[Sca-cooks] Is Zuccnini Marrow?

[David Friedman]

>So you could use zucchini in any medieval recipe that calls for 
>young gourd. But zucchini is much wetter than white flower gourd, so 
>you may have to adjust the cooking time and the amount of liquid in 
>the recipe.

A lot of different varieties of our modern squash are all the same 
species-C. Pepo-and the same seems to be true of C. Lagenaria 
(white-flowered gourd aka ...  ). _Four Seasons of the House of 
Cerruti_, which is an illustrated text of the _Tacinum Sanitatis_, 
shows period edible gourds which don't look all that much like the 
Opo we've bought. I found a page online that shows a whole lot of 
varieties of what they describe as "Calabash Gourd (OPO Gourd, Bottle 
Gourd)," very different looking:

http://www.evergreenseeds.com/calgouropo.html

So although the opo gourds in the local grocery stores may be the 
best guess we have at period gourds, I don't think one can be sure 
that they represent the same variety, or the same detailed 
characteristics, as the gourds in period cookbooks.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com