SC - spices vs. herbs?

[Stefan li Rous]

sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG wrote:

> If there are recipes you are interested in finding which aren't in
> Menagier, ask.  There is a lot of overlap in what is in the various
> French
> and English cookbooks from around that time, and I may be able to find
> you
> a contemporary recipe for some of the things he refers to but doesn't
> give
> a recipe for.

    I will keep this in mind, and do appreciate the effort. I don't read
more than a few words in French, so am unable to do my own translations.
His Grace did indicate that Janet's translation is to be considered more
accurate than the Power and Coulton, so we will concentrate on that one.
I realize the overlap effect, having traced several recipes throughthe
various cookbooks in His Grace's Collection (I have two different
versions) It's one of the wierd things I find to be fun, reading through
them and comparing the evolution of the recipes from time to time.  My
Lord and I wish to keep this menu to "one cookbook, time and place", and
have chosen Le Menagier because of the Middle Class food choices rather
than some of the others which are obviously from Royal Households. One
thing I noticed in particular.. the absence of the large amount of dried
fruits (figs, dates,raisons) from the recipes in Le Menagier... could it
be an indication of those being costly ingredients? I notice he seems to
be rather frugal.

> Even if you can't follow the menus exactly, it may still be worth
> looking
> at them to get a feel for what menus of that time were like.
>

    Have done so... Noticed that there seem to be more vegetable dishes
served in his Lenten menus than the ones for meat days. Due to trying to
make our menu somewhat more acceptable to Trimarian palates (real period
food is almost unheard of down here) we are coming to the conclusion
that we should mix and match to make a complementary menu rather than
the originals, which for our taste and budget are way too heavy on meat
and/or fish.

> If you have questions on specific recipes, email me privately and
> ask.  Any
> time someone does a translation he has to make choices on how to
> translate
> words or phrases which do not have an exact modern English equivalent;
> I
> may be able to tell you what the possiblilties suggested by the
> original
> French were.
>

    Due to my inability to make any sense out of French, I guess I will
just have to make do with Janet Hinson... although I have found a couple
of the recipes in which the translation discrepancies between hers and
P&C really confuse me. I also don't completely understand why there are
so may *more* recipes in JH compared to P&C.. could that just be
"translators choice"?    Would you please send your private e-mail to
me?  Either my browser won't show it, or I haven't figured out how to
make it do so yet.. all I get for a header is the list address. (I'm an
accomplished cook, but a computer kindergartener)

Thank you sooooo much,
Ceridwen



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