[SCA-AE] Are water buffalo period? (WAS Re: Medieval Munchies)

[Katja]

Yay! Cool, I hadn't thought of checking Google Books. Thanks for finding this and for the research tip. :)

Katja


--- On Wed, 7/28/10, Thomas Ireland-Delfs <fridrikr at rochester.rr.com> wrote:

From: Thomas Ireland-Delfs <fridrikr at rochester.rr.com>
Subject: Re: [SCA-AE] Are water buffalo period? (WAS Re:  Medieval Munchies)
To: discussion at aethelmearc.org, "Katja" <katjaorlova at yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, July 28, 2010, 5:25 PM

Google Books is our friend!

Vincent Ilardi, Renaissance vision from spectacles to telescopes, p. 106, refers to water buffalo (or their horn) being used in the 15th century for eyeglass frames ("Ochiali de busso, d'avuolio e de buvala per livra de pexo solidi 1 dinari 6" or, in the common tongue. "boxwod, ivory and buffalo on which a tariff of one soldo and 6 dinari was levied")  He states "It is well known of course that water buffaloes were raised from southern Italy to Tuscany during the Renaissance."

Different use, but same animal (which is NOT related to the North American bison, by the way).

Fridrikr

On Jul 28, 2010, at 4:37 PM, Katja wrote:

> Actually, I have read several modern sources that argue Asian water buffalo were brought to Italy and used for dairy production during our period of study.  
>  
> It's reasonable, since mozzarella, currently the most obvious and common use for their milk, definitely dates to our period of study, and the sources I've read say water buffalo milk was used instead of cow milk, just as it are used today in parts of Italy.
>  
> I'm away from my library right now and I don't trust Wikipedia for documenting historical dates... so I can't verify this off the top of my head.  I'm pretty sure I can look this up in Alan Davidson's Oxford Companion on Food tonight and get back to you.
> 
> Mmmmmmmm. Fresh water buffalo mozz.... Nom nom nom.
> 
> Katja
> --- On Wed, 7/28/10, Erin Kelly <erinkpgh at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>> Buffalo and buffalo milk mozzerella are available in gourmet shops. They're
> farmed. My in-laws use ground buffalo quite frequently as a lower fat beef
> substitute.
> 
> Definitely new world, though, right?
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