[Sca-cooks] Gum Tragacanth

[James Prescott]

Giving a date to any manuscript based on mention of something is risky.

Even if, for example, Welserin (1553, five years earlier) apparently 
mentions tragacanth (according to the translator into English).  The 
1557 (one year earlier) menu in Ouverture includes "sugar paste", and 
the sugar paste recipe (printed 1604 and therefore not necessarily the 
same as the one used in 1557) includes tragacanth.

Thorvald / James


On 2019-01-22 11:51, Terry Decker wrote:
> While wandering through The Science of Cooking, I came across this 
> footnote from the recipe for marzipan.
> 
> "388 Tragacanth, modernly called Gum Tragacanth, is a resin from the 
> Arabic part of the world used as an edible binding agent, also used in 
> painting. It apparently entered European writings in 1558, which sets an 
> early boundary for the date of the original manuscript."
> 
> The earliest reference to tragacanth in European writing is found in 
> Theophrastus (3rd Century BCE) commenting on the on the quality of the 
> plant in Crete and Achaea.  The Greek word in the text is "tragakantha" 
> meaning "goat thorn."   Dioscorides (1st Century BCE) in De Materia 
> Medica describes the medical uses of tragacanth.  Materia Medica was in 
> use through the entire Medieval period.  The 1558 date appears to date 
> the use of the word in English referencing a recipe for fondant in an 
> English translation of "The Secrets of Alexis of Piedmont" (Alessio's 
> Secreti, Venice, 1555).  It may also reference an entry in the "(Tudor) 
> Book of Rates" for "Gum dragagant."
> 
> Trying to set an early boundary for the manuscript based on tragacanth 
> appearing in the manuscript would likely be an error.
> 
> Bear
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