SC - Pumpkins and such...

[LadyEbonSwan at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/18/00 5:07:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
TerryD at Health.State.OK.US writes:

<< Pumpkins and squash come into use in Europe during the 16th Century and 
they
 appear in very late SCA period paintings.  The paintings I've seen suggest
 they were eaten, but they don't seem to make an appearance in the recipes
 (they may have simply replaced the gourds in cooking).
 
 As a piece of guesswork, the giant varietals are modern hybrids, while the
 smaller pumpkins, like the Small Sugar, would be closer to the 16th Century
 pumpkin.
  >>
    
    If I might put in my two cents' worth here....

    I've been lurking for about a week or perhaps more; finally I found a 
topic I can jump in on, more or less.  But first, a wee introduction....

    My name is Siobhan MacDermott; I've been playing off and on in the Barony 
of St.Swithun's Bog, Kingdom of Aethelmearc for almost nine years 
now...(wow...I hadn't thought till now that it was that long!) I haven't been 
very active in a while; two babies in as many years kind of nipped that in 
the bud for a time!  I'm also a living historian (snotty way to say 
re-enactor) with a Civil War unit, which took up what little time I had left. 
 With both of these persuits, I've become the cook by default, for love of my 
playing with period recipes and chasing people down to try them, with mixed 
results.  Y'know, if you trip 'em, they sit still long enough to shove a 
pasty or two in their mouths....

    At any rate, I've worked with a lot of recipes with pumpkin, and in my 
circles as well, the origins of pumpkins and squash have been bandied about.  
The results of my research (which I'm praying isn't the notebook I saw my 
toddler disappear with a few days ago) was that:

    Pumpkins and most types of "winter" squash (acorn, hubbard, pumpkins and 
the like) are indeed products of the New World, and therefore would not be 
appropriate for anything but extreme late period (SCA) dishes.  I did, 
however find a most tantalizing hint as to just how far back the said 
squashes were used in European/Colonial cooking in a little book by the title 
of "New England Rarities", by Josselyn [1671].  An example (quoted from yet 
another notebook from Lord knows what feast I was  considering throwing 
together)....

    Pompion Sause

    The Housewives manner is to slice them when ripe and cut them into Dice, 
and so fill a pot with them of two or theree Gallons and stew them upon a 
gentle fire the whole day.  And as they sink they fill again with fresh 
Pompions not putting any liquor to them and when it is stir'd enough it will 
look like bak'd Apples, this Dish putting butter to it and a little Vinegar 
with some Spice as Ginger which makes it tart like an Apple, and so serve it 
up to be eaten with fish or flesh.  

    
    ...what I found to be really interesting was that his comment about this 
dish was that this was "that ancient New England standing dish".  I don't 
expect it to be much more than a few decades older than this publication, but 
it did give me a stepping stone in my research.  Another interesting note is 
that while I was living in France while in high school (exchange program and 
all), I stayed in Provence, near Marseilles.  Stewed pumpkin is a very common 
side dish there, and apparently has been (at least according to my host 
mother and her mother, who were Belgian) for longer than they can remember.  
Huh.  Just try serving that to your kids here..::chuckle::  

    And another side note...a lot of the solid pack pumpkin in cans and the 
pie filling found in stores are not only mostly squash of varying varieties 
(they all taste somewhat alike when similarly prepared), but are also colored 
with an extract from carrots.  When making pies from scratch, the resulting 
color is a gray-ish color.  Tastes wonderful, though.  

    Anyway....there's my two cents!  

    Siobhan MacDermott