[Sca-cooks] Pre-Columbian Foods

[Stefan li Rous]

Daniel replied to me with:
> Was written:
> > I seem to remember there was a New World ant that produced a sweet
> > substance, which was used in a rather limited fashion.
> Yes IIRC the ants in question use members as a living repositiory of
> food. Nectar is stored in individual ants who resided in special 
> chambers in
> the mound.  These ants IIRC are native to the US southwest.
So were these actually harvested for the sweet nectar? Hmm. "hunted" 
doesn't seem quite right when applied to ants. Anyone know how these 
were used? Pick them out and eat them as is? Take a bunch and squeeze 
the honey out and store the honey?
> Was asked:
> > Is there a type of rabbit native to the New World?
>
> The cotton tail so well known in Southern folk lore ("Brier Rabbit")
I thought Brier Rabbit was English. Or maybe I'm thinking of a 
different British rabbit tale.
> and the jack rabbit of the southwest as well as the snowshoe hare of 
> the north
> all spring to mind.
Yes, but were all of these native to the Americas? Or were they 
imported from Europe.
> I seem to recall that hares, rabbits and conies while
> related are distinctly different.  Any rabbit/rodentologists on the
> list?
Well, the differences between these have been discussed on this list 
previously. I just don't remember American rabbits being discussed. 
Those interested might take a look at this file:
rabbits-msg       (20K)  1/17/00    Medieval rabbits. As pets and food.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/ANIMALS/rabbits-msg.html

For recipes:
rabbit-dishes-msg (52K)  3/20/02    Period rabbit and hare recipes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MEATS/rabbit-dishes-msg.html

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****