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developed out of the pummelo in the West Indies in the 18 th c. (Batchelor and Webber). Sour
oranges are still grown for use in marmalade; the usual variety is the Seville orange.
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Artichokes and Cardoons
According to some sources, including McGee, the globe artichoke was known in classical
antiquity; others describe it as bred out of the cardoon sometime in the later middle ages,
probably in Muslim Spain. The latin word is "cynara;" our word "artichoke" comes from the
Arabic “al kharshûf.” Some modern sources describe the cardoon as a kind of artichoke, while
others regard it as a different vegetable ancestral to the artichoke. My guess is that the classical
"cynara" was the cardoon, making the globe artichoke familiar to us late period.
Molasses
Molasses is a residue from the process of refining sugar. Treacle was originally the name of a
medical mixture one of whose ingredients was honey. It originated in classical antiquity and
survived into the Middle Ages; at some point molasses or sugar syrup began to be used instead of
honey for the base. “When the production of molasses in Britain's refineries out-stripped the
needs of both apothecaries and distillers, it was sold off in its natural unmedicated state as a cheap
sweetener. Its name of molasses was taken by the early settlers to America. But in Britain in the
later seventeenth century the alternative term 'common treacle' came into circulation, and
thereafter it was known simply as treacle.” (Wilson).
Since, according to Wilson, England had its own sugar refineries by 1540, molasses might
have been used as a sweetener in England before 1600. The word first appears in English in 1582
and all of the pre-1600 references are to its existence abroad. Molasses is, however, mentioned by
Hugh Platt in the 1609 edition of Delights for Ladies; I have not been able to find a copy of an
earlier edition. Presumably molasses would have been used earlier in areas where sugar was
grown, such as Spain, Sicily and the Middle East.
Chemical Leavenings
So far as we can discover, both baking soda and baking powder are far out of period.
According to the 1992 Old Farmer’s Almanac, Saleratus (Potassium Bicarbonate) was patented as
a chemical leavening in 1840. Hartshorn (Ammonium Carbonate) was used for stiffening jellies
by about the end of the sixteenth century (Wilson) but we have found no reference to its use as a
leavening agent prior to the late 18th century.
New World Foods
Potatoes
Sweet potatoes are described in 1555 as growing in the West Indies. By 1587 they are said to
be “brought out of” Spain and Portugal, and described as venerous (aphrodisiacal). In 1599 Ben
Johnson describes something as “above all your potatoes or oyster pies.”
Ordinary potatoes, according to the OED, were described in 1553 and introduced into Spain
shortly after 1580. They reached Italy about 1585 and were being grown in England by 1596. By
1678 the potato is described as “common in English gardens.”
The Larousse gives somewhat earlier dates–1539 or 40 for the original importation into Spain,
1563 for the introduction into England (“but its cultivation was neglected there”) and 1586 for the