[Sca-cooks] skerrits?

[Daniel Myers]

On Oct 24, 2007, at 1:56 PM, Johnna Holloway wrote:

> OED lists skirret --* A perennial umbelliferous plant, /Sium  
> sisarum/, a
> species of water parsnip, formerly much cultivated in Europe for its
> esculent tubers; the root of this plant. In one or two 15th cent.
> glossaries /skyrwyt/ renders L. /eruca/, prob. in error.


Yup, this is what I've always understood - a "water parsnip".  I've  
heard that they can still be found in the UK but haven't found any  
here in the US (not even at Jungle Jims).


... Esculent?  That's an interesting sounding word ...

Dictionary.com says:
es·cu·lent  [es-kyuh-luhnt]
–adjective  1. suitable for use as food; edible.
–noun  2. something edible, esp. a vegetable.


I like it!

- Doc (word geek)


-=-=-=-
274. Take Mawlards, an let it kele, an than take it vp, and pyke it  
clene in-to a fayre potte, than take sugre a gode quantyte, and caste  
ther-to, an a lytil salt, an sette it on the fyre tyl it be sum-what  
thikke, but let it nowt boyle fullyche, and dresse it forth in a- 
nother dyshe with fayre hot water.  [The Boke of Swyllyng]
-=-=-=-