[Sca-cooks] Indian Nut

[Daniel Phelps]

Was written:

> The problem with a coconut from Cape Verde is the cookbook (which is
> probably the Anonimo Toscano) is late 14th or very early 15th Century.
The
> Portugese only located the Cape in 1456.
>
> It is possible that coconuts were shipped as part of the spice trade into
> Egypt then into Italy which would make the nuts expensive and rare.  I
have
> to admit, I haven't encountered the idea in any of my readings.
>
> One also needs to remember that coconuts are primarily found in the
Pacific
> and Indian Oceans and that those in West Africa were brought there
probably
> by trade, which may have occurred after the Portuguese started regular
trade
> with India.
>
> The history of the coconut looks like it might be fertile ground for a
> little research.
>
Check the Flori as I think that there is some information there in regards
our previous discussion a while back.  Be that as it may check the popular
reference book "The Book of Edible Nuts" by Frederic Rosengarten, Jr. as
pages 65 through 93 are specifically devoted to it and the first 5 pages to
its history.  Scattered notes on its history appear elsewhere in the entry
as well.    Apparently not know in the classical European world, i.e. Greek
and Roman, it does appear to be at the very least late period European, i.e.
very late 15th and 16th century via the Portuguese and Spanish and into the
17th century and out of period with the Dutch.  He opinions that the
Portuguese introduced it into the Atlantic Ocean basin after 1500 and the
Spanish to the Caribbean in the early 16th century.  First reference to it
being called the Indian nut is by Cosmos Indicopleustes an Egyptian monk
(545 A.D.) who isited Ceylon and western India.  He called it the "great nut
of India".  Marco Polo (1280) described it growing in Sumatra as well as
Madras and Malabar in India as nux indica, i.e. India Nut.  Alternatively it
is called tenga by the Italian explorer Lodoico di Varthema (1510) in his
Itinerario.  Coco in the word coconut apparently comes from 16th century
Spanish and Portuguese belief that the three markings on the shell of the
inner nut resemble the face of a monkey.  Of the modern languages only
arabic with Jauz Al-Hind seems to retain the Indian association.

I recall seeing references in books to period objects created from the inner
shell, most notably period goblets.

Alternatively in his entry on Betel nuts the only period European reference
is Marco Polo who does mention it repeatedly.  He does state that it reached
eastern Africa before 1500.

Daniel