[Sca-cooks] the oddness of ethnicity - specifically hungarianrecipe

Terry Decker t.d.decker at att.net
Fri Feb 25 18:24:58 PST 2011


Capsicum peppers are first mentioned in Columbus's journal of the first 
voyage.  They show up in Leonard Fuch's Herbal of 1540 and Fuchs's 
nomenclature connects them with the Indian sub-continent rather than the 
East Indies.  There is speculation that capsicum peppers came back to Spain 
with Columbus and were transferred from there to Italy and from there into 
the Ottoman Empire.  It is generally believed that the Ottomans brought them 
(in particular paprika) into Central Europe as early as the incursion of 
1526, but the actual date could be well into the 17th Century.  Trager gives 
1529 as the date paprika peppers were planted in Buda, but he is a highly 
questionable source.  To my knowledge there are no recipes or evidence to 
prove use in Europe before 1600.

The peppers known in Europe before 1600 appear to be Capsicum frutescens, 
while bell peppers are C. annum and don't seem to put in an appearance.

Bear


> are bell peppers non-period, too?
> and you're saying paprika isn't period, either?  hmmm.....darn, I like
> paprika
>
> On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:42 PM, Ian Kusz <sprucebranch at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Speaking of which, someone suggested this to me as a healthy food; is it
>> period, is it tasty, and is it healthy?  Anyone tried to make?  Is it a
>> touchy dish, or easy?
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ian of Oertha





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