SC - Re: Domestroi

[david friedman]

And it came to pass on 29 Oct 97, that Mike C. Baker wrote:

> If I have followed other recent discussions with any degree of
> accuracy, the Domestroi is the only surviving pre-1600 Russian
> cookbook (or anything close to a cookbook) of which we know. 

I beleive this is correct.
 
> The descriptions I have seen thus far indicate that it's more of a
> household manual (think "Domestic Science") than what we moderns
> think of usually when we say cookbook (although this is also a point
> upon which i would like to see more discussion as well...)

Yes, that's exactly what it is.  It was written by a Russian cleric 
as a manual for how a well-to-do Russian household should be run.  It 
includes many admonishments about keeping one's servants 
well-behaved (and when and how to beat them), how a modest wife 
should comport herself, and the importance of  fulfilling religious 
obligations.  Additionally, it has a lot of advice on buying, 
raising, and storing foodstuffs, a few recipes for beverages and 
fruit preserves, and a chapter with a wonderfully *detailed* list of 
the foods which are customarily served at different times of the 
year.  It is, IMHO, mandatory reading for anyone interested in 
SCA-period Russia.

> ===
> Pax ... Kihe / Adieu -- Amra / TTFN -- Mike
> Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard) / 
> Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra (AoA in SCA, so: al-Sayyid) /
> Mike C. Baker: My opinions are my own -- no one else would want
> them!

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain of Tethba
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
mka Robin Carroll-Mann *** harper @ idt.net
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