[Sca-cooks] Discussion of usage of capsicum peppers in Asia in our period.

[Phlip]

Due to a question by a member of our list, I forwarded along a request for
information about potential usage of capsicum peppers in Asia during our
time period to Paul Buell and Gene Anderson. Apparently they arrived
somewhere between 1500, when they were not known, and 1700 when they were
well established, and I had mentioned to Gene that we really couldn't tell
until we could get either recipes or possibly bills of lading from the time
periods and cultures involved, and his reply added just a bit to our
knowledge of period practices, so I thought I'd share it.

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

>     One big problem with evaluating capsicums or anything
> else in China in the XVI-XVII centuries is the infuriating
> tendency of the Chinese to give everything the name of a
> familiar Chinese plant.  (Not that we would ever do that--
> corn, pumpkin [now an American squash, originally a European
> melon, pompion], etc., to say nothing of robin, blackbird,
> vulture, buzzard, and dozens of other transfer names.)
> Capsicum got slotted into either the long pepper or the
> Chinese brown pepper categories.  Today la jiu,
> literally "piquant brown-pepper," in Chinese.  And of course
> calling it "brown pepper" when it really is a sort of citrus
> relative is another ridiculous English transfer-name.  No
> wonder we use scientific names.
> best''g

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....



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