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Cucumbers-Hst-art - 10/16/09

"Medieval and Ancient History of the Cucumber" by Ian of Oertha.

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Medieval and Ancient History of the Cucumber

by Ian of Oertha

The cucumber (or cowcumber) has a long and glorious history. The type familiar to North Americans (cucumis sativus) is only one of several varieties which have been eaten or used in medicine: other types include what Pliny called the "wild" cucumber (usually believed to be cucumis silvestris asininus), the Egyptian hairy cucumber (cucumis sate), and another variety, referred to by Pliny (the Elder) as the "Anguine or Erratic Cucumber" (I'm guessing; maybe the West India Cucumber, Cucumis Anguria?), the Sikkim cucumber (cucumis sativus var. sikkimensis, a Himalayan plant), and the squirting cucumber (ecballium elaterium).

According to Alphonse de Candolle (in "Origin of Cultivated Plants"), a 19th Century botanist of some repute, the cucumber originated in India at least 3,000 years ago this morning (heh heh). Since pickling food has been around that long, it is possible people enjoyed pickled cucumbers in ancient times (a relief; how could they do without?).

The Ancient Greeks and Romans spread the vegetable westward, and the Chinese spread the vegetable eastward. Tiberius Caesar was particularly fond of the cucumber, eating one every day of his life (in order to accomplish this, they were grown on carts, which could be kept inside when days were cool during the winter, and wheeled out into the sun; an early mobile greenhouse).

The cucumber is mentioned in Torah; one of the the oldest books in the Bible (Numbers 11:5) and in the book of Isaiah (1:8). This probably refers to the hairy cucumber; the Numbers reference complains that they are no longer available for consumption (they had just fled Egypt), the Isaiah reference includes a description of cultivation (so, by that point, they were available).

The cucumber is mentioned in Sumerian writings, including certain proverbs ("Let Ishkur, god, king, split the fertile ground like a cucumber."), The Debate between Summer and Winter, and so on.

Pliny the Elder (an ancient Roman historian and naturalist) wrote of several remedies using cucumbers of various types in Book XX. These include the Wild Cucumber (26 remedies, including one called "elaterium"), the Cultivated Cucumber (9), and the Anguine or Erratic (5 remedies). Palladius, a Greek writer, included a flea-killing recipe that included cucumber seed (along with water, cumin, and psilotre or lupine). Both Theophrastus and Apicius mention cucumbers, Theophrastus describing 3 varieties, and Apicius being more concerned with the eating (and usage).

In medieval period manuscripts, you can find the cucumber mentioned in an herbal by Apuleis (MS Ashmole 1431, Bodleian Library, Oxford), apparently written between 1070 and 1100. The cucumber is mentioned (along with a method to keep "greene Cucumbers all the yeare") in Murrel's Two Books of Cookerie, 1638. It appears to be a method for pickling. It is also mentioned in "The Cooks Guide: Or Rare Receipts for Cookery, 1654" (another pickling reference). Sir Kenelm Digby (born 1603) writes of two recipes with cucumbers; the first, a veal-chicken-vegetable potage (Potage de Sante'), the second, a beef potage with either herbs or veggies.

There is a recipe for cucumber salad in "Recipes Tried and True," a document from Marion, Ohio, dated 1894.

In John Gerard's Herball, 1597, cucumber "taken in meats, is good for the stomack and other parts troubled with heat..." He also writes of a recipe with mutton, oatmeal and herbs (and cucumbers) to "cure all manner of sawce-flegme and copper faces." This to be eaten 3 meals a day. He writes of more curious uses for the cucumber, as well.

Thomas Dawson, in "The Good Huswife's Jewell", 1596, has a recipe for a "sallet" of herbes (by which I take it he meant leafy vegetables), cucumbers or lemons (at least, he writes "lemmans"), sugar, vinegar, oil, flowers, and hard-boiled eggs.

Cucumbers were grown in India 3,000 years ago, in Sumeria, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, 9th Century France (Charlemagne was a cucumber eater), early 1300's England (though they were later lost, and re-introduced in the mid-1500s), Spain at least by 1494 (the Spaniards transported them to Haiti that year via Chris Columbus), 1535 Montreal (according to Jacques Cartier), South Dakota by 1500 or so, New England at least by 1630, and reportedly in Ancient Thrace. Tzatziki was eaten by the Turks in the 1500s, and passed along to the Greeks; add that to your period cucumber dishes.

In all, a number of peoples have eaten cucumbers during periods covered by re-enactors; it is conceivable that this popular item might be eaten anywhere, since Jewish people have been eating them since Ancient Egypt, and as a student of history knows, they've been everywhere. Not to mention the world-spanning empires which grew them (Greek, Roman, Ottoman) would have spread their use, as well.

An Examination of the Cucumber by Region (non-exhaustive, limited by my resources)

Roman

Stewed in wine or other sauces (Apicius 4th or 5th C. A.D.): (trans. Joseph Dommers Vehling, pub. domain)

Apicius 82 Stew the peeled cucumbers either in broth or in a wine sauce; and you will find them to be tender and not causing indigestion.

Apicius 83 Peeled cucumbers are stewed with boiled brains, cumin and a little honey. Add some celery seed, stock and oil, bind the gravy with eggs sprinkle with pepper and serve.

Apicius 84 Cucumbers, pepper, pennyroyal, honey or condensed must, broth and vinegar; once in a while one adds silphium. [Editor's note: Silphium is generally considered extinct, having been related to fennel, parsley and/or wild carrot. Asafoetida is considered by some an inferior substitute for silphium.]

The Cucumber boiled, or cooked in syrup: Athenaeus of Naucratis (2nd Century, A.D.), "Deipnosophistae": (quoting Phaenias)

English

In "The Old English Herbals," by Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, I find reference to a recipe in "Mary Doggett: Her Book of Receipts" for pickling cucumbers. I was unable to find an original of this manuscript, or any source with this recipe.

She also includes the recipe for a vapor bath using cucumbers from Apuleis (written somewhere between 1070 and 1100) using bramble rind and elm rind, ash rind, sloethorn, rind of apple tree and ivy, all these from the nether part of the trees, and cucumber, smear wort, everfern, helenium, enchanters nightshade, betony, marrubium, radish, agrimony, alder ashes, an emmet bed, butter. It also includes a prescription for bleeding, which I don't recommend (consult your physician).

Pickled: Murrell's (or Murrel's) Two Books of Cookerie, 1638: To keep greene Cucumbers all the yeare - Cut the Cucumbers in pieces, boyle them in spring-water, Sugar, and Dill, a walme or two. Take them up and let your pickle stand untill it be cold.

Pickled: The Cooks Guide: Or Rare Receipts for Cookery, 1664: To pickle Cucumbers to look very green. Take those that you mean to pickle, and lay them in water and salt three or four daies; then take a good many great Cucumbers and cut the outsides of them into water, for the insides will be too pappy, then boyle them in that water with Dill seeds and Fennel seeds, and when it is cold put to it some salt and as much vinegar as weill make it a strong pickle, then take them out of that water and salt and pour that over them in your vessel, then let them stand close covered for a fortnight or three weeks, then pour the liquor from them and new boyle it, putting in some whole pepper, cloves and mace, and when it is cold adde to it some vinegar, and a little salt, then pour it on them again, then let them stand a longer time, and as you see occasion boyle it over again, and alwaies put your seeds and pieces of Cucumber on the top; be sure your pickle be cold when you pour it over.

As a potherb: The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Opened, 1669: POTAGE DE SANTÉ Mounsieur De S. Euremont makes thus his potage de santé and boiled meat for dinner, being very Valetudinary. Put a knuckle of Veal and a Hen into an earthen Pipkin with a Gallon of water (about nine of the Clock forenoon) and boil it gently till you have skimmed it well. When no more scum riseth (which will be in about a quarter of an hour), take out the Hen (which else would be too much boiled,) and continue boiling gently till about half an hour past ten. Then put in the Hen again, and a handful of white Endive uncut at length, which requireth more boiling then tenderer herbs. Near half hour after eleven, put in two good handfuls of tender Sorrel, Borage, Bugloss, Lettice, Purslane (these two come later then the others, therefore are not to be had all the winter) a handful a piece, a little Cersevil, and a little Beet-leaves. When he is in pretty good health, that he may venture upon more savoury hotter things, he puts in a large Onion stuck round with Cloves, and sometimes a little bundle of Thyme and other hot savoury herbs; which let boil a good half hour or better, and take them out, and throw them away, when you put in the tender herbs. About three quarters after eleven, have your slice dried bread ready in a dish, and pour a ladleful of the broth upon it. Let it stew covered upon a Chafing-dish. When that is soaked in, put on more. So continue till it be well mittonée, and the bread grown spungy, and like a gelly. Then fill up the dish with broth, and put the Hen and Veal upon it, and cover them over with herbs, and so serve it in. He keeps of this broth to drink at night, or make a Pan-cotto, as also for next morning. I like to adde to this, a rand of tender brisket Beef, and the Cragg-end of a neck of Mutton. But the Beef must have six hours boiling. So put it on with all the rest at six a Clock. When it is well scummed, take out all the rest. At nine, put in the Veal and Mutton, and thenceforwards, as is said above. But to so much meat, and for so long boiling, you must have at least three Gallons of water. Either way you must boil always but leisurely, and the pot covered as much as is convenient, and season it in due time with a little salt, as also with Pepper, if you like it; and if you be in vigorous health, you may put a greater store of Onions quartered. The beets have no very good taste, peradventure it were best leave them out. In health you may season the potage with a little juyce of Orange. In season green Pease are good, also Cucumbers. In winter, Roots, Cabbage, Poix chiches, Vermicelli at any time. You may use yolks of Eggs beaten with some of the broth and juyce of Oranges or Verjuyce, then poured upon the whole quantity.

As a potherb, also from Digby: But for Potage, put at first a good piece of fleshy young Beef with the rest of the meat. And put not in your herbs till half an hour before you take off the Pot. When you use not herbs, but Carrots and Turneps, put in a little Peny-royal and a sprig of Thyme. Vary in the season with Green-pease, or Cucumber quartered longwise, or Green sower Verjuyce Grapes; always well-seasoned with Pepper and Salt and Cloves. You pour some of the broth upon the sliced-bread by little and little, stewing it, before you put the Herbs upon the Potage

Pickled, from Delights for Ladies, Sir Hugh Platt, 1609: To preserve cowcumbers all the yeere: Take a gallon of faire water and a pottle of verjuice, and a pint of bay salt, and a handful of greene fennel or Dill; boile it a little, and when it is cold put it into a barrel, and then put your cowcumbers into that pickle, and you shall keep all the yeere.

Pickled, from A choice manual of rare and select secrets in physick and chyrurgery collected and practised by the Right Honorable, the Countesse of Kent, late deceased ; as also most exquisite ways of preserving, conserving, candying, &c. ; published by W.I., Gent. by Elizabeth Grey, Countess of Kent (1581-1651). and W. J., 1653: Take the Cowcombers, and wash them clean, and dry them clean in a cloth, then take some Water, and Vinegar, and Salt, and some Dill tops, and some Fennel tops, and a little Mace, make it fast enough, and sharp enough to the taste, then boyle it a while, and then take it off, and let it stand and be cold, and then put in the Cowcombers, and lay a board on the top to keep them down, and tye them close, and within a week they will be fit to eat.

In Salad, from The English Housewife, by Gervase Markham, 1615: First then to speak of sallats, there be some simple, and some compounded, some only to furnish out the table, and some both for use and adornation: your simple sallats are chibols peeled, washed clean, and half of the green tops cut clean away, so served on a fruit dish; or chives, scallions, radish roots, boiled carrots, skirrets, and turnips, with such like served up simply; also, all young lettuce, purslane, and divers other herbs which may be served simply without anything but a little vinegar, sallat oil, and sugar; onions boiled, and stripped from their rind and served up with vinegar, oil and peppar is a good simple sallat, so is samphire, bean cods, asparagus, and cucumbers, served in likewise with oil, vinegar, and peppar, with a world of others, too tedious to nominate.

In a Pickled Salad, from The English Housewife, by Gervase Markham, 1615: Your preserved sallats are of two kinds, either pickled, as are cucumbers, samphire, purslane, broom and such like, or preserved with vinegar, as violets, primrose, cowslips, gillyflowers of all kinds, broom flowers, and for the most part any wholesome flower whatsoever. / Now for pickling of sallats, the are only boiled, and then drained from the water, spread opon a table, and a good store of salt thrown over them, then when they are thorough cold, make a pickle with water, salt and a little vinegar, and with the same pot them up in close earthen pots and serve them forth as occasion shall serve.

German

Pickled or salted, from Ein New Kochbuch, Marx Rumpolt, 1581: 20. Peel the Cucumbers/ and cut them broad and thin/ season them with oil/ pepper and salt. But if they are salt-preserved/ they are also not bad/ are better than raw/ because one can salt it with Fennel and with caraway/ that both can be kept over one year. And near the Rhine-stream one calls it Cucummern.

Italian

Used in salads, Opera dell'arte del cucinare, Bartolomeo Scappi, 1570: In order that cucumbers more easily pass the stomach eat them with the peel rather than without. Cut the cucumber in half lengthwise and make of them pieces moderately thin and dress them with oil, vinegar and salt like other salads. But the custom one has learned is to add several pieces of raw onion and the leaves or sprouts of green basil. This is not without foundation in art, perhaps it counteracts the natural coldness of moisture of it and makes the juice less large and less slow. (Scappi also mentions "mixed salad" in which he says "it is possible to add other herbs than these which have been written by us before," so one could use this as justification for adding cucumber to other salads.)

Spain

(All Andalusian dishes quoted from David Friedman's website translation) Seeds used in medicinal syrup, An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, Translated by Charles Perry, 13th Century: Take an uqiya of hyssop and two of fennel and anise, and an uqiya each of jujubes, watermelon seeds and cucumber seeds, and a handful of cleaned figs, two handfuls each of lavender and cilantro of the spring, and two uqiyas each of the skin of the fennel stalk and the skin of the celery stalk. Cook all this in water to cover until its substance comes out; then take the clean part of it and add it to two ratls of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the consistency of syrup. Drink an uqiya and a half of this in three of hot water when fasting. It benefits moist coughs, and stops abscesses of the brain; it dissilves phlegm from the other parts of the body and causes urine and menstrual fluid to flow, it fortifies the stomach, and it is admirable.

In Vegetable Soup, "From the Cook Book of Ibrahim b. Al-Mahdi" in An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, Translated by Charles Perry, 13th Century: Take boiled peeled lentils and wash in hot water several times; put in the pot and add water without covering them; cook and then throw in pieces of gourd, or the stems of Swiss chard, or of lettuce and its tender sprigs, or the flesh of cucumber or melon, and vinegar, coriander seed, a little cumin, Chinese cinnamon, saffron and two uqiyas of fresh oil; balance with a little salt and cook. Taste, and if its flavor is pleasingly balanced between sweet and sour, and if not, reinforce until it is equalized, according to taste, and leave it to lose its heat until it is cold and then serve.

Jannaniyya (a sort of vegetable egg dish), "From the Cook Book of Ibrahim b. Al-Mahdi" in An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook, Translated by Charles Perry, 13th Century: It was the custom among us to make this in the flower and vegetable gardens. If you make it in summer or fall, take saltwort, Swiss chard, gourd, small eggplants, "eyes" of fennel, fox-grapes, the best parts of tender gourd and flesh of ribbed cucumber and smooth cucumber; chop all this very small, as vegetables are chopped, and cook with water and salt; then drain off the water. Take a clean pot and in it pour a little water and a lot of oil, pounded onion, garlic, pepper, coriander seed and caraway; put on a moderate fire and when it has boiled, put in the boiled vegetables. When it has finished cooking, add grated or pounded bread and dissolved [sour] dough, and break over it as many eggs as you are able, and squeeze [p. 54, verso] in the juice of tender coriander and of mint, and leave on the hearthstone until the eggs set. If you make it in spring, then [use] lettuce, fennel, peeled fresh fava beans, spinach, Swiss chard, carrots, fresh cilantro and so on, cook it all and add the spices already indicated, plenty of oil, cheese, dissolved [sour] dough and eggs.

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Copyright 2007 Ian Kusz <deepkneads at comcast.net>, updated 2009. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited. Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.