[Sca-cooks] Winter squash

[Johnna Holloway]

There are recipes that call for "pumpkins"
prior to the discovery of the new world squash. The translation of
pumpkin has commonly been used for curcurbitas, says John Harvey in Mediaeval
Gardens. The word appears prior to the voyages of discovery.
What some modern cookbooks have done and what
the Pepperidge Farm Cookbook did, as an example, was use the new world
pumpkin and jump back into a 15th century recipe calling for a what would
have probably originally been a bottle gourd that was translated as "pumpkin".
Milham translates the same recipe as "Gourd Pie" in her rendition of Platina.

There are all sorts of problems with the various Curcurbitas plants
as to what was used or being grown. It varied widely and the fact that
many of the plants cross pollinate doesn't help the situation.
David Stuart's The Kitchen Garden is good as is Alan Davidson's Oxford
Companion. Part of the problem now is that in the US in certain seasons
we can buy squash or pumpkins, but we can't buy the European marrows. A number of cookbooks
will discuss the matter and offer suggestions. Others just ignore the situation
and say 'buy a local pumpkin."

Of course by the late 16th century when a recipe appears in the Epulario
calling for gourds or pompeons, one might very well use the North
American pumpkins.

 Johnnae llyn Lewis