SC - Re: OOh-OOh Birds! -Longish

[Uduido at aol.com]

In a message dated 97-05-23 08:45:00 EDT, you write:

<< Conversely the less often an item is
 >mentioned, the more "common" it may have been. Responce?
 >
 >So, to follow this line of thinking out, the vast majority of the folks the

 >vast majority of the time were eating recipes that went completely 
 >unrecorded made out of ingredients that we have no way to know existed....
 > >>

Whoa peoples! :-0 My original post although it contained much silliness and
tongue in cheek was not meant to be taken in complete seriousness! I may have
a few screws loose but believe me when I say that my ignorance in the field
of period cookery is NOT all-emcompassing. My apologies for any
misunderstandings.

My original intention was to suggest that just maybe the ostentatious use of
chicken could POSSIBLY have been a sign of wealth since their value on a
daily basis would have been directly linked to egg production. This was a
HYPOTHESIS and is not born out in research. I only know that from personal
experience down on the farm that we ONLY slaughtered the oldest chickens and
extra roosters unless we had an over abundance of birds, which situation was
rare indeed.

Also a comment was made on pork and beef recipes being common. This is
correct but NOBILITY could afford herds of these animals. However, the
average Joe would have had a "family cow" which would not have been
slaughtered for meat. And he perhaps would have owned 2 or three pigs which
would have been fattened and put up for winter usage.

So the question becomes one of whether the lifestyle of the rich and famous
really had anything in common with the average Medieval peasant type person.
In view of the above, IMO, the abundance of recipes calling for beef, pork,
and chicken may very well show that the NOBILITY, for which the extant
cookery manuscripts were written, were very well flaunting there wealth by
using these meats which the peasant population could not afford to slaughter
or consume with impunity.

Once again this whole area of research is extraordinarily fascinating and
will, I imagine, consume much of my time  over the next several months.

Lord Ras (Uduido at aol.com)