Mangoes & Martinas?

[email hidden] (Ruth) deliciously posted in
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Quoted message said:

I'm browsing through an 1879 cookbook from Virginia and
have come across some pretty strange recipes. Three for
"pickled martinas". For the life of me I cannot discover
what sort of food a "martina" is. Fruit? A nut? Any help
out there?

I did a search because your post interested me. Thanks. The
closest I could find was a recipe used for pickling
cucumbers stating martinas can be pickled the same way. I'm
assuming nothing. I think Martina may be referring to a
specific individual. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Michael
--
Deathbed statement...

"Codeine . . . bourbon." ~~Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d.
December 12, 1968

Dog3 said:

[email hidden] (Ruth) deliciously posted in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

I'm browsing through an 1879 cookbook from Virginia and
have come across some pretty strange recipes. Three for
"pickled martinas".

Quoted message said:

I'm assuming nothing. I think Martina may be referring to a
specific individual. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Michael

Aye, the Spanish maid that the mistress couldn't stand!
Pickle her! <G> Oh, okay, pickle all three of them!

Interesting reading, these old cookbooks. I haven't found a
reference to a 'martina' in one of mine yet. I'll keep
looking and see if I can deduce for the OP, from any
mention, what one might be.

Jill

I looked up "martina" in _Uncommon Furits & Vegetables: A
Commonsense Guide_ by Elizabeth Schneider and found nada.
There's nothing in my American Heritage Dictionary on it
either. I'll be interested in the answer when someone
finds it. I suspect it will be found in the OED. I don't
have a copy.

The American Heritage did supply a clue on mangoes. The
second definition is "any of various types of pickle,
especially a pickled stuffed sweet pepper." I'd say your
cookbook is using "mango" to mean "pickled" and "stuffed
mangoes" means "stuffed pickled sweet peppers."

--Lia

I checked with a friend who is interested in both cooking and history
and has a nice collection of old cookbooks herself. She writes:

-------------------------------------
Mrs. Child in her _Frugal Housewife_ of 1833 tells how to
pickle martinoes. ("Martinoes are prepared in nearly the
same way as other pickles. The salt and water in which they
are put, two or three days previous to pickling, should be
changed every day; because martinoes are very apt to become
soft. No spice should be used but allspice, cloves, and
cinnamon. The martinoes and the spice should be scalded in
the vinegar, instead of pouring the vinegar over the
martinoes."😉

Webster's Third New International Dictionary says that a
martinoe is a unicorn plant. Under unicorn plant we find: A
No. American annual herb (Martynia louisianica) having large
whitish or yellowish flowers mottled with purple or yellow
within and a capsule with a long curving beak.

I would guess that the capsules are the part to be pickled,
since another of my old cookbooks gives a recipe for
pickling radish pods.

I did find several recipes for mangoes, too. Looking through
them briefly, they seem to involve scooping out the center
of any of a number of types of fruit (such as melons or
peaches), mixing the pulp with spices, stuffing it back into
the skin, and doing various things involving scalding,
vinegar, etc. Perhaps it's the stuffing it back into the
skin that makes it a "mango."
-------------------------------------------

--Lia

Julia Altshuler said:

I looked up "martina" in _Uncommon Furits & Vegetables: A
Commonsense Guide_ by Elizabeth Schneider and found nada.
There's nothing in my American Heritage Dictionary on it
either. I'll be interested in the answer when someone
finds it. I suspect it will be found in the OED. I don't
have a copy.

it's obviously a corruption of the masculine form
'martinus.'

your pal, blake

"blake murphy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Julia Altshuler said:

I looked up "martina" in _Uncommon Furits & Vegetables: A
Commonsense Guide_ by Elizabeth Schneider and found nada.
There's nothing in my American Heritage Dictionary on it
either. I'll be interested in the answer when someone
finds it. I suspect it will be found in the OED. I don't
have a copy.

it's obviously a corruption of the masculine form
'martinus.'

your pal, blake

Doesn't it refer to a single female martini?

Which reminds me of an old, bad joke.

Drunk to bartender: I'll have a martinus. Bartender: Don't
you mean martini? Drunk: If I wanted more than one I would
have said so.

--
Peter Aitken

Remove the [censored] from my email address before using.