[Sca-cooks] Panforte

[V O]

several old cook books i have recently gotten, mostly american 1800's and very 
early 1900's (one is 1905, and up to 1930) and a couple are from the 1700's, one 
english and the other is american.  


I kind of thought that it was because the real thing would have been hard to 
find so they made what they had.  it was just something that stuck in my mind as 
interseting, as I read through them.  


Pomelos, thats what the name is!  I thought so.

Thanks.

Mirianna



>>Citron is citron. They look like rather large lemons these days or at least the 
>>ones I have seen in the US anyway. (The fingered variety are called Buddha's 
>>hands or fingers.) The bigger (really big) greenish citrus fruits tend to be 
>>pomelos or pummelos.

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/centenary/look/cabinet/citron.html

Where are these cookbooks from and are they substituting watermelon because
citron was hard to get?
One doesn't see citron often in the markets today and it's still highly seasonal 
and expensive if you can find it at all. ($6-$7 per fruit.) I would not be at 
surprised to find 19th and 20th century recipes that went for a local easily 
obtainable fruit instead of the expensive hard to get citrons.

Johnnae<<

On Jan 31, 2011, at 3:07 PM, V O wrote:

> In recently looking through some of the old (1800's and early 1900's) cook 
>books
> that I have, in them, citron is candied watermelon rind.  This was very 
>interesting as
> I always thought "citron" was a big fruit like a grapefruit, found in the
> Mediterranean, with a really thick dense pith and rind.  I have seen pictures 
>of
> these and the rind is candied to make the citron that we see in recipes for
> fruitcake and such.
> So what do you all know citron to be?  And could the citron in the period
> recipes possibly 'BE' candied melon rind instead of the citrus fruit?
> 
> Just wondering.
> 
> Mirianna