SC - fried fish and other foods

[Philip W. Troy]

Michael Macchione wrote:

> What I was wondering was, if anyone knows of a source that would basically
> say which foods (ingredients not recipes) were eaten when and where.  Thus
> if I asked to make up a feast for a French meal in the 1400's.  I could
> start here to see what kind of dishes I'm talking about.  Or, if a novice
> is looking for "one more dish" to round out a meal, they could be sure to
> include something that is at least available to the area, even if they
> can't document the recipe itself.
> 
> I guess, one of my greatest fears, is to serve a themed meal and have
> someone come over to me after the feast and say "That was a great meal,
> but they did you know that they didn't eat such-n-such in that period"
> 
> So does anyone know of any such list, or does anyone else think that this
> kind of list would be a good thing to build up?  (feel free to tell me I'm
> crazy, my friends do all the time :)
> 
> Kael

What you are asking seems to be a bit more comprehensive than most
sources get, as far as I can tell. There are several places to start,
though. A good overall jumping-off place is  Reay Tanahill's "Food in
History", followed by Harold McGee's "On Food and Cooking". This last is
good for determining, for example, that peaches originated in India,
travelled through the Persian Empire, and were known in Greece by
such-and-such a date. Generally this book tends to be more interested in
things like the polymeric development of the gluten strand, which I
myself find both fascinating and useful, but the other information is
there as well.

Then there are sources that go into what was eaten in a specific place.
C. Anne Wilson's "Food and Drink in Britain" is probably among the best
of these. Then there is "The Medieval Health Handbook", an illustrated
collection of different Italian manuscripts of the Tacuinum Sanitatis, a
period medical text originally written by an Arab physician, giving the
effects of various foods and other things on the body as seen through
the eyes of a physician. It seems to deal primarily with the foods that
would have been known to someone living near the Mediterranean. There
are also references to foods that had been heard of, but obviously not
seen, by the Italian illustrators of the later manuscripts. Their
illustrations for mandrake and bananas come to mind. Pretty funny.

Yes, it would be nice if someone had made up a chart somewhere, but I'm
not aware of a good or an accurate one, if it exists.

I hope this is of some help to you!

G. Tacitus Adamantius