Speaking of pre-historic food stuffs: the Incas used to freeze dry them by leaving them outside at night. Actually, one of the most interesting lectures I ever attended was back in 1963/4 or so (talk about ancient!) at UC Davis. One of the first plant bio. profs. I ever heard on a talk about relic seeds and trekking through Andes to find the original tomato. He took lots of pics of Inca markets. There's a cookbook, btw, that we translated from Latin in my mother's classes (she was the teacher--I had her for 4 years of h.s. Latin, every day for an hour/day), ancient Roman, Apuleius, I think was the name. He had an ancient version of Worchestershire Sauce based on fermented anchoivies. Altogether now: any town in Britain with "caster" or "chester" or "cester" in the name is a place where the Romans camped 'cause the Latin word for camp or fort is "castrum". Another interesting cookbook, one of my favorites, is the Times-Picayune (New Orleans) cookbook, which has been in continuous print since about 1910 or so. It's definitely not Orcadian cooking, however. And my favorite movie of all time is "Babette's Feast," based on a Karen Blixen novelette about a bunch of uptight religious Danes who don't believe in good food and Babette is a Paris cook who inherits a fortune and cooks them a meal that she would have prepared at Maxim's--and makes them eat it, wine and all. I suspect the gruel the Danes were eating was probably more akin to what Orcadians typically had day-to-day. And, speaking of potatoes, I've heard that around time of Irish potato famine, the average per capita consumption of potatoes in Ireland was 14 lbs./day. Can that possibly be true? It would have taken all day to eat that many potatoes! Lisbeth Jardine ----- Original Message ----- From: "stephen davie" <stephen.davie@sympatico.ca> To: <ORCADIA-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 4:49 PM Subject: [<orcadia>] Stovies Stovies and More Stovies > Howdy from Canada eh? > > I have now read about 99 AMAZING points of view on stovies. This Canadian > feels that a stovie, is simply and most likely a potato cooked on a stove > (or stovie as might be explained to a kiddie who may be forewarned 'don't > burn your "handy" on the "stovie.").' As far as I can surmise, this now > fully and enthusiastically eviscerated Orkney spud, cooked in oil, > grease, or lard from an unfortunate goose, in a hot pot on the stovie, is > the forerunner of the American junk food of choice, the mighty potato > chip. > Maybe some enterprising Orcadian laddie should bag up the "Stennes > Stovies" in a multitude of optional flavours and promote them wherever > ale is sold around the world. > "Say there, bartender, when you have a minute could you bring me another > ale and a bag of Stennes Stovies and some more Sheep Dip to go with em." > THANKYOU!! > > ==== ORCADIA Mailing List ==== > To unsubscribe from the Orcadia mailing list, send an e-mail with the word > 'unsubscribe' in the message body to orcadia-l-request@rootsweb.com > >