[Sca-cooks] plantain, bananas, herbals

[Judith Epstein]

On Sep 1, 2009, at 4:52 PM, emilio szabo wrote:

>>> (To be honest, I am not really sure which plant the discussion is  
>>> all
>>> about. But that is not important. Anyway:)
>>
>> Plantain shows up in the herbals, but they are often talking about  
>> ragwort
>> (Plantago) rather than bananas (Musa).
>
> [My] concern is rather how to distinguish the search items on the  
> banana/ musa/ plantain side.
>
> I have eaten bananas but I guess I have never ever seen a plantain  
> fruit in my life ...
>
> What is the modern scientific name of the plant we are looking  
> after  and what might have been the names used in the early English,  
> Italian,  Latin, German, Dutch ... what else? ... herbals?

I'm specifically speaking of the Musa paradisiaca, which is in the  
banana family and looks very similar to a banana, only bigger and  
butcher. It isn't sweet like a banana until it's overripe, though it  
does have a hint of non-sweet, banana-like flavor, and it can be used  
much like a potato because of its high starch content when green  
(unripe); it's good steamed, fried, grilled, or boiled. The leaves are  
also very handy, being used as a kind of precursor to cling-film to  
wrap up lunches, and can also be used to hold foods that are to be  
steam-heated or fire-roasted, such as fish or vegetables, just like  
'regular' (Cavendish) banana leaves, only longer and stronger.

According to the Big Black Book of Doom, which I know is unreliable  
about a lot of things but should provide at least a starting point for  
looking for other sources of information, all species of the Musa  
genus are indigenous to the tropical region of Southeast Asia. It's  
thought (again, citing Wikipedia) that Portuguese Franciscan friars  
are responsible for bringing the plantain to the Americas. FROM Africa.

So, if that is accurate information (and yes, I know that's a BIG IF),  
that argues that plantains are Period for Southeast Asia, Africa, and  
the cute little territory that lies between them (Near East).

So, my original question -- which has actually been put to rest, so  
there's no need to go back over it -- was, "Given that plantains ARE  
Period for Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Near East... IS it possible  
to find Period recipes that used plantains, THEN look for post-Period  
recipes that use potatoes, and search for commonalities among the two  
groups, which would TEND to suggest that people MAY have begun using  
potatoes as a substitute for plantains in the areas that had plantains  
(just like, for instance, Germans started using potatoes in dishes  
that had previously employed turnips or parsnips as their starch)?"  
But, again, that question has been rather decisively answered in the  
negative, so we don't have to run it into the ground.

Judith / no SCA name yet