[Sca-cooks] Beans and Rice

[Terry Decker]

Rice has been around for 10,000 years, give or take a few thousand.  Originally domesticated in China, it spread to Indo-China and India.  A different subspecies was domesticated in Africa about 3,000 years ago (I haven't researched the where).  Chinese rice was likely introduced into the Mediterranean during Alexander's conquest.

As to whether the rice used was white or brown, the answer is likely yes.  Recipes generally call for rice to be "well cleaned."  This could mean anything from washing to remove debris and rehydrate the rice grains to a brief hand milling in a colander to whiten the grains.  It's not modern polishing.  And it is inadequate to prepare the rice for brewing.

I would suggest trying to make the recipes with a short grained Japonica such as Arborio.  If these recipes were out of the Spanish corpus, Bomba.  Nothing rules out a long grained variety of rice.

The script of the Cuoco Napoletano dates it to the second half of the 15th Century.  Some of the recipes likely date back to the 14th Century.  The best reference is Scully, Terence; Neapolitan Recipe Collection, The;  University of Michigan Press, 2000.  It's out of Print, but used copies can be found.

Bear

On 8/9/2023 9:41:53 AM, Laureen Hart <lhart at graycomputer.com> wrote:
Isabella,
Do you use white rice, or brown rice?

This leads to the question - would they be using white or brown rice in period?
I have never considered this, and know next to nothing about rice in general.

What is the time period for the Neapolitan collection?

Thanks!

Randell