SC - Fw: Jim's Internet Five-Spice Cake* OOP but good

[Marilyn Traber]

jeffrey stewart heilveil wrote:
> 
> I have this calendar called "forgotten english" by Jeffrey Kacirck, and it
> has an entry on verjuice that I found interesting.  Unfortunately, the
> calendar doesn't come with documentation but...
> 
> "Tart medieval conconction made from an add assortment of ingredients.
> The name derives from French Vert Jus, "green juice."  Used in cooking or
> as medicine in the fourteenth to eighteenth centuries, it was said to
> contain such acidic fruit juices as sour apple, grape and carb apple,
> often fermented.  Other sources say that crab juice and pork broth could
> be included.  Whatever its composition, when muxed with wine, lye and
> fuller's earth, verjuice was also a component of a cleaning solution for
> furs and woolens."
> 
> comments?  Especially on the crab juice and the cleaning solution?

"Crab" is frequently found in late- or early-post-period sources as a
reference to small, tart, apples: crabapples. Markham gives a recipe for
verjuice made exclusively from crabapples. I have no idea whether pork
broth was ever used in any connection with verjuice (I strongly suspect
not), but I'm pretty certain no crustaceans were ever involved.

As for the cleaning solution, I can only say that I understand that
vinegar and sand were used to clean rusty mail armor, so why not
verjuice? On the other hand, a combination of wine and makes a fairly
dilute acid, which, combined with lye, a pretty powerful base, could
make the inclusion of weak acid pointless. I don't know how fuller's
earth affects this cocktail.

Adamantius
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Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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