[Sca-cooks] Corn Bread

[Volker Bach]

lilinah at earthlink.net schrieb:
>
> Someone on our Kingdom list is arguing that old line: if they had
> ingredient X in period, they must have had cooked dish Y. In this
> case, the discussion is centering around...
>
> Cornbread
>
> My experiences in Europe indicate that even today, corn, i.e., maize,
> is not a commonly eaten food. This person is arguing that since
> Renaissance Europeans made bread, they must have made cornbread once
> they discovered corn.

As an aside - that is true. Most maize in Northern
Europe to this day is grown as pig food or as a
source of industrial starch. Shows what culture
can do, even in our own enlightened times.

> I think that this is not a logical argument. Can anyone point out the
> pros or cons of this discussion? If i'm wrong, i'm willing to admit
> it.

In my opinion the main fallacy is the idea that
because something was possible it was done. Many
historical periods could do things, technically
speaking, but for some reason or other chose not
to, at least on a major scale. Take high seas
fisheries, for example - surely a people as
maritime-minded as the Vikings could have managed
it, but they didn't want to. Or wheels - the
Aztecs put wheels on toys, but it never seemed to
occur to them to put them under carts. The
omission of baking maize into bread on the part
opf the Spanish certainly is not a major item in
such a list.

> Another person says that since they have a late period Spanish
> persona, they can freely eat tomatoes, potatoes, and corn.

Well - sure. Question is, why would their persona
want to try all that odd, newfangled novelty
stuff. And where would they get it?

> IIRC, there is some evidence in the 16th c. for tomatoes cooked as a
> vegetable in Italy (and maybe Spain), and sweet potatoes (but not
> *white* potatoes) eaten in Spain in period. However, i don't recall
> maize coming up on this list as a food eaten in Spain or other parts
> of Europe in the 16th c.
>
> I welcome all information - particularly about corn, i.e., maize.
>
> Anahita
>
> The discussion has also been about chocolate and stew, which someone
> in the thread insisted that just because there's no evidence, it's so
> simple and obvious, it must have been eaten since humans first
> figured out how to cook in pots (not a quote).

Chocolate? You mean like 'hot chocolate' or the
modern stuff? Modern chocolate requires pretty
sophisticated technology to produce. As to stew, I
would agree. We have archeological evidence from
the European Mesolithic for cooking stones that
were used to heat liquid, and for boiled
vegetables and grains. What else would you need?

Giano