SC - Sugared Pine Nuts, etc.

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:

> No doubt you know (but I'll mention it for anyone who doesn't) that
> sugared pine-nuts are mentioned in Platina.  I'm at work, and don't
> have my copy handy, but ISTR that he says to shape them into little rolls.
> They are served at the beginning of a meal (to stimulate the appetite, I
> think).
> 
> Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
> harper at idt.net
> mka Robin Carroll-Mann, who made sugared walnuts for Xmas gifts this
> year

The general medical theory would be that a sugared aperitif would open
the chest and stomach prior to the more serious eating, for better
digestion. 

Opinions varied, of course, from place to place and between times, but
the general theory, if it has to boil down into one, might be loosely
interpreted that you eat stomach- and chest-openers at the beginning of
a meal, then eat the more "neutral" foods, to be followed by cheese and
other dairy dishes, which were often believed to cause the stomach to
close up again, with a draft of hippocras or some kind of candied spices
going in just as the stomach is closing. [The spices provide the "heat"
necessary for good digestion, apparently...]

I guess the peasantry are out of luck, I suppose ;  ), as far as
digestion is concerned.

I wonder if the cheese wafers mentioned in Le Menagier de Paris (and, I
think, Taillevent as well) were considered an innovation in that the
cheese could now arrive in the same course as the hippocras. Either
that, or just an indication of a shift in popular belief, perhaps, or
maybe even coincidence.

I never really thought of my stomach as a pressure cooker, to be honest,
but I can speak with a fair authority when I say that sugar in most
forms, especially rock candy, does seem to act as an expectorant, and is
still used for that purpose in China and India, which might lead one to
believe it opens the chest...

Check almost anything by Terence Scully for more info on humoural
medicine theory, but for Heaven's sake, be careful with any recipes he
may present. They tend to be, well, whimsical in their interpretation. I
have great respect for his scholarship, though. He just can't cook, I
suspect.

Adamantius
troy at asan.com

Adamantius
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