SC - re: Green Bruet recipe

[Claire Galibois]

> >Tamales
> >    (filled dough, steamed) cornmeal, salt, black beans, onions,
> cheddar
> >    cheese, oregano, olives, pine nuts, garlic, cumin, olive oil
> 
> Are you saying that this was a meal an early sixteenth century 
> Spanish sailor could have eaten--presumably with the New World 
> ingredients being used in dishes we actually know were made in the 
> New World in the 16th century? I didn't think our information on 
> South American dishes was that good.
> - -- 
> David Friedman

It isn't that good. It wasn't my feast, so I can't definitively say
that, no, though it's speculatively possible, I'd guess. It was a
Columbus day theme event, and I understood from the references in the
notes, that late period Spanish sources were used, with newly discovered
South American ingredients added for color and creativity. A sort of
- -Columbus goes to the new world and eats dinner- theme. I would guess
that some imagination was used to create any of the dishes with
specifically American ingredients, apart from the hot chocolate, which
drink as served I believe has been documented in early 17th Century
writings (yes, even that is a little late). 
Never the less, for interests sake, I'll quote from a message by Marian
Walke:
Antonio Colmenero wrote a book on "On chocolate" which was first
published in Madrid (in Spanish) in 1631. 
The following is a quote from "Food in History" by Reay Tannahill
(New York: Stein and Day, 1973), pp 287-289: 
    "In Spain by 1631, the preparation of a cup of chocoalate had 
  become a major operation. 'For every hundred cocoa beans, mix 
  two pods of chili or Mexican pepper...or, failing those, two 
  Indian peppercorns, a handful of aniseed, two of those flowers 
  known as "little ears" or *vinacaxtlides,* and two of those known 
  as *mesasuchil*...Instead of the latter one could include the 
  powder of the six roses of Alexaundria [an apothecaries' formula]... 
  a little pod of logwood [a dye], two drachmas of cinnamon, a 
  dozen almonds and as many hazelnuts, half a pound of sugar, and 
  enought arnotto [a dye] to give color to the whole.'" 
(I have a more raw translation, but it's essentially the same - Ian)
This is footnoted as "Antonio Colmenero, quoted by Alfred Franklin,
"Vie_privee_d'autrefois,..._12e_au_18e_siecles. (27 vol. Paris,
1887-1902). Vol XIII, pp.161-162. "Le cafe, le the, et le chocolat."

Ian Gourdon