[Sca-cooks] Squash was Re:Helewyse's latest feast

Louise Smithson helewyse at yahoo.com
Thu Sep 24 05:47:48 PDT 2009


I suggest that "Helewyse's latest feast" would have been a more accurate and less alarming subject line.

Also,
I didn't follow all of the discussion of Squash in Scappi. Do we know
that New World squash was cooked in the fashion Helewyse describes?
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com

The mode of preparation is mostly taken from the lean day recipe for squash and also from comments in Castelvetro and also Mattioli (full refs below).  Essentially I left out the flouring bit, due to feast mass production considerations and substituted butter for oil as it wasn't a feast day. 

>From Mattioli we have (emphasis mine in bold): 
Gourds
One can find other than these of ours (gourds) in Italy those that are served all the winter, of various sizes, shapes and colors. These new (as they are called) came from the Indians; some of these, called sea gourds, have been in Italy for longer. All of them, however have the shape of a melon, but some are very large, others large, others small, and others medium, some are segmented like melons, and others have ribs inside the floret, they are borne on stalks, well lifted and distinct, and a strong shoot, and several are round, others flat, others tending towards long, of various colors, the which of them there are truly so many of note today that I cannot possible describe them all. All these species produce leaves somewhat larger than ours, coarser, and ragged like a hand, attached by large and rigid stems, and of a similar form to living leaves. They have tendrils which are large, sharp, angled and hairy, which slide across the ground for a long
 way and vine (like beans) up into trees, hedges and trellises like ours. The flowers are similar to the lily, only yellow and much larger. One harvests them in the autumn and serves them then all the winter in food. They produce large seeds, like almonds, flat and white, and within is a meat which is sweet and gentle. They taste sweet and not bland like ours, but they are tasty without seasoning them with condiments and aromatic spices.

Excerpted from Castelvetro section on pumpkins: 
The small ones can be cooked whole in salted water then cut up and put in a covered pot with melted butter and salt and pepper and left to soak up the flavors.  Everyone enjoys them this way. 

>From Scappi, 
To make various dishes with Turkish squash, Chapter 220, 2nd book, Scappi
Take the Turkish squash in its season, which begins in the month of October and lasts through all of April, and clean it of the skin and of the innards. Cut it into pieces and parboil it, when it is parboiled chop it with a knife and put it to cook in good meat broth, thicken and enrich it with grated cheese and beaten eggs. One can also prepare it with onions in the same way that one prepares our squash as described above. Be aware that if the squash is firm it will be much better, and to store them one should put them in a dry and airy place. And they (the squash) should not have any holes in them anywhere, because air will lead them to putrefaction. In this way one can make dried skin of Savonese squash, after they are parboiled in hot water and left to soak in cold water.

To fry our gourds Chapter 227, 3rd book, Scappi
Take the tender smaller gourds, peel them gently then cut in slices across, and when they are cut sprinkle with fine salt and let them rest for a bit above a table.  Press out carefully all the water and flour with fine flour and fry in oil and serve hot thus dry with sugar above or with pounded verjuice grapes, with sprouts of fresh fennel, a clove of garlic and bepper, and if you don't have new verjuice used aged.  One can also cover them with a sauce made of basil shoots, and sweet fennel and walnuts tempered with verjuice.  In this way you can make the marine squash (new world) after they are cut in thin slices and parboiled in water and salt. 

Mattioli, P., I discorsi di M. Pietro Andrea Matthioli,... nei sei libbri di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo della materia medicinale. 1597: Felice Valgrisio.
Castelvetro, G., Brieve racconto di tutte le radici, di tutte l'erbe e di tutti i frutti che crudi o cotti in Italia si mangiano. 1614, In Londra, M.DC.XIV.
Scappi, B., Opera : (dell' arte del cucinare). Reprint. First published: Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi. Venice, 1570. 1981, Bologna: Arnaldo Forni. [20], 436 leaves [ca. 888 p.], [28] p. of plates.


      


More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list