SC - 1.) Authenticity/Documentation 2.) Spain

[Stephen Bloch]

Joan Garner wrote:
> 	As I have been increasingly entranced lately by medieval Spanish
> 	music (I sing & play harp), I would like to learn more about
> 	the related food.  Can anyone suggest a book, website or other
> 	source of recipes?  Although a beginner to period cookery, I have
> 	worked professionally as a cook, so it doesn't have to be TOO
> 	simple-minded.

One place to look is Cariadoc's _Miscellany_, which contains a lot of
recipes from Arabo-Andalusian sources (as well as those from English,
French, German, and Persian sources).  Volume II of Cariadoc's
_Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks_ contains a complete
translation of the 13th-century Arabo-Andalusian cookbook.  I wrote a
T.I. article about meatless dishes from this cookbook several years ago;
it's on the Web at "http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/articles/veggie.html".  

If you're more interested in Christian Spain, probably the best sources
are Catalan rather than "Spanish" proper: the 14th-century _Libre de
Sent Sovi_ and the late-15th or early-16th c. _Libre del Coch_.  We did
a feast in February mostly from these two sources; see the Web page
"http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/sca/cooking/st.val.feast.html" for menu
and example recipes.
					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
					 http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University