Jane McGary wrote: " Cipolline are not muscari bulbs, they are... ' Thank you, Jane, for introducing the correct spelling of the word cipolline into this thread. I hope someone from Italy chimes into this thread to tell us if the muscari bulbs are also called cipolline. In the same way that the various chicories are called lettuces in the markets, it would not surprise me to learn that the term cipolline is used for a variety of not-necessarily-related bulby things. When we adopt culinary terms from other languages we rarely use then in strict accordance with their original meaning. Take the term prosciutto: ask most Americans, even those who write professionally on food, and they will tell you it is a raw ham product. But I've read that in Italian, the word prosciutto simply means ham. What we call prosciutto is called in Italian prosciutto crudo (raw ham). What most of us call ham is called prosciutto cotto (cooked ham). Now I'll tell a story on myself. I've been working on my Italian pronunciation lately. One of the things which drives Italians crazy about the way many foreigners pronounce their language is the failure to maintain a crisp distinction between single and double consonants. In spelling the word cippoline, I broke several rules at once: I did not simply misspell the word, I failed to maintain that distinction between single and double consonants at both ends of the word (I was multitasking). Now back to practice... Jim McKenney -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Jane McGary Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 6:55 PM To: Pacific Bulb Society Subject: Re: [pbs] culinary muscari - on topic Diane wrote, At 11:52 AM 2/10/2009, you wrote: >Yesterday I was served some "balsamic onions" which were muscari >bulbs. They tasted good. > >They are from Italy, called cipollini, and are Muscari comosum. >Cornucopia II says that M. comosum is really Leopoldia comosa, tassel >hyacinth, and that it is also eaten in Greece. Wild bulbs are >preferred to cultivated ones. I'm not growing that one. Cipolline are not muscari bulbs, they are a variety of the cultivated onion (Allium). They are now increasingly seen in supermarkets here and starts can be purchased from Territorial Seed. They are small and very flattened in shape. They are tasty and rather hard to prepare because the stem tends to go all through the center and you have to cut it loose. The "balsamic" in the dish described probably was the vinegar used in the preparation. Muscari comosum is eaten in Greece and I have tried it, but it was too bitter for me, even though they leach out some of the compounds in preparing it. Leopoldia is an older synonym for the "tassel" muscari species; it has been sunk in Muscari now. Jane McGary _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/