[Sca-cooks] Thistle Recipe from Fabulous Feast

[Johnna Holloway]

Vaccinium is the genus with Vaccinium myrtillus
being the European berry being called the bilberry
which according to Alan Davidson has darkish purple
blueish berries. In the UK they were also called
whinberry and also blaeberry.

Nanna talks about them in connection with Icelandic foods
 in the columns/postings collected in the
Florilegium file Food of medieval Iceland.

Vaccinium berries in the US cover 3 main types
High Bush -- v. corymbosium
rabbit-eye -- v. ashei
Low bush -- v. angustifolium
Davidson notes that nomenclature in the past was confused,
so blueberries in the early colonial times might have
been called hurtleberries, huckleberries, and bilberries.
If the early settlers called the native blueberries under
the name "bilberries"  it's probably a safe bet that
that they used the same recipes for both, subsituting the
New World Vaccinium varieties for the bilberry.

This is another one of those questions that revolves around
what it is that we can find locally. European bilberries don't seem to be
 marketed locally here,except as caplets for improving
eye health.
http://www.wholefoods.com/healthinfo/wholehealth/bilberry.html

Michigan blueberry sites howver include
http://www.blueberries.com/
http://www.msue.msu.edu/fruit/bluberry.htm
http://www.michigan.gov/mda/0,1607,7-125-1570_2468_2471-12863--,00.html
http://www.mda.state.mi.us/kids/countyfair/crops/blueberries/06.html

Bet you can't tell that Michigan grows a lot of blueberries,
hosts 3 national festivals, and that this is a popular school
report topic.

Johnnae


Terry Decker wrote:

>What we call blueberries are New World, but the term encompasses a number of
>blue fruits primarily in the genus Vaccinium (some of which, IIRC, are found
>in the Old World).  You might also check on bilberries.  There was an
>extensive discussion of this on the list a couple of years ago and the
>discussions made it into the Florilegium.
>
>Bear
>
>  
>
>>Well, blueberries being New World, probably not any period recipes for
>>    
>>
> <>them.We are talking Fab. Feasts here, so who knows where the original
> <>idea/recipe came from?
> Christianna
>
> The period ingredient I'm familiar with for coloring things blue is
> turnsole. Does anyone know of a period recipe that uses blueberries
> for coloring? That uses blueberries at all? So far the nearest I have
> found is a reference to whortleberries (which can be a name for
> blueberries) in Hildegard of Bingen--warning against eating them,
> because they are bad for you.
> --
> David/Cariadoc