[Sca-cooks] Food in 1632? sorta OP/OT

[Terry Decker]

>> Chili:
>> Chili powder commonly contains ground dried chiles, it also includes
cumin,
>> oregano, cloves, coriander, pepper, and salt. They would not have had
access
>> to the chili's
>
>Hard to tell, since peppers were being grown, if not eaten, in Europe
>before 1600, and the story is set in 1632. We also think we've found
>peppers in painting dated not long after 1600.
>

Chili peppers appear in Leonard Fuchs Herbal of 1543 along with maize and
New World squash.  They appear to have been introduced into Central Europe
by the Turks.  The maize and squash made it into the kitchen gardens of
Germany.  The peppers are an open question.

>> No Tomatos
>
>Tomatoes were known by the English to be eaten in Spain either in 1597 or
>1629 (Depending on whether it was Gerard or his editor who put  the
>stuff about Tomatoes into the _Herbal_-- I'm inclined to believe Gerard
>wrote that., though.)

Tomatoes were being eaten in the Mediterranean countries by the late 16th
Century.  I've found no evidence for or against their use in Germany in the
early 17th Century.

>
>> Ground beef as we know it probably would not have been available (someone
>> else might have better insight on that.)

If you can make sausage, you can make ground beef.

>> The pasta itself, while they would have had pastas, the modern extruded
>> "spaghetti" would have been unavailable.
>
>I suspect that there is a way to make spaghetti without modern machinery,
>probably by stretching out rolled dough-- like making milleflori beads.

Rishta (threads) which appear to be a hand-cut spaghetti-like pasta from the
13th Century.  I believe the recipe is in al-Baghdad

>-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net