[Sca-cooks] serving fresh fruit

[David Friedman]

>Raw apples are also specifically listed in a menu in "Ouverture de
>Cuisine" (France, 1604).
>
>I'm very sure the whole "they didn't eat raw fruit" meme is one of those
>"everyone knows" things that isn't true.  Not quite as bad as the "using
>spice to cover the taste of spoiled meat", but still incorrect.

I suspect that one source of a number of such ideas, including 
poisonous tomatoes, is the period emphasis on humoral theory and the 
medical characterstics of food. It's very easy for a modern reader to 
jump from "tomatoes are moist and unhealthy, especially for those 
with an excess of ..." to "they thought tomatoes were poisonous." And 
similarly for various comments about some raw fruit being bad for you.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com