SC - Re: SCA myths

[Terry Nutter]

Hi, Katerine here.  A quick note on the eating of raw fruits: one of the
manuals on serving (John Russel's Boke of Nurture, if I recall correctly) 
clearly describes setting the table with bread, hard fruits, and hard cheese
at the beginning of the meal, and closing with soft fruits, soft cheeses,
wafers, and hypocras.

Now, hard and soft fruits will not always be in season, though I believe
that by the 15th century, the "best" households had access to the produce
of succession houses.  Still, the inescapable implication is that when 
raw fresh fruits were available, they were eaten.

As someone else pointed out, there are recipes for raw salads (including
one in Forme of Cury that contains an impressive list of greens), and
notes in Platina of vegetables that were good raw (as well as others that
weren't considered so).

So there is direct evidence, and it contradicts the hypothesis that fruits
and vegetables were never eaten raw.

As to the claim that they were always overcooked: what in the world would serve
as evidence for that?  A recipe that read "cook until it is far too gone"? As
most readers of this list will have noticed, recipes do not specify cooking
times.  The only ones I can think of that might be thought to substantiate
this claim or those for some pea and bean dishes, which say to boil until
they burst -- but they're dealing with *dried* vegetables.

*Sigh*

Cheers,

- -- Katerine/Terry

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================