4 ms·

Seriously. The basket is full of delicious edible things and... a pinecone? The theory presented is either missing some background knowledge we need to underst

• klyrs 5y ago
  Pine nuts come from pine cones, specifically stone pine trees are endemic to Europe. It might not be that weird to find a pine cone in a fruit basket
  • riffraff 5y ago
    Not only that, I'm quite sure green pinecones are edible and still eaten in parts of the world. To me it seems the mosaic indeed shows what looks like a "young" pine cone (i.e. you see square platelets), not the open one you would get pinecone nuts from. A quick googling suggests a few Russian recipes[0] though I feel I had them somewhere in Greece. [0] https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rbth.com/russian-kitchen/329953-4-russian-recipes-pine-cones/amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rbth.com/russian-kitchen/32...
    • mytailorisrich 5y ago
      My experience is that the best pine cones for pine nuts are the ones just about to open. Before that they are not ripe, but once they are open the nuts quickly fall off (at which point you look for them under the tree before the squirrels do).
• mastazi 5y ago
  Maritime Pines, the kind that is most common in Central Italy, have edible pine nuts. I grew up in Italy and I remember pine nuts being much more mainstream there as a food, compared to other countries where I've lived. They are consumed both by themselves and as ingredients in various recipes (an example is Pesto sauce - the original Italian version uses pine nuts - another example is the Tuscan "torta della nonna", a type of dessert). Obviously the ancient Roman cuisine was very different compared to modern Italian food but I suspect Romans may have been eating pine nuts too.