[Sca-cooks] Pumpkins?

[David Friedman]

>Hello all, I am new to this list so I'm sure this has been discussed 
>before but I can't find a good answer for my question.  In reading a 
>number of 14th century recipes I have found references to using 
>pumpkins.  I have always thought of pumpkins as a new world gourd so 
>I assume that they are using the word to describe some other gourd. 
>What might be the closest modern approximation to this old world 
>gourd?

Our (Betty and mine) current guess is the White Flowered Gourd, 
Laganaria Sicreia (sp?). There is a gourd called "Opo" available in 
Chinese grocery stores which we think is probably Laganaria, but we 
aren't sure.

The opo we have cooked tasted rather like zuccini. But most of our 
familiar gourds and pumpkins are a single species--C. Pepo--so it may 
well be that different varieties of Laganaria differ just as they do.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com