[Sca-cooks] Re: artichoke quote

[Terry Decker]

If, as The Cambridge World History of food states, that the Ancient Romans
ate artichokes and brought them to the British Isles, your thesis doesn't
hold water.  The Roman Empire predates the Islamic Expansion and the
Sephardic Jews.  I tend to think, the earlier date for the artichoke (and an
African origin) is correct, but there is enough scholarly dissent that a
careful study of the available information is warranted.

I would point out that chickpeas were used in Europe long before the Middle
Ages and that while the eggplant was probably brought from India early in
the Islamic Expansion, there are a number of eggplant recipes in the
European corpus.  Simply eating chickpeas and eggplant would probably not
identify a Moorisco.  I would need to go back and carefully go over A
Drizzle of Honey, but, IIRC, it was most often the manner of preparation or
the avoidance of pork that figured in the food related accusations.

Personally, I hope you will put together a more detailed presentation.

Bear


>
> 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