[Sca-cooks] Potatoes, revisited

[Decker, Terry D.]

I can see mistaking a Jerusalem artichoke for a sweet potato at first
glance, but the flesh and taste are different.

If you can find out, I'd like to know your sources and which primary sources
they are presumably referencing.

I'd also like to know the source of the ruff starch bit.  It sounds
fascinating and I haven't come across it.

Bear


> IIRC, Neither is North American.
> The confusion seems to come from the fact that occasionally
> the Jerusalem
> Artichoke was called a potato in some of the early
> descriptions of Virginia
> and Florida.
>
> I did come across a reference to the White potato being used in ruff
> starching by the Elizabethans, because potato starch did not muddy the
> colors ( colored starch such as purple, red and blue being
> something of a
> fad for a short time in the 1580's )
>
>
> Brandu
>
>
>