[Sca-cooks] Re: Zucche = gourd?

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 21 Sep 2002, at 13:49, A C Baker wrote:

[quoting Cariadoc's information in the Florilegium]
> "The white-flowered gourd, Lagenaria sicereia," seems to "have been
> common to both Old and New Worlds" (Whitaker). I am told that the
> Italian Edible Gourd is a species of Lagenaria and available from,
> among others, J.L. Hudson, Seedman (P.O.Box 1058, Redwood City, CA
> 94064). Simoons describes a Lagenaria still used in modern Chinese
> cooking. We have obtained what we think is the right gourd from a
> Chinese grocery store and used it in period recipes with satisfactory
> results. The taste and texture are somewhat similar to zucchini but
> less bitter. The Chinese, or perhaps Vietnamese, name for one variety,
> which the grower assured us had white flowers, is "opo."
>
> David/Cariadoc

There is a picture of this gourd, which I find in local Chinese and
Indian grocery stores on the following web page:
http://www.cucurbit.org/family.html?=lagetx.html

Click on "lagenaria" in the index frame on the left.  Look at the
rightmost picture in the sixth row down.  (Light green, shaped kinda
like a butternut squash.)  If you place your cursor over the image, a
label pops up: "Edible 'opo squash' fruits".  Click on the image for
an enlarged view.

>         So, I think this is my answer (I notice that a recipe
> almost identical to which we will be using, 'Torta from Gourds' is
> also included in this Florilegium file - but as from Platina, rather
> than from 'Maestro Martino', as Redon et al. list it in "The Medieval
> Kitchen".)!

I have cooked with this squash, though not in the recipe you're
using.  It does indeed have a texture rather like zucchini, and a
similar mild flavor.


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net