SC - Sharpening Fine Points or Will Adamantius Tell All?

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hello all from Anne-Marie

Cariadoc tells us:
> About a week ago I had to go to the east coast on mundane business, and
> ended up spending Saturday morning testing my new digital camera on the
> Metropolitan Museum's collection of medieval jewlery, in the company of
> Adamantius. In the course of the conversation, he mentioned that he had
> evidence on what sort of rice was used in medieval cooking and how it was
> cooked.
> 
OK, fine. Wave THAT in my face. I don't suppose we'll be able to see these
jewelry pictures scanned on the web or anything? Hmmmmm????? :)

Then he asks some good questions:
> 
> A.  Questions
> 
> 1. Medieval cookbooks often say to put something through a strainer.
> Exactly what does this mean, and what sort of implement is being referred
> to?
> 
Hmm. we've seen pictures of strainer gizmos in period cookbooks that look
just like modern strainers. We also know they used "sleeves of hippocrates"
to strain things like ypocras and some other foods stuffs (where they were
mentioned specifically. Making cheese of almond milk springs to mind for
some reason...can't find the specific citation) Also theres the question of
when you run something through a strainer, do you want the elutate or the
retentate, ie do you want the stuff that goes through, or the gunk left
behind. Sometimes it is not clear from the text.

> 2. What modern flours most closely correspond to the sorts of flours
> referred to in period sources?
> 
It is a common SCA convention that one uses whole wheat flour, or at least
unbleached white that is cut with whole wheat flour for a "more medieval
feel". Yet many medieval recipes that call for flour specify "good flour"
"fine flour", "white flour". Once again, I'm afraid that many of us assume
that because they didnt have big factories, the quality was less than
today. To get white flour, all you need to do is bolt the whole wheat
stuff. The more times you bolt it (shaking it through a cloth, and threby
removing all the brown hull bits), the whiter the stuff is. As the
cuisinier to a noble household, I use the finest flour I can find, ie
unbleached white flour. Just adding whole wheat to it would not duplicate
less adequate bolting, and adding whole wheat adds small amounts of the big
stuff that would theoretically come out in the first bolting as well as the
smaller stuff that might make it through the first screening. Make sense?
As to gluten content, and wheat varieties (and there can be quite a bit of
difference in brands, etc), I would check out Elizabeth David's book on
English Bread and yeast Cookery. She compares European flours (even to the
point of British vs Continental) vs what we get here. 

> 3. How big were period eggs?
> 
I dunno on this one, but I see period woodcuts of women using eggs and they
look pretty much like the standard large egg I get at my grocery store.
Now, perspective isn't really a medieval concept, so I don't know as you
can really judge by that, but there's a chicken in the picture for
reference too. (A chicken with little Xes for eyes, even...)

> 4. How big were period chickens? What modern sort of chicken (roasting
hen,
> capon, fryer, ...) most closely corresponds?
> 
You all know this, I'm sure. the size of a chicken will depend on the
variety and the age. Again, in medieval illustrations, the chickens look
pretty regular sized. For my reconstructions I am more concerned with fat
amounts, and so use free range chickens when I can. (The modner chicken
will be much more fat than the medieval type, based on a steady diet of
chicken chow vs whatever they can scrounge and what grain they are thrown.

> Crystal, who showed up for a cooking workshop we are having this
afternoon
> while I was composing this post, adds:
> 
> 5. What kinds of cheeses are the recipes referring to?
> 
Some recipies will specify what type of Cheese, ie cheese of parma, etc.
Some specify "new cheese" or "soft cheese" or "fresh cheese" or "old
cheese". That helps some. If you know where a recipie is from (ie Savoy vs
Paris vs England) you might be able to further pin down cheese types.

> 6. Ditto for wine.
See above. Chiquart specifies that one needs red wine as well as white, but
otherwise as far as I know, there's only contextual hints ie where is the
source from, etc.
> 

Good idea, Cariadoc! Can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with.
- --AM
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