[Sca-cooks] Pumpkin

[David Friedman]

>I am working on a feast menu for January based mostly on Apicius. 
>There are several recipes calling for Pumpkin -
>
>Just what sort of pumpkin should I be looking for?  Big Orange 
>Jack-o-lantern just seems wrong.  Isnt' it a new world thing?

All of our standard pumpkins and squashes are New World. There are 
old world vegetables that look rather like some squashes. At least 
some of them are Lagenaria Siceria (sp?), the white flowered gourd, 
which is still used in modern Chinese cooking and I think perhaps in 
Italian.

What translation of Apicius are you using? The fact that it 
translates the relevant word as "pumpkin" is at least some evidence 
that it may be an unreliable one. I gather that Vehling is about the 
least reliable of the translations, Flowers and Rosenbaum the best.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com