[Sca-cooks] Recipe for fried avocado from Trudy's North Star

[Decker, Terry D.]

I'd say take the Columbus tale with a grain of salt until "they" identify
the contemporary source.  Avocado is southern Mexico and south, so some
sources attribute it to Cortez.  Their use in the US doesn't start until
around 1833, when they were introduced into Florida by Henry Perrine.

Given the 2 to 3 month voyage from the New World, if you were an innkeeper
gifted with avocados, they would probably be unpalatable mush which you
would throw in the garbage.  In my opinion, outside of the tropical New
World, avocados were most likely found in botanical gardens and were rarely
eaten.

Bear

> Apparently, the "alligator pear" is cited amongst Columbus'
> discoveries so I
> see no
> reason not to use it in "speculative" period-style cookery.
> If an innkeeper such as myself was gifted with some of these
> by a passing
> mariner,
> what would she make of them?
>
> Selene, Caid