sources of sources was: Re: SC - Rarity of Fermantation recipes

[RuddR at aol.com]

Anne-Marie writes:

<< hi all from Anne-Marie
 
 there is some discussion on why we dont have brewing books, but we have
 some cookbooks.
 
 a couple ideas on that:
 --dont forget that in the middle ages, guilds controlled strictly which
 professionals could do what. Very goofy furniture got made because the
 turners couldnt join, and vice versa. Bread was made by bakers (as a
 general rule), brewing was done by brewers (again, as a general rule), and
 cooking was done by les cuisiniers. Never the twain shall meet, according
 to the rules.
 --who wrote the cookbooks? we have one from an ennobled cook (Taillevent).
 we have one from a rather stuffy head cook to an illustrious duke
 (Chiquart). we have written by an uppity middle class guy in a major city
 (le Menagier). we have a bunch written by some unknown English people, but
 if the pattern holds true, they werent written by Mistress Goodwife, but
 rather by the head cooks of illustrious households. These people would
 likely, in my opnion, have followed the guild rules.
 --we dont have any brewing recipes, and very few bread recipes (and those
 only as a byblow of another recipe, like Rastons), in my logic train,
 because the folks who wrote the cookbooks didnt make bread. Not until much
 later (May, Markham et al), when books were written for "the Gud Huswife",
 who was expected to do it all.
 
 There may have indeed been some books written by brewers and bakers, and we
 havent found them, or like the dyers, they didnt tend to write stuff down
 in an attempt to immortalize their own efforts (a class difference? ie
 cooks tended to be more self promoting than other trades? dunno.)
 
 In any case, my spin on it is that as la cuisinier for a noble household,
 it would be innappropriate for me to make my own bread or brew. I would
 either have a crew trained in that, or else just like today, order my
 bread, beer and wine from a reputable baker or brewer/vintner in town. I
 figure this because in the shopping lists we have from the medieval period
 (Chiquart, etc), he specifies how many casks of wine you need from the
 distributor, not from his own cellar. Ditto the bread. We know that there
 were large oven buildings in big castles (they're still there), but
 Chiquart didnt bake. Maestro Baker did.(and likely baked the pies and tarts
 too...according to the instructions that say "to take your pie to the oven
 and bake with the bread")
 
 I would be hesitant to blame everything on the Church, and more likely to
 blame it on the universal need of people to protect their job security!
 
 --AM >>

The question I have is not who wrote these cookbooks, but who bought them?
Some are attributed to chief cooks of noble and royal households, but were
they used by such people?  Chiquart declares that he does not own a cookery
book.  However, if I understand correctly, the Menagier owned several.  They
contain, for the greater part, "rich people's party food".  The chief cooks of
great lords would already know all this, taught by their Masters and commited
to memory.  Could they have been bought primarily by the lower gentry and the
rising bourgeoisie as the medieval equivalent of "coffee-table books"; a
vicarious glimpse into the "lifestyles of the rich and famous"?  If so, there
wasn't really a market for recipes for bread and ale.

Rudd Rayfield
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