[Sca-cooks] OT - A little history

[Jeff.Gedney at Dictaphone.com]

> *****Bear's comments*********
> If tomatoes weren't introduced into England until the 19th Century, why
do
> they show up in Gerard's Herball, along with a southern European recipe?
No
> knowledge of the tomato, indeed!
>
> There are a number of European references to tomatoes from the 16th and
17th
> Centuries, which clearly demonstrate that Europeans, and the English in
> particular, knew of the tomato.  There are some recipes which suggest
they
> were eaten.  The correct statement should be there is no evidence of
> wide-spread use as a foodstuff until the 19th Century.

They, nonetheless, were American foodstuffs, and a relative of the deadly
nightshade, and the green parts can make you sick or kill you. Even
Gerard's Herbal mention their use as an infrequent thing, IIRC, saying that
in one area the fruit is eaten fruied in oil with a little salt.

A lot of interesting new world plants and animals were brough back to
Spain, and though Spain to Itlay, in the 15th and 16th ceturies. Not all of
them became popular with the Europeans.

What does appear clear, though, is that until the early 19th Century, when
Jefferson "proved" their safety and made a big deal of feeding them to his
ambassadorial guests, the Tomato did not appear as a common European
foodstuff, even in Italy.

So Snopes may have the detail incorrect, they have the spirit of things.
Certainly the presence of the tomato in preColumbian europe was not
possible. and the avoiding of them had nothing to do with the lead acid
reactions in the pewter. Lead oxide was a comon enough whitening agent in
cosmetics, and pipes and drinking vessels were made of lead with regularity
throughout period, so a connection to lead poisoniong form one foodstuff
would have been unlikely to have been drawn.


Brandu