[Sca-cooks] Noce d'India

[tgl at mailer.uni-marburg.de]

<< ... where did you get the reference to using "a ground powder from
the kernel of coconut"? >>

This was an attempt to make sense of two passages in herbals. One is the
German Hortus Sanitatis (1485) where it is said that the inner parts
("das ynwendig") are used for medicinal purposes and where it is said to
use it as a powder ("gepuluert"). The second place is the herbal of
Mattioli in the German edition of Camerarius who call the inner parts
"Der Kern" (the kernel; Nucleus). Now I am not sure what exactly should
be used from these inner parts, at any rate, one of the internal uses
begins: "Diese Nüsse gepuluert mit Zimmetrören ..." (These nuts powdered
with cinnamon ...). -- I am not sure if this makes sense in respect to
coconut or if there was some old confusion between the two. E.g., the
Hortus sanitatis says that some authorities say nux indica is humorally
warm and dry, and that other authorities say that it is warm and moist.
Now, coconut is said to be warm in the second degree and moist in the
first degree. Nux muscata is said to be warm in the second degree too,
but DRY in the second degree. Given the fact that the term _nux indica_
was also used to designate nutmeg (at least this is what 15th century
German glossaries say) this might be a source of mixing up some
properties of coconut and nutmeg.


The next question: whether or not
<< ...Coconut may possibly have been *eaten* at this time. >>

I don't know, but here are some passages that point to "yes" for certain
regions and certain times.

1. Europe's medical texts from the arabic tradition deal with the
question of how easy or not certain parts can be digested and they
mention combinations that ease digestion.

2. Albrecht Duerer, the famous artist, in his 1520 Diary of a travel to
the Netherlands, at least three times says that he was given
"jndianische nuß" (indian nuts, probably coconuts), two times from a
Portuguese he meat there:
-- "Mein wirth hat mir geschenckt ein jndianische nus" (Dürer, Tagebuch,
ed. Stupperich 156b.6; dazu Anmerkung S. 185: "Kokosnuß")
-- "Die mahl hab ich mit Portugales gessen: jj. Der Ruderigo hat mir 6
jndianische nuß geschenckt" (ebd. 162a.23f.)
-- "Jtem am samstag vor Judicae hat mir der Ruderigo geschenckt 6
jndianische groß nuß, gar ein sonder hübsche corallen ..." (ebd.
166b.220f.)
'Rodrigo donated me with 6 big indian nuts'.

All in all, Duerer got 13 indian nuts on three occasions (there may be
more passages in the diary that have escaped me). He does not state what
he did with them. But as Rodrigo often donates Duerer with other food
stuff, I guess they could have been meant for consumption.

3. There is a 1536 text from France on trees, fruits etc. [pdf-version
at http://gallica.bnf.fr] in which the author mentions that the inner
parts of nux indica were eaten by noble Italian women. A very
interesting passage:

"Caeterum nucis Indicae nucleo matronas Venetas nobiliores vti solitas
audiuimus, vt pinguiores & saginatiores suis viris appareant" (Robert
Estienne, Seminarium arborum, 1536, p. 105)

'In addition we have heard that noble women of Venice used to eat the
kernel (the inner parts) of the Indian Nut, in order to look more fat
and more corpulent to their husbands'

This is in spirit with what the medical authors say about nux indica,
e.g. Castore Durante in his herbal: "reddit edentes Pingues", it makes
those who eat them fat.

So much on Indian nut and ancient visions of female beauty.

Thomas II