[Sca-cooks] Is Zuccnini Marrow?

[Terry Decker]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Linda Peterson" <mirhaxa at morktorn.com>


So now I'm even more confused about marrows. They appear to be different
from zucchini, and more variable in appearance. Maybe we can get Michele
to grow some.

   mirhaxa at morktorn.com


Marrow is a very general and slippery term.  In the broadest usage, any New 
World squash is a vegetable marrow.  For example, I have a color plate in 
Elizabeth David's Italian Food that identifies a pumpkin-like squash (looks 
like a Japanese pumpkin to me) as a marrow.  In this usage, zucchini would 
be a marrow.

In the narrower, botanical usage, a marrow is any of the varieties of C. 
ovifera, a subspecies of C. pepo that produces a wide range of ornamental 
squash in many shapes and colors.  In particular, marrow refers to members 
of C. ovifera that are being used as a food stuff.  Zucchini does not fall 
under this definition, but is a close relative of the vegetable marrow. 
Some of the ornamental squashes that show up in groceries in the fall to be 
used as Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations will be vegetable marrows.

The term marrow can also refer to an avacado.

The earliest use of the term vegetable marrow that I have found is 19th 
Century, so it marrow is most likely to refer strictly to New World squash.

Hopefully, that adds a little clarity.

Bear