sources of sources was: Re: SC - Rarity of Fermantation recipes (was Fermented BeverageRecipe

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

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
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