[Sca-cooks] Fw: [Summits] Fw: Officially Period...the tomato

[Terry Decker]

I think the 1590 Kreuterbuch under discussion is a reprint of Doedens 
Kreuterbuch of 1578.  The phrasing is similar to that of John Gerard and we 
know he cribbed from an  english translation of Doedens.  Other than these 
references, I can't recall any definitive evidence of tomatoes being eaten 
in Europe until the 18th Century.  There is evidence to suggest that they 
were eaten (wonder what color the tomatoes were in Doedens and Gerard) but 
nothing on the order of what we have for squash, maize, and turkeys.  That 
in turn suggests that any tomato usage was limited.

Tomatoes pop up in Mattioli's Herbal of 1544 and as I recall, he wasn't too 
sold on them.  Somebody with a little more time than I have might check out 
the 1611 edition and see what it says.  I'm off to a potluck pop meeting.

Bear


----- Original Message ----- 

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>

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