From: ciaran@aldhfn.akron.oh.us (Skip Watson)
Newsgroups: rec.food.historic
Subject: Re: Galangal, galingale (galinga)
Date: 13 Sep 92 15:47:49 GMT
Reply-To: ciaran@aldhfn.akron.oh.us (Skip Watson)
Organization: Auldhaefen Associates
X-Newsreader: Ann 0.9

In article <3453@creatures.cs.vt.edu>,
	jtn@nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter) writes:
-> Hi.  Tim Langevin wrote,
-> 
-> >   There appears to be some confusion about galingale and galangal.
-> >   According to the American Heritage Dictionary, these are the roots
-> >   of two unrelated species, one Asian (galangal, Alpinia officinarum)
-> >   and one European (galingale, Cyperus longus). Galangal was probably 
-> >   named by Europeans who were familiar with galingale and found it 
-> >   similar. I found no reference to galinga.  I have seen (and made)
-> >   Thai recipes that use galangal (and also referred to it as kah), but
-> >   have never seen (though it doesn't prove much, I know...) a Thai
-> >   recipe call for galingale.
-> 
-> The OED gives a different account. It explicitly treats all spellings as 
-> the same word, and refers to a single main entry under "galingale".  This
-> is more consistent with the spelling variations I find in 14th and 15th
-> C English and French recipes than the AHD treatment.  Under that entry,
-> the OED lists two meanings:
-> 
-> 	1.  The aromatic root of certain East Indian plants of the
-> 	genera _Alpina_ and _Kampferia_, formerly much used in medecine
-> 	and cookery.
-> 	[bunches of refs omitted]
-> 	    b.  A dish seasoned with galingale.
-> 	[more refs]
-> 	2.  Applied to an English species of sedge, _Cyperus longus_,
-> 	sometimes distinguished as 'English galingale', the root of
-> 	which has similar properties to those of the true galingale.
-> 	[more refs]


	From The Herbal by John Gerard, 1597, we find several references to
galingale.

Chap 24. Of English Galingale

Cyperus longus			English Galingale
Cyperus rotundus vulgaris	Round Galingale 
Cyperus rotundus littoreous	Round Salt-marsh Cyperus
 
Chap 25. Of Italian Trafi, or Spanish Galingale

Cyperus esculentus

Chap 26. Of the true Galingale, the greater and lesser
         (The ones we're interested in)

Galanga major	The greater Galingale

	The great Galingale, whose root only is in use, and brought to us
from Iava (Java) in the East Indies, hath flaggy leaves some two cubits high,
like these of Cats-taile or Reed-mace: the root is thick and knotty,
resembling those of our ordinary flagges, but that they are of a more
whitish color on the inside, and not too large. Their taste is very hot
and biting, and they are somwhat reddish on the outside

Galanga minor	The lesser Galingale

	The lesser growing in China, and commonly in shops called
Galingale, without any addition, is a small root of a brownish red colour
both within and without; the taste is hot and biting, the smell
aromaticall, the leaves are like those of Myrtles.


	Does anyone know when the name changed from galanga minor to
alpinia galanga/officinalis?

	Galanga can be found in most Chinese supply shops in dried sliced
form. 
	The galingale from Frontier is alpinia galanga rather than the
alpinia officinalis that everyone else seems to have. Is there any
difference between these two or are they different names for the same
plant. 

Skip 
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