[Sca-cooks] RE: SC - bananas - long

[Decker, Terry D.]

Thanks for all the information, Cindy.  I'll be adding it to my notes.

I remembered the quote from Oviedo as mentioning shoots, but I was in error.
That comes of trying to work off the top of my head.

I'm including the quote translated from Oviedo and some information about
the commercial trade in bananas which helps provide insight into the
problems of transporting bananas.

Bear


"There is a fruit here which is called "Plantanos"...nor did they use to be
in the Indies but were brought hither....Obe hears on all sides that this
special kind was brought from the Island of Gran Canaria in the year 1516 by
the Reverend Father Friar Tomas de Berlanga of the Oreder of Predicadores,
to this city of Santo Domingo whence the spread to other settlements of this
island and to all other islands peopled by Christians.  And they have even
been carried to the mainland and in every part they have flourished....The
first ones were brought, as has been said, from Gran Canaria, and I saw them
there in the very monastery of San Francisco in the year 1520.  Also they
are in the other Fortunate of Canary Islands and I have heard say they are
found in the city of Almeria in the Kingdom of Granada.  They say that this
plant was passed thence to the Indies and that to Almeria it came from the
Levant and from Alexandria and East India."

Oviedo, y Valdez, Gonzales Fernandes de, "Historia general y natural de las
Indies, Islas y Tierra-Firma del Mar Oceano"; Toledo, 1526.


"Bananas were first imported commercially into England in small quantities
from Madeira in 1878 and from the Canary Islands in 1882, but were regarded
as exotic rarities.  In 1884 the total importations into England were about
10,000 bunches.  In 1892, Arthur H. Stockley and A. Roger Ackerly for Elder,
Dempster and Company, began importations from the Canary Islands, and about
this time Fyffe, Hudson and Company also started to import bananas from
these islands.  During the next decade the fruit passed from what might be
termed the 'luxury stage' to that of an everyday food.

"Minor C. Keith about 1896 or 1897, commenced trial shopments of Costa Rica
bananas from New York to Liverpool in the fastest avialable Atlantic liners
of the time.  The bunches, with the ends of the stems covered in asphaltum,
were packed in dried banana leaves and placed in crates of boxes.  One
thousand to two thousand bunches were shipped weekly in this manner and the
fruit sold at auction at Covent Garden, London.  Some of the fruit arrived
in good shape and sold as high as the equivalent of fifteen dollars a bunch,
but too often it arrived in spoiled condition.  At the end of a three-year
period, Keith found that he had lost some $15,000 in the venture and stopped
shipments.

"In 1901, the Imperial Direct Line between Bristol and Jamaica was started
by Sir Alfred Jones, Chairman of Elder, Dempster and Company, and
steamships, especially fitted with refrigerating apparatu, loaded at Jamaica
a cargo of about 25,000 bunches once a fortnight."

Reynolds, Philip Keep, "The Banana, Its History, Cultivation and Place Among
Staple Foods;" Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, 1927.


"Immediately upon the arrival at the wharf of the first trainload of
bananas, the loading of the steamship begins and continues day and night
without interruption until completed....The cutting orders and the train
schedules are arranged so that a continuous flow of druit is assured.  A
cargo of 85,000 bunches is dispatched in about fifteen hours.

"...Each class of fruit is ususally put by itself.  Bunches are stowed on
end, resting on the lower end (butt) of the stalk in from one to four tiers
in the following manner; one, two or three standing (end to end); one two or
three standing and one flat; or, one, two ro three standing and two flat.
The spaces between bunches, between hands and stalks, and between the
fingers, form natural channels for the circulation of air.

"...All ironwork is properly sheather, and rough surfaces as well as sharp
edges are eliminated to prevent bruising and discoloration of the fruit.

"Each compartment is divided into bins of convenient size by verticle wooden
partitions of open construction called "shifting boards" (similar to the old
farm gate).  These wooden bars, or bin boards, keep the fruit from shifting
and from becoming crushed from the roll and pitch of the ship in heavy
weather.

"Refrigeration, as applied to banana cargos, is the treatment of the fruit
with cooled and properly conditioned air, and should not be confused with
the customary cold-storage operation in which low temperatures are
essential.

"In transporting banana cargoes in good condition, there are three principal
opposing factors to be met, i.e., heat, humidity, and vitiated air.  At the
beginning of a voyage when the hatched are closed, these three factors are
exerting their maximum influence against the fruit.  During this time the
temperatures of the outside atmosphere and of the sea-water are at their
maximum.  This is the most critical period for the banana cargo, and quick
control of temperatures, with full efficiency of refrigeration, is
imperative.  As the impure atmosphere created by the respiration of the
fruit has a potent ripening influence, ir is essential that the air in the
holds be kept fresh, especially during the period of temperature reduction.

"...It is the usual practice to "pre-cool" the holds of a refrigerated
steam-ship for a period of twelve hours just prior to loading.  When the
vessel is loaded, every effort is made to reduce the temperature to the
desired drgree in the briefest time possible...

"...In the early stages of cooling, the amount of heat given off by the
average cargo of bananas is about 8,000,000 British thermal units per hour.

"...According to the distance, route, and speed of the vessel, the voyage
from the various banana ports of Central America and Jamaica to New Orleans,
Mobile or Galveston consumes from there to five days; to Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, or Baltimore, about seven or eight days; and to British and
Continental ports, fifteen or sixteen days.  On account of the longer ocean
voyage, the bananas shipped to the European market are of a slightly thinner
grade (less fully developed) that those sent to the United States."



Temperatures in Fahrenheit

56                         Holding ripe bananas
58                         Holding green bananas
60                         Slow ripening
62 to 66               Normal ripening
68                         Fast or forced ripening
72 or over           Danger of cooking


Reynolds, Philip Keep, "The Banana, Its History, Cultivation and Place Among
Staple Foods;" Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, 1927.