[Sca-cooks] Re: artichoke quote

[Judith Kingsbury]

Greetings,
 
Admittedly, I am rather new to period cooking and thus tend to be very quiet on this list, but from my reading of Sephardic and Arabic recipes. . .the artichokes were brought to Europe via the Arabs and Jews and were not liked by many non-Semitics for many a century.  Semitic foods also included chickpeas and eggplants and eating them was used by the Inquisition to indicate Secret Jews.
 
Yours in Service,
 
Miriam bas Levi residing in the
Canton of GallaVally, the Barony of Dreiburgen, and the Kingdom of Caid


Chris Stanifer <jugglethis at yahoo.com> wrote:

--- Johnna Holloway wrote:

> Ermolao Barbaro, in his In Dioscoridem corollariorum libri quinque,
> finally published in 1530, writes that at the end of the fifteenth 
> century artichokes
> were not always available in Italy; the implication may be that they 
> were not
> particularly esteemed at that time. The artichoke, he said, speaking of 
> Venice, is
> found only in the foreign gardens in the Moorish quarter.


There it is. That was the particular quote which gave me the impression that the artichoke was
not a 'mainstream' or commonly used item in SCA period. The impression that it was grown only in
selective gardens further impresses that it may have been more of a cultural favorite, which
didn't take well with the common man of Western Europe. I may, in fact, be mistaken about this,
but that is the impression I am getting. As always, if there is further proof that the artichoke
(and not the cardoon being mislabeled as an artichoke) was more prevailant in period, I'd love to
see it. I do likes me some artichokes.... ;)

William de Grandfort
Norman Invader



			
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