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

[Susan Fox-Davis]

"Decker, Terry D." wrote:

> 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.

I don't much care when they were introduced in the US, that's all after SCA
period.
The earliest citation I find online is 1519, not by Cortez but "Suma de
Geografia" by Martin Fernandez de Enciso.
<http://www.arc.agric.za/institutes/itsc/main/avocado/origin.htm>

> 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.

I'm just proposing a "what if?" exercise.  It could happen;  avocados can keep
for a couple of months under refrigeration, what about in cold sea water?  What
would 16th Century English sensibilities make of the "butter pear"?  Is it too
rich for Lenten use, or a handy vegetarian substitute for beef marrow on fast
days?

It's still expensive;  in late 20th Century England they still cost two pounds
each.  [I have not been in England since 1981, prices may have changed but I
suspect not by much.]

Selene, mean and green in Caid