[Sca-cooks] Potatoes, revisited

[Terry Decker]

Tannahill is interesting, but very minimal as are most of the survey works.
The most accurate single piece I've run across is in the Cambridge History
of Food.

Far more useful to understanding the spread of the potato are the various
contemporary references.  The freeze dried instant mash is actually a
description of how the natives prepared potato starch for extended storage
at high altitude.  I've seen no evidence that the Spanish used the technique
for their stores.

Bear


>Reay Tannahill's "Food in History" has a section on
>the potato, should that help.
>
>Looks like they started in Peru, got used as ships
>stores by the Spanish (in the form of freeze-dried
>instant mash: no, really!), and then got very
>confused by Gerard's Herbal.