Subject: Potatoes, Tomatoes, etc.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 5 May 1993 02:44:42 GMT

Another very entertaining book about foods and food origins is by Rebecca Rupp.
It's called "Blue Corn and Square Tomatoes." In print for about $10. The
Columbian quincentennial produced several books about New World foods, one of
them already mentioned by Ray Solokov. In my opinion, it's pretty thin and not
worthy of him. A very appealing cookbook is Elisabeth Rozin's "Blue Corn and
Chocolate." Coffee table books on Native American cookery include "Spirit of
the Harvest" by someone whom I have forgotten.

Standard work on potatoes and potato history is by Salomon (sp?). The
peasants-stealing-the-forbidden-potatoes story has also been attributed to
Frederick the Great and one of the Louis of France. It is more likely true that
potato acceptance in France was greatly expedited by Parmentier, of potatoes
Parmentier fame.

Julie Kangas (?) is probably right about peasants being suspicious, but fact is
these foods appear to have gained acceptance initiallly among the poorest and
most desperate. Excellent book on the effects of hunger on the mind in history
is "Bread and Dreams" by an Italian or French historian. Sorry, I am not
remembering names well tonight. Not good for a librarian. Anyway, maize is
still severely underutilized in most of Europe because it is thought by most to
be fit only for fodder. It gained acceptance only among the very poor in
northern Italy and Romania. The ultra-trendy ristorantes in the U.S. which
serve polenta probably do not advertise it as peasant food, but instead rely on
AMerican's fondness for corn and whatever is currently chic.

I am working (if such desultory effort can be called work) on a book about
Native American foods, tentatively called "Columbus' Table." This thread has
given me renewed vigor, since I now know that there are at least a few
potential readers out there. :)

george

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From: [email-masked] (janet l mather)
Date: Wed, 5 May 1993 15:02:23 GMT

George my vote for you getting to work.  One of the things I have
always wondered about is the distribution of the use of Western Hemisphere
spices.  This musing is brought about by my Swedish granmother's use of
allspice in stews and soups a practice that doesn't seem to be common
elsewhere in northern Europe.  So we have Swedes using allspice and
staying away from capiscum while Italians pile on the capiscum and ignore
Jamican pepper.