[Sca-cooks] plantain, bananas, herbals
Judith Epstein
judith at ipstenu.org
Tue Sep 1 15:44:41 PDT 2009
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
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