[Sca-cooks] Citrus Question

[johnna holloway]

Alan Davidson has two full pages devoted
to oranges in The Oxford Companion to Food.
He says that the original mutation that
produced the distinctive color of the
blood orange was probably 17th century
in Sicily. He notes that Platina mentions
both sweet and tart oranges in his writings.

Johnna Holloway  Johnnae

"Decker, Terry D." wrote:> snipped
The significant points in the story are the mozaics in Piazza Armerina
> (central Sicily) which seem to support early introduction of blood oranges
> and that the classic citrus texts consulted (Ferrari, Hesperides; Rome, 1646
> is mentioned) had no references to blood oranges.  Having worked with
> artistic evidence, I consider the lack of information in the texts of
> greater import.>
> Blood oranges are a varietal of C. sinensis.  The first written reference to
> C. sinensis in Europe is around 1635 and according to one casual grower,
> blood oranges only start appearing in the literature in the early 19th
> Century.> Bear
>