[Sca-cooks] Tartoufles was Yams was Substitute for Potatoes? Digest, Vol 40, Issue 92

[Cat .]

OK, if the waters have calmed I will jump in too.

I have a class I have taught once so far (was scheduled again but Mother Nature had other plans) on the "Potato Puzzlement: is it or isn't it?" that included the 5 possibly period potato recipes I have found.. the 4 for Tartoufles and one for Erdtepffel.  I also noted the linguistic similarity between Tartoufle, Cartoufle and Kartoffel.

Anne Marie and Johnnae, thanks for all the great info, I will be adding much info to the handout for the next time I get to teach this hands on class.

At his Majesty Maelgwn's request I will be serving the Erdtepffel as part of the Kingdom of the Outlands Crown Tournament Feast on September 12, 2009.  And yes, the entire menu is chosen from Marxen Rumpolt's In New Kochbuch.

For those who want the transliterated recipe, and lots of other 1580's German veggie recipes:
http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_veggie1.htm

In Service
Gwen Cat


> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:40:38 -0700
> From: "Anne-Marie Rousseau" <dailleurs at liripipe.com>
> To: "'Cooks within the SCA'" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Yams was Substitute for Potatoes?
> Message-ID:
> <4703E500CBEF4F0EBF08DCA794F95362 at ANNEMARIE>
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> 
> Hello! My apologies for giving the simplistic
> explaination.
> 
> The original text in casteau describes several recipes for
> "tartoufles". The
> word in medieval Italian (I was told) meant "truffle" but
> the recipes made
> no sense to be truffles....(stewed in red wine and
> butter?  Roasted as one
> does chestnuts and served with sauce? )
> 
> In 1604, Olivier de Serres published his "theatre
> d'agriculture et mesange
> des champs". Therein he says "this plant, called cartoufle,
> bears fruits of
> the same name resembling truffles and so called by
> some"  this can be paired
> with a botanical drawing by another artist, clearly showing
> a potato vine
> and its roots(A History of Food, Toussaint-Samat)
> 
> Cotgrave does not give the word tartufle, as written by
> Casteau. He does
> however give the word Cartoufle (described as "a shrub that
> bears a
> mushroom-like fruit, also the fruit itselfe") and a
> separate entry for
> "truffe", which describes  "a most daintie kind of
> round and russet root, or
> rootie excrescence, which growes in forests, or dry and
> sandie grounds, but
> without any stalke, leafe or fiber annexed unto it"
> 
> We therefore can reach the conclusion that tartufle does
> NOT mean truffle
> (an item that had its own entry) and that cartufle based on
> cotgraves
> description meant potatoes. De Serre says that cartufles
> are sometimes
> called truffles by some (perhaps the Italians?) and there
> you go.
> 
> Definite proof? No, of course not, but a logical conjecture
> based on several
> independent contemporary sources.
> 
> Fun stuff, at least I think so :)
> 
> --Anne-Marie, who is a total geek sometimes :)