[Sca-cooks] OT - A little history

[Ron Carnegie]

doc> 
doc> >> What does appear clear, though, is that until the early 19th Century, 
doc> >> when
doc> >> Jefferson "proved" their safety and made a big deal of feeding them 
doc> >> to his
doc> >> ambassadorial guests, the Tomato did not appear as a common European
doc> >> foodstuff, even in Italy.
doc> >
       I can't speak for the SCA period, but I can for the 18th century. 
The above quoted is a common story, but it is a myth.  Tomatoes were
growing in Williamburg here in Virginia in the 18th Century.   There are
a number of references to their presence here in various documents at
work.  It is possible however that these were as ornamentals. 

   In England,Gervase Markham's THE ENGLISH HUSWIFE gives instructions for raising
tomatoes in his section on kitchen gardens. (At least according to
foodways historian Karen Hess).  There are even receipts in some of the
English cookbooks of the period though not in large amounts. They are
still uncommon.   One of these is South Carolina"s  Harriott Pinkney
Horry's receipt book that
includes a receipt for preserving tomatos.

    There are by then quite a few references to tomato use in Spain
which Gerard states is common place in the 1590s.

-- 
Ron Carnegie <r.carnegie at verizon.net>
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	"The poetry of history lies in the quasi-miraculous fact that
	 once on this earth, on this familiar spot of ground walked
	 other men and women as actual as we are today, thinking
	 their own thoughts, swayed by their own passions but now
	 all gone, vanishing after another, gone as utterly as we 
	 ourselves shall be gone like ghosts at cockcrow."
				G.M. Trevelyan
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