SC - Rellenos with beef?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

<<Does anyone on this list happen to know whether Italians drank cider
in period? >>

<< I seem to recall that the first "cider house" in England was
established in fairly late period, but, again, this is a fair bit
distant from Italy.  Perhaps someone could enlighten us as to whether
apples were prevailant in Italy during period, and from there we could
conduct a little research.  My uneducated guess would be that wine would
have been preferred over cider, perhaps to such an extent that it's
commercial production would have been very limited.  This is, of course,
only a guess.    Balthazar of Blackmoor >>

Platina (1468) distinguished between sweet apples which should be eaten
in the first course and sour/astringent apples which were more safely
eaten after meals.  There were varieties that were early ripening,
summer ripening, and those that kept in the winter, although he doesn't
name them.  His only comment re apple juice is that it easily turns to
vinegar when pressed.

Castelvetro (1614), writing for an English patron, wrote:  "Here should
have been the place to describe the enormous quantity of apples and
pears we have in such profusion, but since to do so would take up more
space than I have room for, I shall limit myself to describing only
those varieties which you do not have in England."  The only variety he
describes is the Paradise Apple.  He doesn't mention the general uses of
apples in Italy; several pages later, he goes into great depth re the
different types and uses of grapes, specifically wine-making.

So, it looks like apples were commonly available as a food, but I don't
have anything that says they were turned into something like cider in
period.

John