[Sca-cooks] Citrus Fruits

[Johnna Holloway]

They were serving sweet oranges in France at the Court during
the late 1400's. Platina also mentions two a sweet orange. See my posts
about this in July--
my notes show that >there was a sweet orange available in Europe prior 
to 1500. >Louis XI of France sent for "sweet oranges" during his reign 
 >and Platina also mentions that some oranges are tart and some sweet. 
 >No idea as to where Cosman got her original idea for the recipe. 
 >There was a later introduction of another larger sweeter, orange by 
the >Portuguese >in the 1520's too as Bear notes. > >back to editing > 
 >Johnnae

Johnnae

Avraham haRofeh wrote:

>The earliest citrus arose in Southeast Asia, probably in the Malay 
>Archipelago. According to references I found on the web, the lime, the 
>citron, the mandarin and the pomelo are probably the oldest species, known 
>in China since 500 BCE. The citron was known in Italy as early as 20 BCE, 
>but it is the least tasty of the ancient citruses. The bitter/sour/Seville 
>orange was known in China by 300 BCE, and may have reached Rome as early as 
>100 BCE. The sweet orange doesn't appear in Chinese records until 1100 CE, 
>and Indian records around 1300. My source does not indicate when any of 
>these reached Northwestern Europe.
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And the source for this was what?