[Sca-cooks] New World Foods / potato in Rumpolt?

[Terry Decker]

I believe that should be Dauphin (or possibly, Dauphine, the wife).

I have no problem with the Dauphin eating potatoes prepared in the manner of 
truffles, but I would really like to know which Dauphin and I would like to 
know how he had his truffles prepared.

The guy in England is probably John Gerard.  He received his potatoes in 
1586.  Carolus Clusius received his samples in 1587.  The earliest record of 
potatoes in use in Europe (as poverty fare) is 1573 in Spain (where they may 
have been imported from the New World), but they were likely not in major 
cultivation for they don't show up in Clusius's study of the plants of Spain 
in 1576.  To my knowledge, leaving aside the questionable recipe in Rumpolt, 
all reports of eating white potatoes are after 1590.

The idea that they regularly eaten in Germany is probably from Clusius's 
herbal, "The Italians do not know where they were first produced. Certain it 
is, however, that they were obtained either from Spain or from America. It 
is a great wonder to me that, when it was so common and frequent in the 
Italian settlements (so they say), that they feast upon these tubers, cooked 
with the flesh of mutton, in the same manner as upon turnips and carrots, 
they give themselves the advantage of such nourishment, and allow news of 
the plant to reach us in such an off-hand way. Now, indeed, in many gardens 
in Germany it is quite common because it is very fruitful."

Note that this was published in 1601 and does not give a clear indication of 
when they became common in Germany.  The evidence suggests that white 
potatoes were not in general use or cultivation in Europe for most of the 
16th Century.  If the botanical specimens didn't reach Central Europe until 
the mid-1580s, I seriously doubt that they were in common use at that time.

Based on the evidence, I think one can say that in general, potatoes were 
not eaten in Europe and that they weren't common in Germany much before 
1590.  Italy is a slightly different matter, but I don't think you can place 
potatoes (as botanical to the Vatican) before 1547.  I would think 40 to 50 
years to move them from Rome north to Southern Germany would be about right. 
One needs to consider temporal as well as spacial precision.

I would like to see a copy of this paper.

Bear

>I have read a research paper showing that the Daphne of France ate Potatoes
> prepared just like Truffles and in Germany they were eaten regularly.  But
> in England only one guy had them in his hothouse and they were considered
> odd.. all of this is in the 16th century.  My point being to say in 
> general
> a food was not eaten in our time period is a misnomer and should be
> carefully researched for differences in regional preferences.
>
> Jana