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

[Terry Decker]

>> Where would one get the tomatoes for the chili and spaghetti?
>Not to mention where would one get the chili peppers or even the pasta
>or hard flour to make the pasta from. The peppers were in Europe, but
>in southern Europe in Spain and Italy, not Germany. Even if they were
>obtainable, I think this might hinge on whether we are talking about
>upper class or lower.
>
>Stefan

Remember that little cookbook by Sabina Welserin?  The Welsers were financed
a private expedition into South America in the late 1530s.  The Fuggers,
Welsers and Hochstetters were funding Spanish and Portuguese exploration and
had agents in most of the Mediterranean ports.  They had their fingers in
most of the trade pies in Europe.  If something was in Europe, it could get
to Germany, or at least Augsburg, quickly.

You can substitute spelt for the durum flour in pasta.  Spelt was available
across most of Europe.  Also, just because we use durum flour for most
pastas today because it is the best for the purpose does not mean that 16th
and 17th Century Europeans limited themselves to durum flour for their
pasta.

Capsicum peppers appear in Fuchs Herbal of 1543, so they were known in
Germany then.  It is believed they entered Central Europe after the Turkish
conquest of Hungary in 1529 having be brought from Spain by way of Venice or
Genoa.  The Turks were early adopters of maize and it is believed they were
early adopters of New World squash and peppers.  The question is not whether
the peppers were in Germany, but whether they were used or not.

Bear