[Sca-cooks] Pineapples and their adoption in Europe

[Stefan li Rous]

Alys Katherine mentioned in her review of PPC 81:
<<< Slightly post-period is "The Pineapple in England" by Sandra  
Sherman which
starts with one of the earliest references to pineapples in 1674.  There
are numerous citations of written references with appropriate quotations
from those sources.  Her sentence sums up the article's intent: "In this
article, I want to discuss the pineapple's mystery, and its slow
domestication as an item of consumption on eighteenth-century British
tables." >>>

When I saw this, my first thought was "Uh oh. Have I been telling  
folks at demos when I run the New World/Old World food game the wrong  
thing about pineapple? I've been mentioning that it was one of the  
fastest New World foods to be adopted in Europe. And yet this article  
is saying "earliest references to pineapples in 1674". Which is well  
out of our period.

So I went back and looked in my pineapples-msg file. And found:
 > "In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh wrote on pinas, the princesse
 > of fruits, that grow under the Sun, especially those of
 > Guiana.

So, at least one Englishman knew of Pineapples prior to 1674.

And further the rest of this message supports what I was telling  
people at the demo, although it looks like I need to say the Spanish  
adopted it very quickly, rather than using the generic "Europeans".  
I'm pasting that message here, just because I thought some of you  
might be interested who weren't in the original discussions. Again,  
there is more info in the pineapples-msg file in the Florilegium.

Stefan

And the New World/Old World food game apparently went over very well  
at the demo last Saturday. Apparently the baron heard some of the  
attendees discussing it on the other side of the event while watching  
the fighters. No one got all of the foods correct, though, but then  
this time I didn't have any SCA cooks who tried the game. For more on  
this game, see my demos-msg file.

--------
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 ****

-------
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 22:17:50 -0600
From: "Michael Newton" <melcnewt at netins.net>
Subject: SC - Fw: QPT & Pineapple

Any other comments? or sources?
Beatrix
(who is allergic to pineapple - it makes me itch)

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Rory McGowen" <pcfry at DSTSYSTEMS.COM>
To: <CALON-BREW at crcvms.unl.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 3:13 PM
Subject: QPT & Pineapple

 > I am sending this to the brew list to head off what I ran into this
 > weekend at QPT. In case some of you weren't there, I entered a large
 > selection of what my persona would be making and serving in the local
 > tavern.
 >
 > Among the many different beverages, was a Cordial, that I had made  
from
 > start to finish. It started as fresh fruit that I cut up myself, and
 > made into wine. After letting the wine sit for a year, I  
fractionalized
 > (freeze distilled) it into a wonderful brandy. I then used it as the
 > base liqueur for a nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and ginger cordial, that
 > took another year to make.
 >
 > Despite its complexity, the only remark I got (on this one item) was
 > that my fruit I started with wasn't period. My fruit? The pineapple.
 >
 > I didn't have the following with me at the event, but some of you may
 > want to add this info to your own library for your own future  
reference.
 >
 > ***********
 >
 > http://www4.webpoint.com/spokane_food/ckhistry.htm
 > 1493
 > The fragrant fruit Columbus "discovered" pineapple on the West Indies
 > island of Guadeloupe. The people there called pineapple nana, meaning
 > fragrance. This lovely fruit wasn't introduced to Hawaii until  
centuries
 > later. The first recorded planting there was January 21, 1813. That
 > event launched an entire industry. Today our 50th state supplies  
most of
 > the pineapples in the world.
 >
 > ***********
 >
 > According to Waverly Root in his encyclopedic
 > book entitled _Food_, pineapple was discovered
 > on the West Indian island of Guadeloupe in 1493
 > by companions of Christopher Columbus.
 >
 > Root goes on to say (in part):
 >
 > "When Europeans discovered the pineapple, it was a
 > case of love at first sight.
 >
 > "It was first accurately described in 1535 by Gonzalo
 > de Oviedo y Valdes, who reported that it had
 > delicious taste which combined the flavors of melons,
 > strawberries, raspberries and pippins*....
 >
 > "In 1595 Sir Walter Raleigh wrote on pinas, the princesse
 > of fruits, that grow under the Sun, especially those of
 > Guiana.
 >
 > "The only sour note in this paean of praise came from
 > Charles V, who, as King of Spain as well as Holy Roman
 > Emperor, had an early opportunity to taste the pineapple
 > and refused for fear that it might poison him.
 >
 > "As a rule any new food is slow to enter foreign diets;
 > often two or three centuries pass before those unfamiliar
 > with it dare eat it. The success of the pineapple was
 > immediate; in a little more than half a century after its
 > first discover by Europeans, it was being grown--and
 > eaten--in tropical areas throughout the world.
 >
 > "Its transfer to other countries may at first have been
 > accidental. Ships leaving America took pineapples aboard
 > to provide fresh food for their crews during the voyage
 > ... and the crowns, cut off when the fruit was to be eaten,
 > were planted wherever the ship touched land to see if
 > they would grow there. We have written records of its
 > cultivation in India, apparently already well established,
 > in 1583. "
 >
 > ISBN 0-671-22589-8
 >
 > Rory
 > --
 > Rory McGowen, CLM
------