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

[Chris Stanifer]

--- Paul Buell <pbuell at speakeasy.net> wrote:

> My feeling is late 16th century earliest, via the Philippines. Alas, we lack
> the detailed source material that would allow us to determine more
> correctly. The Chinese love to combine plants under a single name, making
> use of the Bencao literature difficult at best. Paul


So, even if we were to find an existing recipe from this time period which mentions a commonly
known 'capsicum' pepper, it could very well be that the pepper the author is describing is *not* a
capsicum variety.  Alternately, capsicum peppers may have been quite prevailant within the latter
part of our period of interest in Asia, but we may never know because they may have been ascribed
an erroneous name.

So, without an actual extant text which describes, in minute detail, the peppers or ingredients in
question, we will never know if capsicum peppers were commonly used in Asia during our period of
interest.  Anything else will be speculation and guesstimation at best.

William de Grandfort




> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phlip [mailto:phlip at 99main.com] 
> Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 10:54 AM
> To: SCA-Cooks
> Subject: Discussion of usage of capsicum peppers in Asia in our period.
> 
> 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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=====
Through teeth of sharks, the Autumn barks.....and Winter squarely bites me.


		
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