[Sca-cooks] RE: Tomato evidence

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

>I really don't think there are
> vast armies of control freaks going around putting scarlet
> "authenticity" A's on everything for which there's not a lot of
> evidence, but which people like (such as tomatoes, for instance). I
> do know a lot of people have consistently said, essentially, "We
> really don't have a lot of evidence and so we really don't know for
> sure. Maybe. Maybe not." The little bit of evidence we have suggests
> tomatoes were eaten, but what's unclear is when, where, and by whom.

Yup. This is a bit different from the things we _do_ have recipes for...
(Turkey, for instance.)

> >After all, there is very sparse documentation of early use of native European
> >fruits and vegetables commonly found and used since Neolithic times.

Actually, it depends on what fruits and veggies you mean. For instance, we
are lucky enough to have (wait for the blasphemy...) archaeobotanical
evidence that verifies the presence of many plants in specific sites over
a long period of time, many in contexts that indicate that they were
almost certainly consumed.

However, that still doesn't tell us how they cooked the stuff-- for
instance, what the heck they were doing with all those sloes, and why they
seem to have swallowed the pits. ;)

> >who plagiarized quite regularly (like Gerard).  In the case of our great guru
> >Gerard, he was a plant collector, not a cook, and tended to print any rumour
> >he heard about a plant in other climes (e.g. look at his "goose barnacle
> >tree").

With Gerard and other herbalists and agricultural writers, check to see if
they cite that they have seen such and such a plant growing in such and
such a place.

[btw, I've never heard Gerard referred to as a guru on the Cooks List--
you may be thinking of the herbalists lists. Gerard doesn't have enough
recipes. ;) ]

Iasmin gave me (and I have it SOMEWHERE) her article on the perils of
using Gerard as a source because both editions generally available are
from the Johnson edition...

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
	"Index your brain."