[Sca-cooks] Re: Potato question

[Daniel Phelps]

Well, for what it is worth ,the words potato and potatoes are each mentioned
once in the Bard's plays.

Let the sky rain potatoes.  Falstaff, The Merry Wives of Windsor, 5,5

Reay Tannahill in "Food in History" 2nd ed.  Writes in their regard:

"By 1573 they were common enough for the Hospital de la Sangre to order them
in at the same time as other stocks."  Salaman, p. 143 "The History and
Influence of the Potato" 1949.  According to her "it reached England direct
from the Americas when Sir Francis Drake, on the way to Virginia in 1586,
put into Cartagena in the Caribbean to revictual and brought some home with
him."

Magulonne Toussaint-Samat in "History of Food"  asserts that the potato was
painted in its botanical splendor in water color in approximately 1580 by
Pierre de l'Ecluse.

The OED suggests that there is some confusion in the 16th and 17th centuries
regards the plant the word refers.  It cites the earliest use of the word as
batatos to 1555.

Daniel