SC - SC German Herbs, Spices, and Ingredients (long)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Anne-Marie Rousseau wrote:
> 
> The 14th century stuff is pretty much the same from English (Forme of
> Curye, etc) to the French (Taillevent). the differences to my mind are hard
> to pick out. (I cant think of a single recipe in the french corpus that
> uses beer or ale, for example, but there's a couple in the english)

Based on a brief glance at the sources you mention to confirm my
suspicions, I'd have to say that for a given "equivalent" dish, the
English recipes seem to rely more on both the classic "overspicing of
meats to hide off-flavors" ;  ) and on dried fruits, while contemporary
French equivalents seem to rely more on judicious spice use with herbs,
and much less on the whole currant thing. I don't wish this to be seen
as a generalization, though, but the tendency does seem to be there. 
> 
> Once you start getting to Chiquart, though, you start seeing some regional
> variations. He starts to use citrus as a souring agent instead of the
> slavish reliance on vinegar and verjuice that the contemporary English
> sources are still using..  Part of that might be the fact that Chiquart was
> Savoyard, dunno.

Probably. Geography does seem to be a determinator: the 15th-century
Vivendier (slightly later than Chiquart but still French, for all that
the manuscript was discovered in Germany, I believe) seems to use little
or no citrus product, unless there's a recipe for candied peel. Leafing
through it briefly, I was unable to find any clear reference to citrus.
On the other hand, Platina, 50 years or so later than the other two, and
not all _that_ far away in Rome, uses a lot of sour orange juice.
> 
> So if I had to pick a time, I'd say mid to late 15th century, you start
> geting regional identity in the food. (this holds true with the italian
> stuff too, according to my limited reading on the topic.)

I was thinking that there's a big change between Ein Buoch Von Guter
Spise (early 14th century) and Sabina Welserin's kochbuch (mid 16th),
with a lot more recognizably modern German stuff like sauerkraut (and I
was thrilled to see lutefisk there!). Now, one might be able to argue
(and this is something I haven't researched sufficiently) that the
former source is more like court cookery, while the latter is more
wealthy but bourgoise, along the lines of Le Menagier. My point is only
that the differences I see might be the result of comparing apples and
oranges. Can anyone address that one? 

Adamantius
Østgardr, East
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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