[Sca-cooks] Parsnips

[Terry Decker]

Mellita Weiss Adamson and Alan Davidson both state that parsnips were used 
for sweetening in Medieval Europe, but neither provides a reference to 
support the statement.  Davidson does provide a reference to Dorothy 
Hartley's Food in England, 1954, for a reference as to parsnips being used 
in the base for some puddings for the sweet flavor they impart to the honey 
(or at least as I understand the reference).  I don't have access to a copy 
of the work, so I haven't been able to verify the full reference.  Hartley's 
work is on "traditional" English cooking, so the reference may or may not be 
within period.

The Wiki entry says they were used as a sweetener in Europe before the 
arrival of cane sugar, which leaves the question, is this arrival the Greek 
medicine of around 300 BCE or the cultivation from around 1000 CE or 
something in between?  The following sentence in the entry, "It (the 
parsnip) was introduced into the United States in the Nineteenth Century.", 
is demonstrably false, as parsnips were introduced into the Jamestown 
settlement along with a number of other vegetables in the resupply of 1609 
(and 1610).

The conclusion I reach is parsnips may have been used for sweetening in some 
dishes by cooking them into a base (and probably with honey) although I find 
little supporting evidence.  That they were processed like beets to produce 
sugar is probably false.  Beet sugar production requires cleaning and 
settling steps that do not occur in cane sugar production.  Beet sugar 
production also required a hybridized beet and modern industrial 
capabilities before it could be profitable.  Without some serious 
documentation to back up the claim, I'd say the guy was blowing smoke.

Bear