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

Fri Apr 14 19:50:18 PDT 2006

According to the Penguin Companion to Food, p. 667, "During the first centuries 
of the Christian era the orange began to spread beyond China, as the citron had 
done earlier.  It reached Japan well before the earliest surviving Japanese 
literature was written (the 8th Century), but it has always be less important there 
than fruits of the mandarin type.  It also reached India in early times; a medical 
treatise of about A.D. 100, the Charaka Samhita, mentions it for the first time by 
what was to become its modern name, 'naranga'. This word is said to be derived from 
an older Sanskrit term 'narunga'(fruit like elephants).  'Naranga' became 'naranj' 
in Persian and Arabic, 'narantsion' in late Classical Greek, and 'aurantium' 
(influenced by 'aurum'(gold)) in Late Latin, from which it is only a short step to 
the Italian 'arancia' and French and English 'orange'.

"However, the various questions which attend the etymology and the westward movement
of the orange are complicated by the fact that it was the sour orange which first 
travelled westwards, with the sweet orange only following about 500 years later.
The sour orange was apparently being grown in Sicily at the beginning of the 11th 
century and around Seville in Spain at the end of the 12th century, no doubt because
the Arabs had introduced the fruit in these places.  The sweet orange turns up in the
Mediterranean area in the latter part of the 15th century.  However, it is not always
easy to know, from the common names then in use, which sort of orange was meant.

"The earliest surviving description of the bitter orange in Europe was by the 13th
century writer Albertus Magnus, who called it 'arangus'.  (Another name was 'bigarade',
derived from Arabic.  Bitter orange juice was used as a flavouring.)

"The first mention of the sweet orange in Europe is sometimes said to be that in the
archives of the Italian city of Savona, in 1471.  Probably the seeds had come through
the Genoese trade route, which had extensive connections with the Near East.  However,
Platina (1475 but having prepared his work in manuscript in the preceding decade)
provides a better starting point.  He says that sweet oranges "are almost always
suitable for the stomach as a first course and the tart ones may be sweetened with
sugar", which shows clearly that he knew both kinds.

"Shortly after the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama returned from India after his
discovery of the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope, in 1498, the Portuguese began
to grow a superior kind of sweet orange which was said to be a direct import from 'China'
-- a vague designation which however came to be adopted as meaning the sweet orange.
Thus 'China' oranges which were an expensive delicacy in Britain from the late 16th
century on were in fact from Portugal.  And this Portuguese orange spread through
Southern Europe.  The modern Greek for orange is still 'portokali'."

Huette

--- Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> Snarky is fine.  It admits to its nonsense, "for the snark was a boojum, you 
> see."  I will accept the caveat of there being no linguistic certainty.  But 
> with Classic Latin, being "dead" and "fixed" and one of the most widely 
> studied languages around, it's difficult to see how one would miss "orange."
> 
> The orange fruit is interesting enough that it should have been described in 
> the Roman writings we have.  It isn't, so the odds are oranges hadn't 
> reached the Mediterranean by the 1st Century.  Platina writing in the 15th 
> Century used "citron" as the Latin equivalent of the orange in Master 
> Martino's recipes, which again suggests that there was no word for orange in 
> Classic Latin.  I'm certain Pliny would have pontificated on the different 
> types of citron if the word was being used generally for a variety of citrus 
> fruit.
> 
> Late Latin uses the word "aurantium" to describe the orange.  Late Latin
> roughly covers the 3rd to 7th Centuries, encompassing the rise of Byzantium
> and the Eastern Empire and the furthest extent of Roman trade (definitely
> into India and possibly into SE Asia).  Where and how the word came into use
> is indeterminable at present.  Due to the war and trade between the Romans
> and the Persians during this period, it is very likely that oranges were
> introduced into Byzantium from Persia, but were not readily available
> anywhere else in the Empire.
> 
> If one considers the timing, it is highly unlikely that oranges entered
> general cultivation during the height of the Roman Empire.  Citrons were
> brought to the Mediterranean in the late 4th Century BCE by Alexander's
> armies.  It is believed the orange was introduced into Persia by a Chinese
> embassy seeking allies against the Huns in the mid 2nd Century BCE.  The
> first reference to the "naranga" is from India in the 1st Century.  Roman
> advance into the region begins in the 2nd Century just as the Empire starts
> going to hell in a handbasket.  Between the decline in trade, the internal
> political problems and the military set backs, it is unlikely that many new
> plants made their way into the Mediterranean basin.
> 
> The evidence for oranges being in the Mediterranean basin  during the height 
> of the Roman Empire is sketchy, debatable, and anomalous.  It's not as good 
> as the Tudor banana.  As for NYX, I'm kinda curious as to how many orange 
> seeds have turned up in Roman middens or latrines.  AFAIK, none.  While 
> absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, in this case it is a pretty 
> good indicator.  Even if you turn up an orange tree in the right place and 
> right time, it is an anomaly until the tree can be tied to a wider culture 
> of orange cultivation.
> 
> I think I better end this disjointed pedantic ramble or I'll have to write a 
> paper.
> 
> Bear
> 
> 
> > Am Freitag, 14. April 2006 00:58 schrieb Terry Decker:
> >> Even if they did, they couldn't tell us.  Classic Latin didn't have a
> >> word
> >> for orange.
> >
> > ...that we know of. Sorry to sound snarky, but the science of ancient
> > culinary
> > language is not that exact. I don't think they had it, but if they did, we
> > might just overlook it on the assumption that some kind of apple or citron
> > was being referenced in the one spot.
> >
> > Among Roman army reenactors, the phrase for things like this is NYX - Not
> > Yet
> > eXcavated. Etiquette says, don't do it, but don't be all shocked once they
> > find it, either :-)
> >
> > Giano
> 
> 
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