[Sca-cooks] Food Origins

[Daniel Myers]

Quoted from Christine Seelye-King - 5/22/02, 8:50 PM -0400:
>> [snip]
>>
>> >Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean Foods
>> >Broccoli (late period)
>>
>> Oooh!  Pet project of mine!  What evidence have you found to support this?
>> I have a very strong suspicion that modern broccoli (as well as
>> cauliflower) only remotely resembles anything available in period.
>>
>The first time I heard this was in a Medieval Vegetables class I took years
>ago, and her main source at that time was a National Geographic article from
>several years ago called "Our Vegetable Travelers" or something close to
>that.  We went to the library and got a copy of the microfiche of it, so I
>have it here somewhere if I must dig it out.  She stated that broccoli was
>late period, known mostly in Italy.  On the Goode Cookery site, it says that
>cauliflower was around during late Rennaissance, and that our modern
>broccoli was something different from what was known to the Romans.  They
>are both related to cabbages, which in many other forms were available at
>various times, pretty much all over.  I'll have to go look up Mr. Root and
>see what he says about it.
>Christianna

I've got the National Geographic article (got the whole set on CD).
Nothing conclusive there that I remember but I'll recheck it and see if I
missed anything.  Below is an article I wrote for the local newsletter on
Broccoli - mostly a fluff piece, but the basic concept is there.

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Natterings of a Fool

There is something that has concerned me for quite some time.  Some may
consider it of less importance in the general scheme of things, but it
caught my attention a while back and has been tormenting me ever since.  It
is thus that I began my quest through the realm of knowledge ...

In Search of Broccoli!

Many years ago, a cook who's knowledge I respected prepared a dish for one
feast containing noodles and broccoli.  "It's Italian," he said, and I
filed that information away for future reference.  Then a couple of years
ago I came across a reference that stated that broccoli is a modern
vegetable and was in no way period.  "That's curious," I thought to myself
- which is my favorite way of thinking.  I filed it away for future
reference and promptly forgot about the whole thing.

Then the Broccoli Conundrum reared its head yet again last year, but this
time in my garden.  I'd found an "heirloom variety" of broccoli and thought
that it might be worth trying out.  I planted it and watered it and waited.
Instead of the sparse broccoli florets that I envisioned I was rewarded
with a thin, weedy looking plant that would be at home by the side of the
road.  This is broccoli?  My (easily) befuddled mind demanded an answer and
I started in on research about this important plant.

First I approached the concept that broccoli was present in medieval Italy.
The best resource I'd found for Medieval Italian cooking was "The
Neapolitan Collection" [Terence Scully, ISBN: 0-472-10972-3], but digging
through it I found no references to broccoli whatsoever.  Ok, so it may not
have been Italian.  But there weren't any references in "Medieval English
Gardens" [Teresa McLean, ISBN: 0-670-46482-1] either.

As a last-ditch effort I turn to the resource that is both comprehensive
and wildly inaccurate, the Internet.  Nope, no medieval broccoli, but I do
start to find some odd pieces that, when put together, form a compelling
(to me) whole.

So here's what I learned.  Broccoli is a variety of /Brassica oleracea/.
This in itself isn't all that interesting, but the same fact is true for
cabbage, kale, kohlrabi, chard, mustard, cauliflower, and collards.  All of
these plants share the same genus and species, and all of them can be
crossbred to produce a new variety.  The group as a whole were called
"Coles" in the middle ages (which I assume is where the word coleslaw came
from).  The name collard (a plant once commonly consumed across northern
Europe, and now relegated to the Southeast part of the US) is a corruption
of its medieval name "colewart" (literally "cabbage-herb").  Collards are
pretty consistent in form across the world.  Kale on the other hand comes
in a wide number of types, colors, and shapes, and was often referred to as
"borecole".

Hang on a second.  I looked at that word a long time - "borecole" - and I
recalled that in many cases of medieval spelling the "e" at the end of a
word was put there because that's how the word was pronounced back then.
That means that "borecole" may have been pronounced "BORE-KO-LEE".  Uh-huh.
That's a bit too close for coincidence in my book.  Borecole - borcolee -
brocolee - broccoli.  Yup, I think that's it.

So to the question "Is broccoli period?" I propose the following answer,
"Yes and No".  The plant we call broccoli is a modern variant, and is the
result of intensive crossbreeding for desired traits.  There was however a
plant referred to in period by the name "borecole" which was something like
kale or collards, and was the same genus and species as modern broccoli.
If you're going to make an authentic medieval broccoli dish then I'd
suggest using kale since it's probably a lot closer to what they would have
growing in their gardens - especially if it was anything like that
scraggly, waste of chlorophyl, heirloom variety I grew in my garden.

So, you want to hear what I learned about cabbage?


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 Edouard Halidai (Daniel Myers)
 I BELIEVE! http://www.bookofrefreshments.com
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