SC - Dispersing Recipes from the List

[Korrin S DaArdain]

Adamantius wrote, commenting on someone else's post:
>
>Your theory about the role of sorrel verjuice is pretty interesting.
>Remember the quote from Taillevent I posted, in which he says you'll
>need green wheat in winter? Green wheat is another of the items from
>which verjuice could be made. I wonder if grapes supplied verjuice for
>late summer through the beginning of winter, green wheat in winter and
>early spring, and sorrel in the spring and early summer...

from Menagier de Paris:
"SORREL VERJUICE. Grind the sorrel very fine without the twigs, and soak in
old, white verjuice, and do not strain the sorrel, but let it be finely
ground; or thus: grind parsley and sorrel or wheat-leaves. Item vine buds,
that is those that are young and tender, without any sticks."

So he is making sorrel verjuice from sorrel and verjuice, with variants
using parsley or wheat leaves (and maybe vine buds) along with the sorrel.
And later: "Note, that in July the old verjuice is too weak and the new
verjuice is too green: and for this reason, at grape-harvest, verjuice
which is mixed half old and half new is best. " Evidently he is expecting
his grape verjuice to last the year round.

>I would have said thyme also, but for the fact that comparatively few
>period recipes call for it. Surprising, but apparently the case. I'm
>sure there are some, but there don't seem to be many that mention it
>specifically. Offhand I can't recall any. It could have been used in one
>of the recipes that call for "all mannere of green herbes", I suppose.

Off the top of my head, there is Capons stwed, one of my favorites from Two
Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, which uses parseley, sage, rosemary, and
thyme--also hyssop, which someone was asking about.  Several Islamic
recipes also use thyme.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


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