SC - My Upcoming feast... menu ver 1.0

[Gedney, Jeff]

> Does the author stipulate in the same recipe an 'either/or' situation
> regarding the beer/ale? Or does the suthor use beer in some recipes and
> ale in
> others/ If the later I think that  he was being specific with the
> ingredient.For example, amy of my cookbooks call for red wine in a recipe
> and
> others call for white wine as the liquid. I couldn't justifiably conclude
> that
> red wine and white wine are interchangable.
> 
(highly subjective memory warning!!)
I think on one instance he actually uses beer and ale, I forget on which
recipe, but I seem to remember the author saying something like "add a
quantity of beer", and later says "when the ale be thoroughly mixed" or
something like that. (I don't remember, and I have no book right now to
check it.) Otherwise, I recall no such interchanging. (This is not
surprising, since he generally gives each ingredient only once.) I think the
heavily flavored ales would be used for stronger recipes, and lighter beers
for the more delicate recipes (but that is just a guess, since I have seen
both ales and beers vary widely in consistency and flavor...)

The author rarely gives a color or type when he calls for wine as an
ingredient, by the way, possibly assuming that you would know which wine to
use when. Is there a documentation that says "red for meat, white for fish,
blush for pork" in period that I can use for a cross reference? Or is that
distinction an artifact of 19th century French schools?  

The lack of typing given in wine tends to make me think that the author
takes little care that a recipe be followed exactly, only giving the basics,
and leaving the choices up to the assumed good sense of the cook, who has
presumably spent some time apprenticing in the kitchens, and well
indoctrinated in the flavors in favor in fourteenth century England. I think
that if the distinctions are not so important to the author, then they are
flexible in flavor, depending on the choices of the cooks. The regional
variations of similar dishes (between France and England for example) tend
to make me think that the recipes were generally given as "master" recipes,
meant as starting points for the cooks of the period to adjust and expand
on.

Brandu
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