SC - barley & fashions in food preparation techniques

[Stapleton, Jeanne]

Actually, it was me, Berengaria, who wrote the following:

>>Another observation I made when cooking it was that one of my
partners in crime kept saying, "It must be done now", <<


I have certainly found the same thing true in cooking times.  It may be
partly due to the 'al dente' current fashion, but I find a lot of food not
sufficiently cooked, or cooked down.

	I think it's the "al dente" fashion in pasta, and the
	"tender crisp" thing in vegetables; and I also think
	it's the microwave culture.

  Many meats, especially game, need lower cooking temperatures and longer
cooking times to become tender, and to develop thick, rich gravies.

	Yes; I've experimented with various things and there
	are a number that require cooking times that are *in-
	credibly* long by modern standards.

  As to textures, I sometimes feel everything in the middle ages was turned
into mush, because they all had spoons!


	Well, that's part of the difficulty in "selling" the
	idea of some medieval foodstuffs--the "brown glop"
	factor.

Berengaria
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