Subject: SC - Unhistoric things we serve

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 21:20:35 -0500
> From: "RANDALL DIAMOND" <ringofkings at mindspring.com>
> Subject: SC - Unhistoric things we serve WAS:Shepherds Pie
> 
> Warning! Warning Will Robinson!  Andrea..... Bananas are
> period dating back to pre-Roman times.  Hannibals army
> were among the first Western Europeans to taste bananas.

I coulda sworn Hannibal's armies were primarily African, at least in
regard to their continental origins. Did they taste bananas in Europe?

> The reference to a huge bunch of grapes so big in Exodus
> in the Old Testement so large that two men carried it between
> them on poles has fairly universally been accepted as a King
> James mistranslation of a bunch of bananas.  They were grown
> in the Canary Islands by the Portugese before the discovery of the 
> New World.   A number of items now grown so extensively in the
> New World are actually Old World!  True, period bananas are not
> similar to modern breeds you get at the Safeway, but they are 
> absolutely period!  To find recipes, you will need to look at early
> Islamic and Judaic cookery (they will be hard to find I think).

I'm confused. I think this is an excellent example of the pitfalls of
placing too much expectation on the word "period". It seems they were
known by somebody, somewhere, in the SCA's time period. They don't
appear in the standard Western recipe corpus, AFAIK. They're mentioned
in Tacuinum Sanitatis, but IIRC it is evident the illustrators of the
manuscripts that mention them had never actually seen them or heard an
accurate description. They don't appear to have had much impact on life
in most parts of Europe, unless you count the Famous Tudor Banana Peel
Find. You suggest that there may be recipes in Islamic and Judaic
cookery, and that may be so, but what role does the banana, based on
what you're saying, have in the whole "Western culture" aspect of the
SCA's focus?    

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com