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COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SCIENCES, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

RADISH - GIANT WHITE, RAPHANUS SATIVUS spp., MHON-LA-U, RADIS, MOEUM SPEY SAR, LOH BAAK, LOBAK, DAIKON, HUA PAK HAD, CU CAI TAU

Excerpts from Bender, Arnold E. 1990. Dictionary of Nutrition and Food Technology. Butterworths, Boston.
Root of Raphanus genus. Analysis per 100 g: carbohydrate 3 g, protein 1 g, kcal 15 (60 kJ), dietary fiber 1 g, Ca 40 mg, Fe 2 mg, vitamin C 10-35 mg.
Excerpts from Passmore, Jacki. 1991. The Encyclopedia of Asian Food and Cooking. Hearst Books, New York.
An ancient vegetable that might have developed from the small red salad radish. It is an important vegetable in China and Japan and is grown throughout Asia. It is easy to find at an Asian market as it lives up to its name, being at least 8 in (20 cm) long and snowy white. Buy this mildly pungent vegetable when young, at around 9 in (23 cm) in length, when it will be agreeably crisp and crunchy.

The Japanese daikon is short, round and plump but has the same taste and texture. It can be peeled and thinly sliced for salads, added to simmered dishes, stir-fried, stuffed and steamed. Innovative Japanese chefs carve daikon into pot shapes, fill them with yellow miso and steam until sweet and tender. ,i>Daikon is also used to make the yellow pickle, takuan, and in Korea it is made into a type of kimchi. The Chinese grate the giant white radish for lo baak gor, a heavy pudding made with radish and rice flour, which is steamed and, when cooked, is sliced and fried. It is always eaten during Lunar New Year and served at dim sum restaurants. Also known as mhon-la-u (Burma); moeum spey sar (Cambodia); loh baak (China); lobak (Indonesia, Malaysia); daikon (Japan); hua pak had (Thailand); cu cai tau (Vietnam).
Garrett, Theodore Francis (edited by). 1898. the Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery. L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, W.C. London. Vol. III
is undoubtedly derived from the Latin radix - a root, that being the edible part of the plant Raphanus sativus. The green tops are sometimes chopped up and mixed with a salt, but are not recommended, the large leaves being far too tough. The root is fleshy and variable in form, in some varieties fusiform, as with the long radish, in others round like a small turnip, or semi-globular as the turnip radish, and in color a red as the China rose radish, reddish purple, white yellowish, or deep brown. The flesh is white, crisp and tender, abounding in a peculiar nitrous juice, which is much relished by epicures.

Grimes, William. 2004. Eating Your Worlds. Oxford University Press.
is a swollen pungent-tasting edible root, especially a variety that is small, spherical, and red, and eaten raw with salad. -
ORIGIN Old English raedic, from Latin radix, radic 'root'
Excerpts from Hawkes, Alex D. 1968. A World of Vegetable Cookery. Simon and Schuster, New York.
FROM: Corvallis Gazette Times. August 15, 1998, B6.
There are many different kinds of radish, the basic species probably originating in the Oriental part of temperate Asia, but unknown in the wild in historic times. Botanists call these Raphanus sativus, and place it-along with many of our common cultivated vegetables-in the Crucifer Family. Considerable doubt still exists whether the Radishes of the Orient (India, China, and Japan, principally) are the same botanical entity as the European ones, though this interpretation is generally followed.

Whatever their scientific status, Radishes are popular in virtually all parts of the globe. Red-skinned radishes are the ones most commonly seen in our markets. But they also display delicate white-skinned (some closer to pale tan) forms, more elongate than the round, red variety, and even Radishes with black or lurid purple skins.

The Rattailed Radish (Raphanus sativus var caudatus) is a horticultural curiosity not often seen in the United States. It is grown not for the swollen tap-root, but rather for its enormously elongate seed pods, these often reaching lengths of a foot or so. These, with much the same "bitey" flavor as the common root, are eaten raw, or are pickled in vinegar.

Oriental Radish is technically the same species as the European kinds (Raphanus sativus sometimes with the addition of the designating var. longipinnatus), but is a very distinctive plant. Itr produces white roots from one to six inches in diameter, up to three feet in length, and up to fifty pounds in weight apieces.

Most often sold in markets in hawaii and our Western states under its Japanese name, Daikon (pronounced dye-kon), it is also known by its Chinese name, loh-bak choi. Three types are usually encountered-speherical, oblong, and cylindrical. The oblong variety, sledom more than four inches long by two inches thick, is preferred by the Chinese, while the others are favorites of the Japanese.

The texture of these Oriental Radishes is usually a bit more spongy than their Western relatives, but the flavor is very much the same. Daikon seedlings-called kokonoka daikon in Japanese, loh-bak choi-chai in Chinese-are frequently cultivated for their pretty, vivid green foliage, which is widely appreciated as a special green vegetable.

Food Safety
TOKYO-Japan's health ministry announced new, tougher standards for livestock slaughterhouses Wednesday in the wake of an outbreak of food poisoning that has killed nine people.

Tainted radish sprouts are blamed for most of the more than 9,300 cases of poisoning in Japan, but beef is still one of the prime potential carriers of the disease.,p> Undercooked hamburgers contaminated with the same bacteria - E. coli O157 - led to three deaths in Washington state in the United States in 1993.

The Health and Welfare Ministry said it will instruct Japan's 333 slaughterhouses to adopt a quality control program modeled on U.S. safety procedures.

The system requires companies to keep records so the source of any tainted food can be quickly identified.

FROM: Corvallis Gazette Times. August 15, 1998, B6.


Hedrick, U.P. editor. 1919. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants. Report of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station for the Year 1919 II. Albany, J.B Lyon Company, State Printers. [References Available]
China may be considered the native land of the radish where, as in the neighboring country of Japan, it runs into many varieties, among them an oil plant. The radish, however, is found wild in the Mediterranean region, as in Spain, in Sardinia, more frequently in Greece and is mentioned so frequently by ancient writers that some authors think it may be cultivated form of R. raphanistrum. Radishes were extensively cultivated in Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs. So highly did the ancient Greeks esteem the radish, says McIntosh, that, in offering their oblations to Apollo, they presented turnips in lead and beets in silver, whereas radishes were presented in beaten gold. The Greeks appear to have been acquainted with three varieties, and Moschian, one of their physicians, wrote a book on the radish. Tragus, 1552, mentions radishes that weighed 40 pounds, and Mattiolus, 1544, declares having seen them weighing 100 pounds each.

This root does not appear, says Booth, to have reached England until 1548. gerarde mentions four varieties as being grown in 1597, "eaten raw with bread" but for the most part" used as a sauce with meates to procure appetite." Radishes are mentioned in Mexico by P. Martyr; as abounding in Hayti by Benzoni, 1565; and as cultivated in Massachusetts by Wm. Wood, 1629-33. In 1806, McMahon mentions 10 sorts in his list of American garden esculents. Thorburn offers 9 varieties in his catalog of 1828 and 25 in 1881. At present, radishes are usually eaten raw with salt as a salad but are said also to be used occasionally otherwise; the leaves may be boiled as greens or eaten as a cress; the old roots may be boiled and served as asparagus; or the seed-pods may be used for pickels. In China, a variety whose root is not fleshy is cultivated for the oil which is procured from the seeds. In Japan, the roots re in general and universal use, being served as a vegetable and in almost every dish. Miss Bird says the daikon is the abomination of Europeans. The Lew-Chew radishes often grow, says Morrow, between two and three feet long, mroe than a foot in circumference and are boiled for food. In Sikh, India, the radish is cultivated principally for the vegetable formed of the young pods and for its oil. In upper Egypt, a peculiar kind is cultivated, of which, says Klunzinger, the leaves only are eaten, and Pickering says also that the leaves are eaten in Egypt. Bayard Taylor says the Arabs are very fond of radish-tops and eat them with as much relish as donkeys.

I.
ROUND, OR TURNIP, RADISH

The round, or turnip, radish has the root swollen into a spherical form, or an oval tube rounding at the extremity to a filiform radicle. The root ahs several shades of color, from white to red or purple. Its savor is usually milder than that of the other sorts. This seems to be the boeotion of Theophrastus, who described this form as the least acid, or a rotund figure and with small eaves; it is the syriacan of Columella and of Pliny. this sort does not appear to have received extensive distribution northward during the Middle Ages, as it is seldom mentioned in the earlier botanies. In 1586, Lyte says they are not very common in Brabant; but they figured in two varieties by Gerarde. here might be put the Raphanus vulgaris of Tragus, 1552, which he describes as round, small and common in Germany. Bontius, 1658, mentions the round radish in Java, and, in 1837, Bojer describes it as grown at the Mauritius. In 1842, Speede gives and Indian name, gol moolee, for the red and white kinds.
Raphanus radicula. Pers. Baillon Hist. Pls. 3: 222.
Raphanus orbiculatus. Round radish. Ger. 184. 1597.
Scarlet French Turnip. Vilm. 485. 1885.
Small Early White Turnip.. Vilm. 487. 1885. Radicular sativa minor. Small garden radish. Ger. 183. 1597.
White olive-shaped. . Vilm. 490. 1885.
II.
LONG RADISH

The root of this class is long, nearly cylindrical, diminishing insensibly to a point at the extremity. This is now the common garden radish. It has a variety of colors from white to red and is noteworthy for the transparency of the flesh. This radish may well be the radicular of Columella, and the algidense of Pliny, which he describes as having a long and translucent root. This type is not described in England by Lyte nor by Gerarde; it is described as in the gardens of Aleppo in 1573-75. In 1658, Bontius calls them, in Java, Dutch radish. In 1837, Bojer names them in the Mauritius and in 1842 Speede gives an Indian name, lumbee moolee.
Raphanus sativus. Mill. Baillon Hist. Pls. 3: 222.
Raphanus minor purpureus. Lob. obs. 99. 1576; Icon. I: 201. 1591.
Raphanus longus. Cam. Epit. 224. 1586.
Raphanus purpureus minor. Lob. Dalechamp. 636. 1587.
Radicula sativa minor. dod. 676. 1616.
Raphanus corynthia. Bodaeus. 769. 1644.
Long Scarlet. Vilm. 490. 1885.
Long White Vienna. Vilm. 492. 1885.
III. LONG WHITE LATE RADISH

The long, white, late, large radishes cannot be recognized in the ancient writings, unless it be the reference by Pliny to the size; some radishes, he says, are the size of a boy infant, and Dalechamp says that such could be seen in his day in Thuringia and erfordia. In Japan, so says Kizo Tamari, a Japanese commissioner to the New Orleans Exposition of 1886, the radishes are mostly cylindrical, fusiform or club-shaped, from one-fourth of an inch to over a foot in diameter, from sixinches to over a yeard in length. J. Morrow says that Lew Chew Radishes often grow between two and three feet long and more than twelve inches in circumference. In 1604, Acosta writes that he had seen in the Indies "redish rootes as bigge as a man's arme, very tender and of good taste." These radishes are probablky mentioned by Albertus Magnus in the thriteenth century, who says that the radix are very large roots of a pyramidal figure, with a somewhat sharp savor, but not that of raphanus; they are planted in gardens. This type seems to have been the principal kind of northern Europe a few centruies later and is said by Lyte, 1586, to be the common radish of England. In 1790, Loureiro describes this type as cultivated in China and Cochin China, and this seems to be the form described by kaempfer in japan, in 1712. The radishes figured by the early botanists enable us to connect very closely with mdoern varieties.
a.-Raphanus longus. Trag. 732. 1552.
Raphanus. Matth. 214. 1558; 332. 1570.
Raphanus sive radix. Pin. 145. 1561.
Raphanus magnus. Lob.obs. 99. 1576; Icon i: 201. 1591.
Raphanus alba. Cam. Epit. 223. 1586.
Raphanus sativus Matthiol. Dalechamp. 635. 1587.
Raphanus sive radicula sativa. Dod. 676. 1616.
White Strasbourg. Vilm. 494. 1885.
b.-Raphanus II. Matth. 332. 1570; 349. 1598.
Raphanus secundus Matthiol. Dalechamp. 635. 1598.
Laon long gray Winter. Vilm. 496. 1885.
c.-Raphanus . Matth. 241. 1558; 332. 1570.
Raphanus sive radix. Pin. 145. 1561.
Raphanus sativus Matthiolus. Dalechamp. 635. 1587
Radice. Dur. C. 383. 1885.
White Spanish Winter. Vilm. 497. 1885.
d.-Raphanus sativus. Garden Raidsh. Ger. 183. 1597
Large White Russian.
IV.
LONG BLACK RADISH

This radish does not seem to have been mentioned by the ancients. In 1586, Lyte says: "The radish with a black root has of late years been brought into England and now beginnith to be common."
Raphanus nigra. Cam. Epit. 223. 1586.
Raphanus sive radicula sativa nigra. dod. 676. 1616.
Raffano longo Dur. C. 1617. ap.
Long-rooted Black Spanish. Bryant 40. 1783.
Long Black Spanish Winter. vilm. 496. 1885.


V.
ROUND BLACK RADISH.

This is a turnip-rooted or round form of a black radish, usually included among winter sorts.
Raphanus pyriformis. Ger. 184. 1597.
Raphanus I. Matth. 394. 1598.
Large Purple Winter. Vilm. 495. 1885.

There is another form of black radish figured in the early botanies, of quite a distinct appearance. It answers suggestively to the description by Vilmorin of the Radis de Mahon a long, red radish, eceedingly distinct, growing in part above ground and peculiar to some districts in southern France and to the Balearic Isles.
Raphanus niger. Lob. Icon. I: 202. 1591.
Radice selvatica. Dur. C. 384. 1617.
Raphanus niger. Bod. 770. 1644.
Radis de Mahon. Vilm. 499. 1885.

Theophrastus mentions the Corinthian sort as having full foliage and the root, unlike other radishes, growing partly out of the earth, but the long Normandy answers to this description as well as the Mahon.
VI.
EDIBLE-PODDED RADISH.

This radish has pods a foot or more in length and these find use as a vegetable. The species became known to Linnaeus in 1784; it reached England from java about 1816 and was described by Burr as an American kitchen-garden plant in 1863. According to Firminger, the plant has but lately come into cultivation in India and there bears pods often three feet in length. These pods make excellent pickles. It was at first called in England tree radish from Java; in India, rat-tailed radish, the name it now holds in the United Sttes; by Burr, 1863, Madras radish; by some, aerial radish.
Adapted from: Dahl, J.O. 1945. Food and Menu Dictionary. The DAHLS, Haviland Road, Stamford, Conn.
is French for radishes.


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