[Sca-cooks] Curdled milk/Quark/Ricotta???

[Jones, Craig]

Please don't turn her off of trying to be historically accurate.  In the
case of the tomato, outside of Gerard, the evidence suggests that it was not
commonly used in cooking.  Gerard can be considered suspect because he is an
Englishman speaking about the Spanish (Italians, etc.) and his recipe is of
the "it is said" school rather than first hand observation.

Pierandrea Mattiolo's description of the tomato appears in 1544, so we can
surmise the tomato had arrived in Italy by then and that they were probably
one of the yellow varieties, as he referred to them originally as "mala
aurea" or "golden apples."  IIRC, the
Drake manuscript (40 to 50 years later) from the Pierpont Museum describing
some of the plants in the West Indies has plates of tomatoes and a brief
description of how they were used by the natives (with thanks to Johnna for
finding the facsimile).

If she chooses to use them, she might try Gerard's recipe or some of the
information from the Drake manuscript.  She does need to recognize that such
use is of questionable historical accuracy and should be noted as such in
any documentation.

Just as a parting thought, Oliver de Serres thought that "love apples are
marvelous and golden."  "They serve commonly to cover outhouses and arbors."

Bear

>The last
>thing I am going to do is turn her off using period stuff by giving her a
>blanket "You can't do that!"  Instead, I am looking for ways to guide her
to
>he information that she needs to do this as authentically as possible.
>
>Brangwayna Morgan