[Sca-cooks] Eggplant query

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

The most common eggplant in the US is the globe eggplant, particularly the 'Black Beauty' variety. These are similar in shape and color to those in the European Tacuinum Sanitatis (yes,the book is Arabic in origin, but i don't recall seeing an illustrated Arabic version). They vary in size, from about the size of the palm of the hand to considerably larger - in the US bigger is often presumed to be better. I have found the really big ones often have an almost hollow center where the most seeds are, are waterier in texture once cooked, and are often more bitter than smaller globe eggplants.

>From looking at period and near-period illustrations, i would say the eggplant then was smaller than most of the giant 'Black Beauties', although similar in shape and color.

The proportionally long narrow eggplants, which are more petite than most globe eggplants, are different from each other - the stem end in some is green and in others is purple, while the skin is purple. In others the skin is green with a purple overlay. While i haven't noticed great differences in texture among the narrow eggplants, i have noticed flavor variations. And i generally preferred them to the flavor of modern American globe eggplant. In fact, i made an experiment and cooked the same recipe with 3 or 4 different varieties, each in a separate pot. Unfortunately i no longer remember which was in which pot. I need to do it again and take better notes. But, in any case, I prefer the flavor of these over the modern Black Beauty.

My grocery store also has small, more-or-less egg-sized eggplants. Some are green and some white. Others are purple and look like tiny globe eggplants. The little green and white ones are eaten raw in Southeast Asian, dipped in salt and a paste made of fresh, very hot chilis. These are one reason why we call them EGGplants, as they were known in Europe in the 18th c. But i don't recall seeing any reference to this variety in Arabic language cookbooks.

One of Johnna's tinyurl links would not open for me, and it turns out i accidently found the same page. It has a well-researched and abundantly illustrated pdf on the history of eggplants:
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/chronicaeggplant.pdf

>From its illustrations, it would seem to me that eggplants in period were smaller than the usual supermarket 'Black Beauty' globe eggplants, and that several shapes were known within SCA-period, although not necessarily in Europe.

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita