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

[Huette von Ahrens]

That is because I asked the question privately.

My question was "How prevalent were capsicum
peppers in Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries?"

I have been having an argument with another
Laurel (who is not a cooking laurel) about
the use of capsicum peppers in Indian curries
and in Chinese food in general.  She contends
that since they were introduced within the SCA
timeframe it would be fine to use them in an
SCA banquet.  I said that they may have been
introduced, but they weren't prevalent.  When
Phlip sent me Dr. Anderson's reply, I forwarded 
it on to her, but she said that it wasn't
"definative" and even argued that he spelled a
Chinese word incorrectly. The "la jiu" he 
mentions should have been "la jiao", amongst 
other things and that the brown pepper he
refered to was not citrus but closer to a
renuncula.

Drakey, I hope you are okay.  Would you share
your bad news with us?

Huette
Phlip, if you want to, you can share this with
Dr. Anderson.

--- Craig Jones <drakey at webone.com.au> wrote:

> Um... What was the original question?  I can't
> seem to find the post.
> 
> Drakey - who got really bad news last night... 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:
>
sca-cooks-bounces+drakey=webone.com.au at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:sca-
> >
>
cooks-bounces+drakey=webone.com.au at ansteorra.org]
> On Behalf Of Phlip
> > Sent: Tuesday, 18 January 2005 5:24 AM
> > To: SCA-Cooks
> > Subject: [Sca-cooks] Discussion of usage of
> capsicum peppers in Asia
> in
> > ourperiod.
> > 
> > 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


=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com