[Sca-cooks] Period food myths

[Tara]

> Since all cultivated carrots can be classed as Daucus carota sativa, I don't
> see carrot color as a big issue for most feasts.
>
> If you're being a real stickler, either do late-16th Century Dutch or
> Flemish or grow your own heritage carrots.  (I can probably make a case for
> orange carrots being in Elizabethan England, but it's shakey.)

There were pictures in the Elizabeth David book _Italian Food_
demonstrating rather large, orange carrots.  Erm... let's see...
_Kitchen Interior_, Joachim Beuckelaer, mid-16th c.  I'm not sure why
this was in _Italian Food_ since he was a Flemish painter from Antwerp.
He also shows identical carrots in _Market Woman with Fruit, Vegetables
and Poultry_ and _A Country Market_.

I agree with you about not being a stickler for color.  While I do tend
to be a stickler on most points, the red and white carrots I've tasted
really don't taste any different from orange ones.  Color is a
presentation point which is worthy of consideration for, say, an A&S
contest.  But, when you're working on a budget for a feast, I wouldn't
consider it key.  Figure, what are our chances of getting period styles
of, say, strawberries at a feast-price?  Given the big difference
between alpine-type strawberries and big 'ol modern ones, I think the
visual discrepency in carrots is minor.  If I could afford another
specialty ingredient by skimping on the carrots, I would.

On the other hand, I'd be happy growing my own carrots for a feast, if
the timing were fortuitous.  I did get some red carrots to try this
year... but they got eaten with everything else in my garden.  Anybody
good at shooting groundhogs?

-Magdalena