham, in her translation, says it is "chard", and this would be beta
vulgaris. Faccioli, in his translation, says it is "bietole" (in
Italian).

If you look over, to Martino, he uses the word "vietole", which seems to
be a plural of "vietola", which is a form of ital. "bietola"; according
to my dictionary, this is "Gartenmangold, Runkelrübe" in German, "beta
vulgaris" in Latin, chard in English. The "vietole" are also used in
Martino's "Herbolata de maio", we discussed earlier.

Milhams index mentions several other places where Platina mentions
_bleta_, esp. VII.24, which, according to Milham is about spinach and
chard, and which, according to Faccioli's translation into Italian is
about two types of "La bietola" (chard; this is the chapter, Hauviette
just quoted from Milham's translation in another thread; funny).

Further, there is a parallel recipe in the Neapolitan recipe collection,
too (#126), which has "biete", translated with "chard" by Scully
("_biete_ ... (bot.) _Beta vulgaris_, subspecies _cicla_, (Swiss)
chard"; glossary p. 216).

Thus, it seems that in using "bleta", Platina refers to chard.

Best,
Thomas