[Sca-cooks] Carrots

[Terry Decker]

Usually, I just ignore the issue.  According to a number of sources (which 
may be proved wrong by DNA analysis), the orange carrot is derived from the 
yellow.  Ibn-al-Awwam noted carrots being cultivated at Seville in the 12th 
Century.  There are no particular details about the plant, but they were 
likely red carrots which started appearing in other European countries in 
the 13th and 14th Century.  Prior to the 13th Century in Europe, white 
carrots would have been the norm and they persisted in French cooking until 
well after red and yellow carrots became the established order.  I don't 
know of a commercial source for white carrots, but the dark purple "reds" 
are available at some specialty grocers.  The forerunners of the modern 
orange carrots started showing up in the Netherlands and England in the 16th 
Century.

I have seen no contemporary reference that ties the development of the 
orange carrot to he House of Orange.  The hybridization was to produce a 
sweeter, better textured carrot and the color was incidental nationalism.

Bear

-----Original Message----- 
From: Susan Lord Williams

How do you handle carrots in medieval feasts as they were not orange until 
the Dutch developed them with the rise of the House of Orange?

Technically, medieval carrots should be white. Do I recall red carrots at 
some point? Sometimes I have found white carrots in Spanish markets but not 
in America.