SC - Period veges

[Alderton, Philippa]

Re: Re: Period veggies
        Elizabeth wrote: " But Menagier de Paris (late 14th c.) describes
                carrots as "red roots that you buy in the market".
 
When I travelled in India a year ago, the carrots in the market were almost
a true red color, or at least a rather dark very reddish orangey color.
Perhaps Europe in our period might have had a similarly colored variety.


Elizabeth also wrote:  "Eggplant (aubergine),
                I know lots of good Islamic recipes for this, but no
non-Muslim                     European ones.  Does anyone else?

There are a couple of eggplant recipes in the Arte de Cozina text from 1607
that I'm currently working with.  I haven't done any redactions with these
recipes yet, so I can't say how tasty they are.  Here's my translation:
        "Book III Chapter 19:  How to make eggplant
                Cook the eggplant in water & salt, & being cooked remove the
water,         & chop them well, & cast them in a casserole dish to fry with
a lot of oil,         & cast to them grated cheese & bread, & 6 or 8
maravedis of spices {fairly         heavily spiced}, & some garlic, all
mashed, & cook everything with this         mixture, & thicken it with eggs,
setting fire on top.  This is called " a         nun's casserole of
eggplant":  also you may give it out cooked in the grease 
        from the pot, & serve it with fat bacon, pepper, or parsley.  These
eggplants may be stored all year in a syrup of grape juice/ wine, & made in
        this manner, cooking it in this syrup, & casting some cloves &
cinnamon to         it while it cooks, & cast it in a glass pot, where it
will be stored."

A note on the spices....the text mentions the principal ones as cinnamon,
ginger, pepper, nutmeg, cloves & saffron.  The text also mentions clearly
mint & parsley (these very often), bay leaves, oregano & marojam (these
infrequently) & possibly fresh cilantro.  Also, cumin & maybe coriander
seed, both infrequently.  

Please let me know if you try any of these recipes, how they turn out.
                        

                                Take care,
                                        Antoine de Bayonne







Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA 

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