[Sca-cooks] Definition of "Period Cooking" was Re: Substitute for Potatoes?

[Ian Kusz]

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 12:59 PM, Susan Fox <selene at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Judith Epstein wrote:
>
>>
>> On Aug 24, 2009, at 1:49 PM, David Friedman wrote:
>>
>>  On Aug 23, 2009, at 11:13 PM, Solveig Throndardottir wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Noble Cousin!
>>>>>
>>>>> Greetings from Solveig! Potatoes are from Peru. However, there are a
>>>>> number of old world tubers available such as yams Dioscorea species which
>>>>> originated in West Africa and Asia.
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, and I fully intend to use yams in my Period cooking.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>> Off hand, I can't think of any recipes in either the period European or
>>> Islamic corpus that use them.
>>>
>> Dame Selene Colfox, Caid
>
>
>
>
As far as I can tell, the use of cattail roots (rhizomes) as a food (the
core, after peeling off the woody outer shell), only dates back to Europeans
coming to America (unless you're doing Native American cooking, in which
case you're looking thousands of years B.C.).  Despite the fact that some
cattails (notably, the Dwarf Cattail) are native to Eurasia, I can't find
any record of period usage.  I have read a source that Russians consider the
young, peeled shoots a delicacy, and, of course, both the inner flower and
the pollen are edible, but I can't find period documentation.   Except for
use as a building/crafting material.

anyone else find this?  You can supposedly mash them, fry them, boil them,
bake them, cook and dry them and use them for flour, any number of
usages....including substituting them for potatoes.   Apparently, they're
quite tasty, but not completely potato-like.  One author stated he preferred
cattails, however.
-- 
Ian of Oertha