SC - Re-Crustade Lombarde,

[Mark Harris]

Stephanie Rudin wrote:

>      This makes me remember that I've been wondering if capers are period?
>      Does anyone know?

We went through this pretty exhaustively a few months ago here on this
list, and the general consensus was that they don't seem to appear in
the period recipe collections most of us are familiar with. I was able
to find a recipe for flounder which featured them in the sauce, but that
was a 17th century source, with what appear to be no prior references.

This is probably a geo-specific item, though, as the sources most of us
cited were generally English, and capers don't come from England. By
sheer coincidence, it so happens that yesterday I was looking through a
copy of the Tacuinum Sanitatis, the 14th century medical catalogue of
foods and other bodily influences, and found the following reference...

The Casanatense version of T.S., f. XLII, says:

"Nature: Warm in the third degree, dry in the second. Optimum: Those
which are tender and fresh. Usefulness: They reduce the quantity of the
urine. Dangers: They reduce the blood and the sperm. Neutralization of
the Dangers: With vinegar."

Adamantius
________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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