[Sca-cooks] Plantains: Period for Old World?
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at att.net
Tue Sep 1 13:17:50 PDT 2009
> the John Gerard "The Herbal", p. 1514 to 1517, Chap. 136, "Of Adams Apple
> tree or the West Indian Plantaine."
> So it is old world in the late 1500s.
Don't you mean, "so it is "New World" in the 1500's?" BTW, the "Plantaine"
referred to is a banana.
The Portuguese are believed to have introduced African bananas into the
Canary Islands in the mid-15th Century.
Fra Tomas Berlinga introduced the banana into Dominica in the West Indies in
1516. (See Oviedo, IIRC)
IIRC, bananas first appeared in the 1636 (I think I errored saying 1633
edition earlier) edition of Gerard. There is a specific date of April 10,
1633 for receipt of bananas from Bermuda in London in the entry.
>
>
> Wouldn't people go by taste then by starch? Does plantain taste like a
> potato? I have understood the in "Germany" that the potatoe replaced the
> turnip in many dishes.
>
> De
Sounds like a reasonable supposition.
Bear
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