SC - Spring Foods Brain Buster

[Yeldham, Caroline S]

Spring is definitely "ris" here in the UK, although March has come in like a
lion.  


> The whole thought of these luscious leafy little morsels makes my mouth
> water...and my mind wonder about what exactly  we can find in the way of
> documentation for serving a dish of greens with dressing. I have found
> "boiled salad", salad of Lemons (basically a  preserved peel dish, from a
> Book of Fruits and Flowers), directions for cooking spinach into a tart,
> or
> to boil and then fry it strewing on spices etc...  I am wondering if
> anyone
> has found a recipe for FRESH GREENS served in the way of a modern salad.
> Salad is almost always a component of the feasts in the current middle
> ages
> (regardless of the season). How did that happen? Is it convenience, cost,
> or
> modern tastes intruding upon our attempt at re-creation? Sometimes the
> simple questions about feast management are the ones that challenge you!
> 
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  And by great co-incidence I'm working on
Formond's list of plants dated to c 1500 (he died 1542/3 but the handwriting
dates it to around 1500 - this information from John Hervey's Early
Gardening Catalogues 1972 SBN 85033 021 1 published by Phillimore).  the
text is also known as Sloane MS 1201 in the British Museum.

	He gives something like 100 plants for gardens under the headings of
' for potage', 'for sauce', 'for the copp', 'for a Salade', ; to stylle',
'for savour and beaute', 'rotys for a gardyn' and 'for a herber'.  BTW if
anyone knows what 'for the copp' or to stylle' mean, I'd love to know.

	'For a Salade' is

	'buddes of Stanmarche, vyollete flourez, perceley, redmyntes, syves,
cresse of boleyn, purselan, ramsons, calamyntes, prime rose buddus, dayses,
rapouses, daundelyon, rokete, red nettell, borage flourz, croppus of Red
fenell, selbestryune, chykynwede'

	the one that puzzled me was 'selbestryune', which John Harvey
identifies as ? Herb Trinity, viola tricolour.

	Lettuce (or letuse or letyse) does appear on the list, but under
pottage.

	By John Aubrey's time (17th century) he identifies lettuce as the
basis for any salad.


> A) Has anyone found a recipe or reference to serving fresh, raw greens
> (with
> acoutrements) such as we find in a modern salad? If so, how might the dish
> have differed to the "modern" interpretation of a dinner salad? What about
> the dressing (if any)? If the salad differes considerably to modern
> interpretations, what would the finished dish be like?
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  As for dressings, I've references to oil and
verjuice, but I'll have to hunt them out


> A.1)What about sprouts? Were they a consumed food (apart from barley
> sprouts
> that were used for beer-making)?
> 
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  Not seen anything to suggest it.

> B) What sorts of greens might be involved in a period salad? How might
> they
> differ from region to region?
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  Not just greens!  Lots of flowers as well -
wonderful visual opportunity!  In the banquet I did in October I got the
people making them up to use pomegranate seeds as decoration - they looked
wonderful
>  
> C) Does salad appear in every culture we study, or just western Europe?
> 
> D) Does the nature of Salad evolve through the middle ages and
> rennaisance,
> or remain constant? Are there "fad" salads that may have been popular at
> one
> time?
> 
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  There's the Elizabethan Salmagundy (not seen
earlier references) which involves meat and fish or eggs as well as the
usual range of herbs etc.
	 
>  E) Where in the meal might we expect the salad to occur? Why?
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  Gervase Markham has the start of any dinner
being 3 salads, one boiled but the other two fresh greens.    [Yeldham,
Caroline S]  I tend to serve them either there, or with the lighter dishes
on the second course. 

> F) Why might our modern cooks avoid serving preserved fruits and
> vegetables,
> and how does that slant our perception of what a "real feast" would have
> been like?
> 
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  I've used pickled walnuts, pickled samphire
and olives in salads, which have worked well.  My problem is transporting
glass jars around the countryside, with the risk of breaking them, so I
prefer to minimise the use of glass.  However I do hope to pickle broombuds
and barberries this year!

	Almost forgot - sweetmeats of all sorts - I do try to take those
along too!


	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  
> G) What would be the advantages of preparing preserved foods for feasts?
> 
	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  An extra flavour/texture - sense of how
important and difficult preservation was in period.  In some ways using ham,
bacon or salt beef (and sweetmeats) serve the same purpose.

	[Yeldham, Caroline S]  Hope this helps

	Caroline

	PS - this new system insists on adding my name every time I hit
return and I haven't figured out how to turn it off, so apologies for the
apparent egoism!



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