[Sca-cooks] Cream sauces

[Terry Decker]

The term courge appears in texts in relation to gourds and squash, so it has 
been used as a general term for both.  I assume the source for Vitha's 
recipe makes the connection between butternut squash and Raviolis de Courge. 
The confusion between the bottle gourds and the squashes shows in a number 
of languages, because of their similarity and the fact the better-tasting 
squashes simply assimulated the gourds position in the kitchen.  (Bloody New 
World Borg.)

Lagenaria is a genus rather than a species, specifically bottle gourds. 
Cucurbita is the genus for squashes.  Lagenaria and Cucurbita are both 
members of the family, Cucurbitaceae, which also contains the genera, 
Cucumis (cucumbers and possibly some melons), Citrullus (watermelon and some 
other melons), and Luffa (luffas).

Lagenaria are found in both the Pre-Columbian New and Old Worlds, but the 
current opinion is the New World Lagenaria are accidental transplants from 
Africa due to ocean drift or migrating birds.

Bear

> how do you make the link from courge to squash, and specificaly to
> butternut squash?
> Courge resembles courgette, wich is the current day french for
> zucchini. Afaik, european squash relatives are Cucurbitaceae
> Lagenaria, a species whose fruits are only edible young.
>
> Finne
>
> On 1/14/06, Terry Decker <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>> I am assuming that Raviolis de Courge is what is first recorded in the 
>> 13th
>> Century.
>>
>> While I am certain butternut squash ravioli is delightful, it is most
>> definitely not a 13th Century French dish.  The butternut squash 
>> (Cucurbita
>> moschata) is a New World vegetable.  The raviolis de courge of the 13th
>> Century would have been made with some type of bottle gourd (Lagenaria
>> siceraria).  Also, the modern butternut squash was hybridized in the 18th
>> Century by Auguste Parmentier (IIRC).
>>
>> That being said, there is quite a bit of confusion about whether squash 
>> or
>> gourds are being called for in the 16th and 17th Centuries, so the dish 
>> may
>> have been made with squash before 1600.
>>
>> Bear
>>
>>
>> > I am serving Butternut Squash ravioli for a feast on the 28th.
>> >
>> > The dish: Raviolis de Courge - Is a traditional french mountain-village
>> > dish is squash ravioli with walnut sauce.
>> > (Castrum de Guillermo.  Guillaumes was founded in the 10th century by
>> > Guillaume II, Count of Provence.  Remains of Neolithic habitation were
>> > discovered in a grotto in the Vallon de Cantet, 3 km southwest. There 
>> > are
>> > other various signs of Gallo-Roman and barbarian occupation. First 
>> > written
>> > record, 13th century.)
>> >
>> > Vitha