SC - Re yeast, chewets, and confits

[Ilkka Heikki Salokannel]

Greetings Cooks,

Re Yeast: - You are quite correct in that the medieval cook 
couldn’t go to a store and buy a package of dried yeast BUT  
both the word "yest" and "berme" or "barm" (ale yeast) were 
used in medieval sources (to give just a few examples):
[Royal 17. A. iii MS. British Library, London. (c. 1370)] Ad 
faciendum brakott - "...put therto newe berm..."
[MS BL Add. 5016 British Library, London (c. 1380) known as 
Form of Cury ] Frytour of erbes” - "... a lytel yest..."; 
Bragget - "... do gode berme aboue..."
[Rawlinson MS. D1222 Bodleian Library, Oxford (c.1380)] 
Mynceleek - "...do theryn a litel berme or a litel sourdoug"
[Harleian Ms. 279. (c.1420)] Cryspey - "... a lytel 
Berme..."; Fretoure - "take whete floure, Ale yest, Safroun, 
& Salt..."; Rastons - "...than take warme Berme...". 
[Holkham Collection (c. 1460) known as "A Noble Boke off 
Cookry ffor a Prynce Houssolde of eny other Estately 
Houssolde"] To mak rostand - "...a litill yest of new ale..."
Leavening could be done two ways in the Middle Ages by either 
the sourdough method or by using the froth or "barm" from the 
top of fermenting ale. This was "ale yest".  (Beer yeast 
ferments on the bottom.) They, of course, had no idea what 
yeast was (first discovered by Louis Pasteur in the 19th 
century). The "yeast" in the sourdough method was airborne 
wild yeasts of two kinds in medieval Europe. In the north the 
wild yeasts are what were later domesticated into modern 
"ale" and "beer" yeasts. In the south the wild yeasts are 
what become "wine" yeasts. As the temperature increased the 
limit of grape growing and airborne wild "wine" yeast moved 
north and the medieval climate was, on the whole, warmer than 
modern day. Modern "bread" yeasts are derived from the 
domestication of North American wild airborne yeasts. 
(Sourdough yeasts for starters came from N.America to France 
not the other way around.) Yeasts are differentiated by their 
tolerance for alcohol - a toxic waste product to the yeast. 
Here in N. America we can make very good sourdough without 
buying expensive starter packages, but have to protect our 
wine and beer during fermentation from wild yeasts. [I worked 
in R&D for Wine-Art in the seventies and read my way around 
an entire room of  books about wine, wine history, wine 
tasting, the chemical composition of wine, and yeasts. - 
thought I should explain how I know this.]

Re chewets being derived from the French word for cabbage: 
Was this a joke and I just didn’t get it? - Don’t you think 
it more likely that it derives from the same word as "chew" 
meaning masticated? Chewets were made of finely chopped foods 
that perhaps looked already chewed - maybe the word was 
slang, someone’s nickname, etc - names of recipes don’t 
always have a meaning we can decipher now.

Re confits being Savoyard: A "confit" or "comfit" can be 
either a hard sugar coated spice or seed, or a fruit or root 
preserved in sugar syrup. The use of honey for the 
preservation of fruit was known in ancient times and the 
switch to a sugar syrup came about as it became more readily 
available. I don’t think Savoy had much to do with this 
unless you mean something very specific and not the general 
meaning of the word at all. Was this the case? 

Mistress Rowenna de Roncesvalles OL. OP
Barony of Lions Gate, Kingdom of An Tir
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Name: Ilkka Heikki Salokannel
E-mail: Ilkka Heikki Salokannel<Rennes at xl.ca>
Date: 4/17/97
Time: 11:37:40 PM

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