[Sca-cooks] Horchata - Barley Water

[Ana Valdés]

Sorry, I believed chufas were a local name for almonds! I tried to buy
horchata in Alicante two weeks ago, in the end of April, and all
stores and bars turned me off saying: "it's too ealy, come back in
Summer". Alicante is in the Valencia province, south of Valencia.
Ana

On 5/19/07, Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com> wrote:
> Arianwen ferch Arthur wrote:
>
> > OK--I'm confused  the only mention of Rice is that
> > later someone substituted barley for the rice???
> >
> >
> >
> Yes, Valencians primary rice growers in Spain substituted rice for
> barley in the 15th C. temporarily thus indicating the evolution of the
> word horchata (meaning made from barley) to different context. Rice was
> cheaper than barley there. All peasants had rice. The Arabs introduced
> rice to Valencia and chufas which grow like weeds in the Mediterranean
> so chufas replaced rice.
>
> "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" wrote:
>
> >
> > What I'm wondering is whether the earthnut referred to above is the
> > modern groundnut, or what Americans call peanuts...
> >
> > */ <http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/apiame.html>/
> > *
> No the scientific name for groundnut is Apios americana indicting that
> that is one of your products not one from the Mediterranean, peanut is
> Arachis hypogaea,  I am talking about what the Spanish call chufa,
> scientific name Cyperus esculentus translated into English as earthnut,
> earth almond or chufa. You will have to tell me which word is most
> commonly used in the USA.
>
> Susan Fox/Selene wrote
>
> > I thought modern orgeat was almond flavored.  The bottle in my kitchen
> > certainly is.  OH dear, I would be so easy to poison
> >
>     To me the chufa does not have an almond taste but perhaps someone
> can enlighten us as to why it can be called earth almond. The chufa is
> totally a Mediterranean plant not available in New World at least at the
> time when Spanish immigrants incorporated their recipes into American
> cooking so it stands to reason that the horchata - orgeat you know it is
> almond based as the trees did take root there.
>     As far as poisoning is concerned bitter almonds are only poisonous
> when raw and you know it when you eat one from they are so bitter you
> spit them out! If your orgeat is made with bitter almonds instead of
> sweet ones (non-poisonous) the drink is totally harmless as the lethal
> elements are eliminated by boiling.
>
> Ana Vald?s wrote:
>
> > In Spain the horchata (only served and made in Summer), is made with almonds.
> >
> >
>     No, as explained above horchata today in Spain is made with chufas
> not almonds. In Valencia horchata is available year round at kiosks on
> the street. Perhaps in other regions it is only available in the summer.
> Obviously horchata sales increase in summer as horchata is a thirst
> quencher.
>     An antedocte of this is that  food cravings during pregnancy were
> discussed a lot when I was pregnant in Madrid. One American friend sent
> her husband all over Madrid in the middle of the night in search of
> popcorn when it was a rarity there. Another friend who had several
> children in Valencia made husband take her to the park after lunch to
> buy her horchata to satisfy her craving, no matter what time of year it
> was!
> Suey
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
>


-- 
Skarpnäcks Allé 45 ll tr
12833 Skarpnäck
Sweden
tel +468-943288
mobil 4670-3213370


"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you
will always long to return.
— Leonardo da Vinci