sources of sources was: Re: SC - Rarity of Fermantation recip es

[Decker, Terry D.]

> 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
> 
You need to consider whether the cookbooks of which you are speaking are
actually books published at the time or are manuscript cookbooks.  Many of
the "cookbooks" we reference are actually reprints of a cook's personal
notebook, found, footnoted, and published long after they were originally
written.  According to my notes, published cookbooks are few and far between
before 1450, when the numbers published start to grow exponentially,
probably due to moveable type and cheap paper and a growing number of
wealthy literates.

Bear
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