[Sca-cooks] cucumbers and vegetable marrow

[david friedman]

>Maire commented:
>
>>Her ingredient references are also inaccurate--tea as an ingredient in
>>mead, use of kidney beans, references to cucumbers and vegetable marrow
>>(I'm assuming zucchini here? we've actually been discussing that on
>>H-costume) as "summer squashes."
>Okay, the tea is right out, as are the kidney beans. But what is the
>
>problem with the cucumbers and the vegetable marrow? I thought both
>of these were native to Europe. See:
>cucumbers-msg     (12K)  5/17/01    Medieval and period cucumbers. Recipes.
>http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-VEGETABLES/cucumbers-msg.html

According to Ann Hagen, there is no evidence of cucumbers from
Anglo-Saxon archaeological sites, is from Roman sites. There is a
word for "cucumber" in Anglo-Saxon. So it sounds as though Hagen is
agnostic as to whether Anglo-Saxons used them.

Cucumbers are old world, whether or not they are Anglo-Saxon. I think
"vegetable marrow" normally refers to New World squashes (C. Pepo in
particular). I'm not sure if it is ever used for the Old World gourds.

But Savelli claimed that cucumber and vegetable marrow were summer
squashes and used by the Anglo-Saxons.
--
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/