[Sca-cooks] Redaction exercise

[TerryDecker]

The pancakes may be Medieval, but the vanilla in them certainly is not. 
Vanilla beans enter Europe no earlier than 1519 and the Spanish began 
importing them for culinary purposes only in the latter half of the 16th 
Century.
They were very scarce and truly expensive until 1839 when the method of hand 
pollination was discovered and the cultivation of vanilla spread out of 
Mexico to other tropical areas.  The production of vanilla extract (the most 
common method of using vanilla) is also a 19th Century process.  Unless 
there is a documentable recipe dating to the 16th Century, the odds are 
vanilla is a late addition to the recipe.  I do have a recipe for a kind of 
cake where the whole bean is used, but it appears to only date from the late 
18th Century.

Anise (Pimpinella anisum) is an Eastern Mediterranean plant used since 
Antiquity, so it was probably available.  Star anise (Illicium verum) is a 
plant of Southeast Asia.  Since star anise is primarily used a less 
expensive replacement for anise and it only begins appearing in European 
recipes in the 17th Century (according to the work of Jill Norman).  Its 
entry into Europe is probably due to Ottoman control of the anise trade and 
European expansion into Asia.

Bear

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

Johnna I lived in Gotland in the Baltic Sea in Sweden one year and the
island was a part of the Hansa League ruled by the German cities. They took
to Visby, in Gotland, anise, star anise and vanilla. Gotland is the only
place in Sweden you can eat vanilla pancakes, the islands speciality,
direct from the Middle Ages.
Ana