[Sca-cooks] Earthapples

[Terry Decker]

Kartoffel is a corruption of the Italian "tartuffel."  In 1591, there is a
recipe for preparing "taratouphli" in a letter between Wilhelm IV von Hessen
and Christian I von Sachsen.  Anna Weckerin's cookbook of 1597 is stated to
have contained a recipe for Kartoffelnrosti (I haven't been able to confirm
this one).  And around 1593, Gaspard Bauhin (Burgundy) commented on the
Cartouffe (a French corruption of the German Kartoffel) which had reached
him from Germany by way of Switzerland.  From this, I would say that
Kartoffel was the wide-spread Germanic name for the white potato from it's
first appearance and that Erdapfel and Grundbirne are localized terms whose
usage may have changed over time.

Wilhelm Friedrich II decreed in 1774 that potatoes be grown as a hedge
against famine.  He backed the edict with gifts and guns.  The use of the
potato as a famine food began in the Low Countries toward the end of the
Thirty Years War in mid-17th Century and continued to spread over the next
hundred years.  Friedrich II's decree was a continuation of the process.
Interestingly, the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-79) became known as
the Kartoffelkrieg, because the soldier used the potatoes for field rations.

And don't worry about contradicting me.  I've been wrong many times and even
if I'm not I may learn something new.

Bear


>
> Could it be that the word Kartoffel (~truffle) was in fact some sort of
> propaganda to get the prussish farmes to plant it? AFAIK, the term
Kartoffel
> originated neither in southern Germany (Erdapfel) nor in western Germany
> (Grundbirne). And some prussish King (I guess Friedrich II) really wanted
to
> have potatoes in Prussia.
> Just some thought; I don't want to contradict the learned Bear :-)
> kai