[Sca-cooks] Plantain, herbals,

[Craig Daniel]

On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 3:28 PM, otsisto<otsisto at socket.net> wrote:
> Yes, I know the difference between musa and plantago. I grew up learning
> about herbs. Such as there are some varieties of plantago that are not
> broadleaf and there are two types of stalk.

True, although most references to "plantain" as opposed to something
more specific like "buckshorn plantain" mean P. major, which has broad
flat leaves.

> Yes, by the description it would seem that plantago is inferred but there is
> a 2% chance that it could be musa.
>
> This is from a Panama site.
>
> "Common Name:      Plantain/Platano
> Family:          Musacea
> Scientific Name:      Musa paradisiaca
> Medicinal Use:      Juice extracted from the plant stalk may be used as a
> laxative and diuretic. May be used as a respiratory decongestion and in the
> treatment of kidney infections."
>
> Please note that about mid page of the medicinal handbook it says;
> "Also make a powder of 10 ounces each of burnt hartshorn and egg shells, and
> drink 2 drahms of the powder each treatment with the juice of plantain or
> ....."
>
> Though this is probably plantago, the "juice" part throws a wee bit to the
> musa.

That one's either talking about Musa or being written by somewhan with
an inferior grasp of Spanish, since "Plátano" means either Musa spp.
(including the Cavendish banana, btw) or a certain sort of deciduous
tree (of which I don't know the genus or English name) but does not
refer to Plantago species, for which the most common Spanish name is
"llantén."

> <snip cite re: bananas in Europe>
>
> So to the poster that said plantain wasn't in SCA period, please explain how
> it isn't?

The question isn't whether plantains are from our period - every plant
that isn't a modern hybrid existed in period, and most that aren't
from the New World and some that are were known to SCA-relevant
cultures (Europeans and those that had contact with Europeans - hey,
random tangent, why aren't there any SCAdians with 16th century Aztec
personas?). The question was whether plantain-as-in-Musa is period for
Europe or the Near East, to which the answer could still be "no." The
article you quoted makes it clear that bananas, which are in the same
genus as plantains, are period for Europe, but the two are rather
different and most certainly not mutually interchangeable in cooking.
(I tried substituting Cavendish bananas into a fried plantain recipe
one time when plantains were unavailable. The result was tasty, but
certainly not what I was looking for.)

 - Jaume