SC - kitchen kits (long

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

> Date: Fri, 20 Feb 1998 17:09:15 -0800
> From: "Crystal A. Isaac" <crystal at pdr-is.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - Ham
> 
> Yep, ham's medieval. There's a recipe in Apicius for "Pig Newtons." You
> take ham, cover it with a paste of figs and honey then cover it with a
> pastry crust and bake. It's really good. 
> 
> I think about any sort of salt or smoke cured meat is medieval. They
> were pretty clever about figuring out ways to make meat last over winter
> without making people sick.

Few things tick me off more than people sitting on their duffs ignoring
questions like this until someone says something they disagree with, but
since I got both question and the response in the same digest, I'm
saving a bit of time here, and responding to question and response at
once.

Yes, ham is period, and more or less prehistoric, I suspect. Cato's "De
Re Rustica" (or is it "De Re Agricultura"? I always get Cato and
Columella mixed up) gives a recipe that Jane Grigson has declared almost
identical in its details to relatively modern recipes for York ham,
except for the final rubbing with vinegar and oil. I'm not aware of a
whole lot of medieval recipes for curing and smoking ham, but it clearly
was eaten, and there's really no big reason to assume it was mde
differently than Cato's version, with minor differences in the case
with, say, Spanish hams which appear to have been air dried, like
Prosciutto, after curing, and not smoked.

One thing I did want to point out is that the Apician recipe for ham
baked in dough is a bit different from the description above, and I
assume that the concept of Pig Newtons is an adaptation of the original
for a secondary or tertiary source. The Apician recipe, IIRC, calls for
a smoked ham, like a Smithfield type ham, to be soaked, scoured, etc.,
to desalinate it somewhat. It is then boiled with figs, drained,
skinned, smeared with honey, and wrapped in a dough made of flour and
olive oil. As far as I know from the recipe, the figs are not eaten in
the final dish, and the pastry is probably discarded too.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a sauce
for ham calling for a thickening of pastry crumbs. I'd have to check on
that, but it would make sense.

Why do I mention this? Not because I'm a rotter who enjoys pointing out
things like this, but rather because this is a fairly common research
foible that can cause trouble under certain circumstances. To quote
Herod Agrippa in "Claudius the God" (and probably spoken over a plate of
Apician ham) "Trust no one, little marmoset! Trust no one!" To which I
add, especially anyone claiming a recipe is Apician, without providing a
reasonable stab at chapter and verse, and especially don't trust Vehling
;  )  !

But dang, Pig Newtons sound good, I have to say...

Adamantius (a bit of an Apician ham himself)
troy at asan.com
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