SC - french cooking or is Ham mousse just a fancy sausage?

[jeffrey s heilveil]

> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 14:57:29 +0300
> From: dkpirolo at cts.com
> Subject: SC - french cooking or is Ham mousse just a fancy sausage?
> 
> 1.  Is "pot-au-feu" (pot on the fire)actually period or just plausibly
> period?
> "pot-au-feu"--beef brisket,saltpork,onion with clove,leeks,turnips,parsley,
> thyme,salt,one chicken--cleaned and trussed, cabbage.  MUST be cooked in
> earthenware pot (no kidding--this is part of the directions) from a cook
> book (1959) on french cookery.  I have read elsewhere that this dates from
> the Middle Ages but since I do not own a copy of _Le Managier_ I cannot
> check.

This is a tough call. I'm not aware of a specific extant medieval recipe
for pot au feu, but stocks and, to a lesser extent, stews of mixed meats
did exist in period. The typical medieval stockpot was often used to
boil all kinds of things, and those foods added their flavors to the
stock. This was not universal, though, since many recipes call for good
broth of beef, or of capons, etc., which presumably had never felt the
kiss of stockfish or hamhocks (in the latter case, more's the pity!)

If you want to look at a modern French recipe that is more akin to the
pottages in Le Menagier, try finding a recipe for a garbure or a potee,
which are often primarily based on things like leeks, ham, and cabbage.
Some of them will include New World like white beans or tomatoes, which,
while technically known in Europe in period, aren't typical of medieval
cookery in Europe. Many recipes don't have these things, however, and
some of them are probably fairly close to period counterparts. 

> 2.  The recipe for coq-au-vin leads me to believe it is plausibly period
> due to its lack of new world veggies.  Did cooks use wine to cook with in
> the Middle Ages or was it reserved solely for beverage?  Yes I know vinegar
> was used but I am really interested in whether potable wine was used
> regularly.

Rather more than modern cooks use wine, I'd say. In fact, there are many
recipes for pottages where wine is the primary liquid. 
 
> 3.  Is mayonnaise period?

I _think_ there's an emulsified (which is the key for the creaminess of
mayonnaise) sauce in Manuscrito Anonimo, which is a puree of garlic,
and, I think, hard-boiled egg yolks, with olive oil beaten slowly in.
That's probably about as close as you'll find until the eighteenth
century or so. If you look at one of the Spanish cold garlic soup
recipes, or a French rouille recipe, you'll find something like it,
except the period equivalent would lack the red peppers and occasional
potato found in rouille.
 
> 4.  Finally is a meat based mousse period?

That depends on what you mean by mousse. If you are talking about a
smooth puree of cooked meat, lightened with egg white and perhaps
whipped cream, and recooked, I'd say I've never seen such a thing in  a
period source. Dishes of meat puree might include some of the meat's
cooking stock, some bread crumbs or grain, and some eggs, among other
things (i.e. mortrews, for example), but would generally be served hot
as a thick pottage or hash.  

I'm getting the impression (and please correct me if I'm mistaken) that
you're leafing through a modern French cookbook looking for ideas.
Certainly if you find a modern recipe that seems to produce a dish
similar to some period dishes, you can get some excellent ideas  about
proportions and cooking times, etc., but the likelihood is you'll get
better results by looking at period sources and then looking forward to
modern sources to find clues as to how to proceed on the period recipes,
rather than the other way around. If you take a modern recipe and
speculate as to how it was done in period, you're pretty likely to be
recreating a past that never happened. Obviously the period sources are
sometimes a bit harder to come by than the modern ones, but they're well
worth the effort, and primary sources are becoming increasingly
available, even at many SCA events' merchants' tables.

Please forgive me if I'm sounding mean and nasty: I know it can be
frustrating when you ask for help and you get something other than the
help you ask for, but I'm trying to split the difference, if you see
what I mean, only because I feel pretty strongly about the issue.

Hoping at least some of this helps,

Adamantius
troy at asan.com
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