[Sca-cooks] salad of fennel and seville oranges?

[Terry Decker]

Both the Greeks and the Romans used fennel for seed and vegetable.  The 
fleshy, bulbous base probably wasn't present.  This is very likely to be the 
wild form of the plant known as "bitter fennel."  References in Atheneaus, 
Columella, Plautus, and Apicius.

Sweet fennel first appears in Charlemagne's order as to what to grow in his 
gardens.  It is probably a cultivated variety of the wild fennel, 
specifically grown for its better flavor when young.

Florence fennel, the bulbous fennel in supermarkets, has a reference or two 
that place it not earlier than the 17th Century.

Bear

> Does anyone have within easy reach any info on the anise/bulb variety  of 
> fennel? Seems to me that medieval varieties may have been non- fleshy, of 
> the sort that the French use today in dried form as a  seasoning herb for 
> fish dishes...
>
> I'll have to dig out a few books. I guess Tacuinum Sanitatis is the  place 
> to start.
>
> Adamantius