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

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hello all from Anne-Marie
We are asked:
> 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.

There are no medieval recipes that I know of inthe French corpus calling
for meats to be cooked with vegetables other than onions. I too have heard
the stories of the pot au feu, ie the pot on the back of the fire where the
peasants would throw thier odds and ends and eat out of it for days and
days. According to some sources, the pot would only be cleaned out at lent,
when you couldnt eat the meat broth. I agree that the recipe above is a
modern one, attempting to mimic a faintly medieval concept.

> 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.

you probably already know this, but you need to be careful about assiging
something as "medieval" just cuz there's no potatoes in it. Beef Stroganoff
has no out of period ingredietns in it, but its not even close to medieval
in concept. Again, coq-au-vin is a stew of meat and veggies, which I have
never seen the like of in the medieval French corpus. And I can't think of
a single non-beverage recipe right now that uses wine (until you get to
Chiquart, but he's pushing the "medieval" envelope. My God! The man uses
citrus as a souring agent!! :)). I could be wrong...its late, and I'm
tired. Someone set me straight if I missed something...


> 
> 3.  Is mayonnaise period?
> 
The first example of an emulsion sauce I've seen is in la Varenne, 1651.
Before that, sauces are all thickened with particulates or through
reduction. So I would say no, mayonaisse is not period.

> 4.  Finally is a meat based mousse period? 
If by mousse you mean a finely minced paste of meat, then the answer is
yes. Paste en pot de mouton is best if you can make a super fine mince of
onions and lamb and cook it for a long time in spices and
vinegar...mmmm....If you mean a fluffy mix of mayo and meat, then no. 

Come to think of it, can anyone think of ANY fluffy medieval food? The
first one I think of is snow, but that's a bit late to be medieval.

Hope this helps...
- --Anne-Marie
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