SC - redaction challenge/milk question

[Crystal A. Isaac]

kat wrote:
snip
> Wow!  Could "new Milke warme" actually refer to milk straight from the cow, so to speak?  I mean, that's as new as it gets; and it's certainly warm at the time (don't know exact cow temperature, but assume prolly 90+ degrees)...
> 
> Did they do that???

You bet they did. Pasturization is new and refrigeration is even newer.
But why assume cow milk? They drank sheep and goat milk too. I havn't
been able to document arabic peoples drinking milk, but it's easy for
europeans.

Sources for the purists:
Anthimus. _De Observatio Ciborum_. circa 526CE. Translated by Weber,
Shirley Howard. Anthimus, De Observatio Ciborum: Text, Commentary and
Glossary with a Study of the Latinity. Dissertation…. Published by E.J.
Brill Ltd., Leiden 1924.

LXXVI The Same (Of Milk) 
Of milk, -- for well people, -- if anyone wishes to drink raw milk, let
him have mixed with it wine or mead, and if there is not any of these
drinks, let a little salt be put in, and it does not then congeal
inside…. If, however, it is drunk as it is milked, warm, in this way it
does no harm. If a little honey or wine be mixed with it, it is better
to take. And if one wished to act more carefully, let [a cow or] a goat
or a sheep be milked in his presence;… and as the milk is drawn is
should not get cold, but be drunk warm.

Ratti, Oscar. and Westbrook, Adele. Translators and adaptors. _The
Medieval Health Handbook_. Orginal Italian edition _Tacinum Sanitatis_.
Lusia Arano, editor. Publsihed by George Braziller, Inc. New York. 1976
ISBN 0-8076-0808-4 (Text and pictures from Tacuinas of the Po valley,
circa 1390CE.)

35 Sweet Milk (Lac Dulce) 
Nature: Temperate and sweet when warm. Optimum: That from young sheep.
Usefulness: For the chest and lungs. Dangers: For fevers. Neutralization
of the dangers: With seedless raisins. (f. 37v)

more snipping
> Curious, that word "Liquor."  I don't think it refers to alcohol, but to some other sort of fluid (brings to mind my father's expression, "pot likker," referring to the water left in the pot after the asparagus/peas/whatever has been cooked and removed).
> 
> Anyone have any insight on the meaning of the term "Liquor" at this time period?

I won't kill for an OED 'cause I'm sure Master Cariadoc (sorry about the
spelling) will chime in any minute. Lots of the medieval/renissance
recipes I've looked at refer to "Liquor" (in a million diferent
spellings) as fluid left over from cooking. I think your guess is
correct.

Crystal of the Westermark
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