Spinach (was Re: SC - do you have any ideas ?)

[Cindy Renfrow]

Hello!

<snip>
>I found _Martha Washington's Book of Cookery_ with commentary by Karen
>Hess in my local library

ISBN 0-231-04931-5, before anyone asks.  Food Heritage Press has signed
copies, if you're interested...

<snip>
>She goes on to explain where spinach comes from . . .
<snip>
>This quote leaves me asking some questions:
>Why did spinach recipes lose their popularity during the 15C. ?
>Talk about a spoontease! what is the perfectly straight forward recipe in
>_The Forme of Cury, much less those in _Le Viandier_ and Le Menagier_?


Waverly Root devotes almost 5 columns to this topic ("Food", Smithmark,
1996, pp. 469-471, ISBN 0-7651-9791-X).  Spinach, Spinacea oleracea,
originated in Persia, but tracing it from there is difficult. He gives a
great many conflicting sources; but I'm not going to repeat all that here -
you're better off reading it for yourself. (BTW, I got this book on the
'remaindered' table at Borders last year - a bargain!)

I will tell you that part of the problem is that, in English, the word
'spinach' was a generic term for potherb greens.  I've found 6 different
species that were called 'spinach', & there are probably others
(Chenopodium album, C. Bonus-Henricus, Blitum capitatum, Atriplex
hortensis, A. rosea, and Salicornia species).


>and who/what is _Le Viandier_? The others I have heard about on the list,
>but this is the first time I've bumped into him.
>
>Beatrix
>

Tirel, Guillaume.  Le Viandier di Guillaume Tirel, dit Taillevent. Jerome
Pichon and Georges Vicaire, eds.  Paris, 1892.

____. Le Viandier de Taillevent, 14th Century Cookery.  Tr. by James
Prescott.  Alfarhaugr Publishing Society.  Eugene, Oregon, 1989.

Mr. Prescott, are you here?  Is your book still available?

HTH,


Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/


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