[Sca-cooks] period smoking and tobacco

Stefan li Rous StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Mon Oct 2 20:45:55 PDT 2006


Huette comments:
<<< This has led me to think about other New World items that were  
commonly accepted.  One of
them was tobacco.  There was very early acceptance of tobacco as an  
herb to smoke and as
a medicine.  Recipes for their use can be found in greater abundance  
than for tomatos. There
is evidence that tobacco was used by commoners [i.e. sailors and  
doctors] long before the
nobility became addicted.

While I am NOT trying to advocate the use of tobacco in the SCA, for  
whatever reasons,
tobacco is overlooked as an item to be used to add as an element for  
the SCA "atmosphere".
I, personally, don't smoke and I don't like being around smokers  
because all that smoke
makes me cough.  I know why people don't advocate smoking as an SCA  
activity.  But then
when people start trying to advocate using tomatos and tomato  
products for SCA banquets,
I cringe and wonder about how far we should go.  I wonder how many  
more people would
scream to high heaven if I would make a latakia pie than if I would  
make a tomato pie.
Sigh... Snerk... Cough... >>>>

What is latakia pie?

Tobacco? Yuck, smelly, cough, cough. There are more pleasant things  
to smoke which were period much earlier. So perhaps those looking for  
more period items to smoke and perhaps more common than the eating of  
the tomato, should check this file:
smoking-msg       (15K)  1/10/02    Period smoking of tobacco and  
other plants.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PERSONAL/smoking-msg.html

For instance:
<<< From: greg at bronze.lcs.mit.edu (Greg Rose)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Smoking at events
Date: 13 Nov 1994 23:41:16 -0500
Organization: Guest of MIT AI and LCS labs

Hi, Angharad ver' Rhuawn here, feeling silly.

Aleksandr the Traveller says,
 >  Actually, those of us from early period who come from points east  
or have
 >travelled as I have should be smoking substances other than tobacco  
- hmm,
 >wonder of an educational organization can get the same kind of  
exemption
 >from certain dracconian laws granted religious organizations like  
the Native
 >American Church?
 >
 >   "But officer, I was just giving a class on the historic growing  
of hemp
 >and the use of its various components during the Middle Ages. How  
can one
 >truely teach such a subject without, uh, inhaling ...."

Actually, in the Middle East, virtually every medical text from period
describes treatments that involve smoking herbs wrapped in silk or paper
(the pictures look remarkably like cigarettes).  The most common  
substance
in them, I believe, will get you in rather more trouble than hemp.

Comes from poppies.

Now, if you want a well documented use for hemp in period, try Plotina's
recipe for hemp soup.

-- Angharad/Terry >>>

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****




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