SC - Sharpening Fine Points or Will Adamantius Tell All?

[david friedman]

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.

It occurred to me that we ought to start a thread on subjects like this.
There are lots of unclear things in the primary sources. Time being
limited, I usually make my best guess and go on--and keep relying on that
best guess thereafter. Once and a while, someone actually looks into the
question--as Elizabeth, for example, looked into the botanical literature
on gourds some years back to try to figure out what the cookbooks were
referring to, given that all modern squash/zuccini/pumpkin is new
world--and as Adamantius seems to have been looking into the question of
rice. It would be useful if, when that does happen, the information became
available to the rest of us instead of being locked up in an Adamantine
bosom.

I therefore propose that we post two sorts of things in this thread:

A. Questions.

B. Answers

I'll start.

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?

2. What modern flours most closely correspond to the sorts of flours
referred to in period sources?

3. How big were period eggs?

4. How big were period chickens? What modern sort of chicken (roasting hen,
capon, fryer, ...) most closely corresponds?

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?

6. Ditto for wine.

B. Answers:
1. Chiquart refers to cloths for straining. That is one fragment of
information towards an answer.

7. Medieval "gourds" and "pumpkins" could have been Sicereia Lageneria
(sp?), the white floured gourd, still available in seeds, and still used in
Chinese cooking.

Questions? Answers? Any number can play.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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