[Sca-cooks] Spanish Pepper?

[Laura C. Minnick]

On 9/13/2011 11:33 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:
> Depends on what culture's cuisine you're cooking. The black eyed pea is a subspecies of the cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). Cowpeas were cultivated in West Africa 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, and closely associated with the cultivation of sorghum and millet. They spread out from there. They are acknowledged in SCA-period Arabic cuisine, where they are called lubiya, and in SCA-period Indian cuisine as well - they are called lobiya in the 16th c.  Ain-i Akbari. This may possibly be confusing because the words lubiya and lobia is now also used for New World green beans and for New World dried beans (phaseolus).
>
> I can't say i've seen them in any European cuisine, but i haven't been looking for them there.

The Capitulare de Villis (8th c Frankish) lists two phaseolum, the 
cowpea (black-eyed) and the hyacinth bean. Favas are listed between the 
cardoon and ordinary peas. Mark Grant's translation of Anthimus calls 
the 'fasiolum' listed as 'French beans'. What he means by that, I don't 
know. But Anthimus says they're good.

Liutgard

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