[Sca-cooks] Officially Period...the tomato

[Louise Smithson]

Sigh - yup the article in the florilegium that Johnnae, Me and Brighid wrote.  
Mostly because of the vast number of "look tomatoes are period there is a 
reference in some herbal saying that the Italians eat them". So I can make 
bolognese. 

If you actually read the article the evidence is anything but strong. 
I wrote more on New World food in 16th century Italy later, including more on 
the tomato and why I don't think that it was cultivated or eaten widely.  That 
is also in the florilegium.
And also on my website: 
http://www.medievalcookery.com/helewyse/files/newworld.pdf
Helewyse

I'm swamped up to my eyeballs today, but I thought this deserved a forward. From 

the illustration it does seem to be tomato, although I seem to recal that they 
had them and just didn't see them as a common food item. I just wish I had saved 

the Italian reference I sumbled upon years ago that refferred to tomatos as 
"lovely, but useless" as I haven't been able to find it again since. 


However I agree that like chocolate and other items I'd hate for people to 
assume that just because they were aware of a food item in some form 
that?hershey bars and pizza with red sauce?are viably historically accurate. 


In joyous service, 
Raffaella 



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Beth Harrison <brigitspins at yahoo.com>
To: TerraPomaria at yahoogroups.com; Summits <TheSummits at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, February 10, 2011 11:33:42 AM
Subject: [Summits] Fw: Officially Period...the tomato



Sure, but you could add they were cooked with vinegar, which I forgot to
write here.? There is a good article out on http://www.florilegium.org on
period use of tomatoes.? The Italian translator says 'fried' but the
German below says "cooked".? I'm not so sure I want to be behind a
'lasagne is okay' wave of potluck dishes though.? And there is still the
warning that it is unhealthy.



> Can I forward this message onto some email lists?? I think I know a few
> folks who would love to see this.

>
> Whoot - In the 1590 version of the Krauterbuch is the same spiel about
> tomatoes - cooked with oil and pepper (and vinegar) in Italy.? And the 
>internets >advise? this info comes from even earlier in the century.? I am now 
>craving
> Italian food again :)? Meanwhile I'm geeking out on what kind of mushrooms
> were used in the 16th century. 
>
> See it yourself here:
> http://imgbase-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr/displayimage.php?album=28&pos=772
> and
> http://imgbase-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr/displayimage.php?album=28&pos=773