SC - Christmas Dinner and Gifts

[Lurking Girl]

Lady Katherine McGuire writes:

  Was Fig Brandy available in our "period"? If so does one use "dried" figs
or fresh?


The short answer is No.

Fruit was cheap and distillates very expensive. As near as I can tell, it
simply never occurred to medieval/renaissance people to put the two
together. I've been looking for a primary source for fruit-in-hard alcohol
reference for more than three years and have not found one. The only
fruit-in-wine documentation I have been able to find is in a very late
English book* (written by an elderly Italian remembering his youth)
referring to the Italian practice of soaking peaches in wine to render them
edible, with a humorous comment that nobody throws away the wine afterwards.


Source:
*Castelvetro, Giacomo (1546-1616) _Brieve racconto di tutte le radici, di
tutte l'herb et di tutti i frutti, che crudi o cotti in Italia si mangiano_
c. 1614.  Translated by Riley, Gillian. _The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of
Italy_. Published by Viking Penguin Inc., New York. 1989 (excellent text of
Italian/English foods eaten in late period, many just post-period pictures,
while written in Italian the intended audience was English, excellent for
late period vegetarians)

Thanks for the opportunity to geek,

Crystal of the Westermark

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
[mailto:owner-sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG]On Behalf Of pat fee
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 10:50 AM
To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
Subject: Re: SC - Christmas Dinner and Gifts






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