[Sca-cooks] Fruit or vegetable?

[David Walddon]

>


> So, the first differentiation is that anything that is not a mature  
> ovary
> (tuber, rhizome, leaf, etc.) is a vegetable.  You should also  
> consider that
> "fruit" is a common term that also has the strict botanical meaning  
> you
> quote above.  "Vegetable" is a common term not used botanically.  A
> botanical synonym would be "plant."  Common usage tends to lack the
> precision of scientific usage and therefore may have broad,  
> irregular or
> overlapping scope.

I think that the main problem is that from a culinary standpoint  
(usage) the definition is variable.
 From a scientific standpoint fruit seems to be easily defined (as  
above) but I can not find a "scientific" definition for vegetable.  
The closest is the broad definition of anything from the plant  
kingdom that is edible and then broken into sub-groups such as leafy  
vegetables, root vegetables, fruit vegetables, etc.

> Platina wrote in Latin.  Unless you are reading a Latin transcript,  
> you are
> looking at a translation of the original text.  In translation, the
> translator tends to choose phrasing best understood by the target  
> audience
> rather than the most precise wording.  You need to check the  
> original to try
> to determine what Platina was actually saying.

I was looking at the Latin and English side by side and always going  
back to the original Latin (Milham). The problem is that he defines  
fruit in several different ways in different sections of the first  
five books and some contradict each other or confuse the definition  
of what is a fruit. Unfortunately he doesn't give a strict scientific  
interpretation. :) Sometimes tells the reader if the product he is  
referring to is a fruit or vegetable, but not always.

> I would point out that "vegetable" in its early sense means "having  
> to do
> with life and growth."  Vegetable, as we use it, meaning "having to  
> do with
> plants" is apparently an artifact of the late 16th Century.  A dip  
> into the
> OED (which I don't have available right now) should provide more  
> information
> about the shift in usage.

The OED was helpful in the sense of giving MANY of the different  
definitions, but not so helpful in making a decision on a working  
rubric for the research.

So far I think I am going with "If Platina calls it a vegetable is it  
is one. If he does not differentiate between the two I will use  
"common" culinary notion of a vegetable and if there is any question  
as to the exact nature I will note it".

How does that sound?

Eduardo