SC - Re: A couple questions . . .

[Decker, Terry D.]

<deleted>
>Not the allspice -- it's native to the New World (somewhere in the
>Caribbean, if I remember right).

Oops, I think you are correct.  I believe it is Jamaican. 

>For example, you describe the dish as a "risotto", and mention "adding
>broth as absorbed," which to my mind is the distinctive technique in a
>risotto (as opposed to boiling all the liquid at once and adding the
>grain thereto).  Was this technique ever used on barley?  Was this
technique ever used in the Middle Ages at all? 
<deleted>

Somewhere in my period recipe collection, I have one which calls for
cooking the barley for 3 hours.  This causes the barley to become
creamy, which is the idea behind risotto, if I am not mistaken.  In
extended cooking of grains, I almost always have to add liquid, and I'm
fairly certain medieval cooks would need to do this also.  I have met no
one who can tell me precisely how much fluid a given batch of grain will
absorb.

Were I trying for absolute authenticity, I would experiment extended
cooking, although I doubt I could rival "pease porridge in the pot, nine
days old."

<deleted>
>					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
>                                                 Stephen Bloch
>                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
>					 http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
>                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University

Bear
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