SC - Fw: QPT & Pineapple

[Michael Newton]

Any other comments? or sources?
Beatrix
(who is allergic to pineapple - it makes me itch)

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rory McGowen" <pcfry at DSTSYSTEMS.COM>
To: <CALON-BREW at crcvms.unl.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 3:13 PM
Subject: QPT & Pineapple


> I am sending this to the brew list to head off what I ran into this
> weekend at QPT. In case some of you weren't there, I entered a large
> selection of what my persona would be making and serving in the local
> tavern.
> 
> Among the many different beverages, was a Cordial, that I had made from
> start to finish. It started as fresh fruit that I cut up myself, and
> made into wine. After letting the wine sit for a year, I fractionalized
> (freeze distilled) it into a wonderful brandy. I then used it as the
> base liqueur for a nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and ginger cordial, that
> took another year to make.
> 
> Despite its complexity, the only remark I got (on this one item) was
> that my fruit I started with wasn't period. My fruit? The pineapple.
> 
> I didn't have the following with me at the event, but some of you may
> want to add this info to your own library for your own future reference.
> 
> ***********
> 
> http://www4.webpoint.com/spokane_food/ckhistry.htm
> 1493
> The fragrant fruit Columbus "discovered" pineapple on the West Indies
> island of Guadeloupe. The people there called pineapple nana, meaning
> fragrance. This lovely fruit wasn't introduced to Hawaii until centuries
> later. The first recorded planting there was January 21, 1813. That
> event launched an entire industry. Today our 50th state supplies most of
> the pineapples in the world.
> 
> ***********
> 
> According to Waverly Root in his encyclopedic
> book entitled _Food_, pineapple was discovered
> on the West Indian island of Guadeloupe in 1493
> by companions of Christopher Columbus.
> 
> Root goes on to say (in part):
> 
> "When Europeans discovered the pineapple, it was a
> case of love at first sight.
> 
> "It was first accurately described in 1535 by Gonzalo
> de Oviedo y Valdes, who reported that it had
> delicious taste which combined the flavors of melons,
> strawberries, raspberries and pippins*....
> 
> "In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh wrote on pinas, the princesse
> of fruits, that grow under the Sun, especially those of
> Guiana.
> 
> "The only sour note in this paean of praise came from
> Charles V, who, as King of Spain as well as Holy Roman
> Emperor, had an early opportunity to taste the pineapple
> and refused for fear that it might poison him.
> 
> "As a rule any new food is slow to enter foreign diets;
> often two or three centuries pass before those unfamiliar
> with it dare eat it. The success of the pineapple was
> immediate; in a little more than half a century after its
> first discover by Europeans, it was being grown--and
> eaten--in tropical areas throughout the world.
> 
> "Its transfer to other countries may at first have been
> accidental. Ships leaving America took pineapples aboard
> to provide fresh food for their crews during the voyage
> ... and the crowns, cut off when the fruit was to be eaten,
> were planted wherever the ship touched land to see if
> they would grow there. We have written records of its
> cultivation in India, apparently already well established,
> in 1583. "
> 
> ISBN 0-671-22589-8
> 
> 
> Rory
> --
> Rory McGowen, CLM
> 
> Per fess Argent and Vert ermined Argent,
> in chief three Lacy Knots Gules.
> "I told him we already got one."
>  - Monty Python's Holy Grail