[Sca-cooks] red tower feast?

[johnna holloway]

Robert Fuson's translation entitled The Log of
Christopher Columbus in the entry for 15 January
1493 concludes with:
There is a great deal of cotton here, very fine and long,
as well as a lot of mastic,and gold and copper. There is
also much aji, which is their pepper and is worth more
than our pepper; no one eats without it because it is very healthy.
Fifty caravels can be loaded each year with it on this Isla
Espanola. (p.175)

Fuson gives Aji as meaning chili pepper, not be confused
with aje (yuca or sweet potatoes) and ajo (garlic).

Andrew Dalby in Dangerous Tastes. The Story of Spices
(Unoversity of California Press, 2000)
suggests that Columbus may never have seen actual
allspice although he was assured that it was there...
a bush bearing small round fruits that lent a spicy taste
to food. Dalby also suggests that the aji found by
Columbus is that perhaps of C.chinese, the best known
cultivated versions today are those of the Jamaican
Scotch Bonnet.

So Bear when he suggested "Could be Columbus found Scotch bonnets."
may be right on the mark.

Johnnae llyn Lewis
Johnna Holloway



jenne at fiedlerfamily.net wrote:
>
> > Also, as I remember it, Columbus uses the generic "pimiento," which covers
> > all red, yellow or green peppers and all spice, not just Capsicum annum.
> > Could be Columbus found Scotch bonnets.
>
> I've seen some references to the idea that the 'pepper' that Columbus
> found and imported a sample of was allspice.
>
> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
> jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
> "Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."
>
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