[Sca-cooks] coconuts

[Stefan li Rous]

 > Jeanne P / Casamira <jeannecas at gmail.com>
 >> Was Coconut milk ever used?  Can it be documented?
 >> I know it's not part of Mediterianian, French or English medieval
 >> fare.

Well, this talks more about the coconut meat than the milk, but the 
following message is from the coconuts-msg file in the Florilegium:

> Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 23:39:03 +0200
> From: tgl at mailer.uni-marburg.de
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Noce d'India
>
> << ... where did you get the reference to using "a ground powder from
> the kernel of coconut"? >>
>
> This was an attempt to make sense of two passages in herbals. One is 
> the
> German Hortus Sanitatis (1485) where it is said that the inner parts
> ("das ynwendig") are used for medicinal purposes and where it is said 
> to
> use it as a powder ("gepuluert"). The second place is the herbal of
> Mattioli in the German edition of Camerarius who call the inner parts
> "Der Kern" (the kernel; Nucleus). Now I am not sure what exactly should
> be used from these inner parts, at any rate, one of the internal uses
> begins: "Diese N=FCsse gepuluert mit Zimmetr=F6ren ..." (These nuts 
> powdered
> with cinnamon ...). -- I am not sure if this makes sense in respect to
> coconut or if there was some old confusion between the two. E.g., the
> Hortus sanitatis says that some authorities say nux indica is humorally
> warm and dry, and that other authorities say that it is warm and moist.
> Now, coconut is said to be warm in the second degree and moist in the
> first degree. Nux muscata is said to be warm in the second degree too,
> but DRY in the second degree. Given the fact that the term _nux indica_
> was also used to designate nutmeg (at least this is what 15th century
> German glossaries say) this might be a source of mixing up some
> properties of coconut and nutmeg.
>
> The next question: whether or not
> << ...Coconut may possibly have been *eaten* at this time. >>
>
> I don't know, but here are some passages that point to "yes" for 
> certain
> regions and certain times.
>
> 1. Europe's medical texts from the arabic tradition deal with the
> question of how easy or not certain parts can be digested and they
> mention combinations that ease digestion.
>
> 2. Albrecht Duerer, the famous artist, in his 1520 Diary of a travel to
> the Netherlands, at least three times says that he was given
> "jndianische nu=DF" (indian nuts, probably coconuts), two times from a
> Portuguese he meat there:
> -- "Mein wirth hat mir geschenckt ein jndianische nus" (D=FCrer, 
> Tagebuch,
> ed. Stupperich 156b.6; dazu Anmerkung S. 185: "Kokosnu=DF")
> -- "Die mahl hab ich mit Portugales gessen: jj. Der Ruderigo hat mir 6
> jndianische nu=DF geschenckt" (ebd. 162a.23f.)
> -- "Jtem am samstag vor Judicae hat mir der Ruderigo geschenckt 6
> jndianische gro=DF nu=DF, gar ein sonder h=FCbsche corallen ..." (ebd.
> 166b.220f.)
> 'Rodrigo donated me with 6 big indian nuts'.
>
> All in all, Duerer got 13 indian nuts on three occasions (there may be
> more passages in the diary that have escaped me). He does not state 
> what
> he did with them. But as Rodrigo often donates Duerer with other food
> stuff, I guess they could have been meant for consumption.
>
> 3. There is a 1536 text from France on trees, fruits etc. [pdf-version
> at http://gallica.bnf.fr] in which the author mentions that the inner
> parts of nux indica were eaten by noble Italian women. A very
> interesting passage:
>
> "Caeterum nucis Indicae nucleo matronas Venetas nobiliores vti solitas
> audiuimus, vt pinguiores & saginatiores suis viris appareant" (Robert
> Estienne, Seminarium arborum, 1536, p. 105)
>
> 'In addition we have heard that noble women of Venice used to eat the
> kernel (the inner parts) of the Indian Nut, in order to look more fat
> and more corpulent to their husbands'
>
> This is in spirit with what the medical authors say about nux indica,
> e.g. Castore Durante in his herbal: "reddit edentes Pingues", it makes
> those who eat them fat.
>
> So much on Indian nut and ancient visions of female beauty.
>
> Thomas II

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****