[Sca-cooks] Squash in Scappi's Opera

[David Friedman]

>On one of the local culinary lists I'm on a discussion came up about 
>squash, whether they were found and used in pre-1700 Europe, and if 
>so, what breeds. I've been going through not only all of the great 
>recipes in Scappi, but the extremely useful indexes as well.
>
>In the index listing all ingredients by type squash are listed under 
>vegetables and herbs above ground: Squash (common, hairy, Genoese, 
>Savona, Turkish). But I don't know what any currently available 
>equivalents might be, any thoughts on what appropriate substitutions 
>might be?

Is there some way of telling whether the word translated as "squash" 
refers to New World vegetables (probably C. Pepo) or to the old world 
edible gourds? I don't know whether or not the former were in common 
use that early.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com