[Sca-cooks] Partly OP: Brown vs. white rice?

[Terry Decker]

>How early was rice grown in Spain and Italy?  Rice is featured in many
>English sources from the 14th and 15th centuries.  Also note that
>saffron is one of most common spices referred to in "Two
>Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books" - it appears to have been used
>extensively in spite of its cost.  Sugar was brought in to England from
>Cyprus and was still used quite heavily.

Rice was being grown in Spain in the early 8th Century, shortly after the
Moorish conquest in 711.  It was being grown in Egypt prior to that and was
probably being grown along the Levantine Coast to Syria.  It was being grown
in Cyprus and Sicily by the 10th Century and was being grown in the Po
Valley of Northern Italy by the 15th Century.

England imported sugar from Cyprus, Egypt and the Barbary Coast.  Rice would
have probably been cheaper than sugar.

>
>Further, the preservative effect of de-germing the rice would still be
>important if the rice were imported to northern Europe from the
>Mediterranean basin instead of from the Far East.
>
>- Doc

I think you are overestimating the value of de-germing.  Most grain was
shipped whole and milled as needed.  I see no reason for rice to be any
different.  Most grain was eaten within two years and most milling did not
seperate the germ.  With favorable winds, it is only a few weeks from the
Mediterranean to northern Europe, so long term storage was not an issue.

Bear