SC - peas in period

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/3/99 8:43:07 PM Eastern Standard Time, SigridPW at aol.com
writes:

<< There is a traditional Venetian dish called 'risi e bisi' (rice and peas).
>>

Original recipe? Documentation, please? The only reason I ask this is that
'traditional' recipes are not necessarily 'period' recipes.  Another point
that crosses  my mind is that simply because a food was eaten  in a certain
form in one period (i.e. the 16th centruy) is doesn't necessarily follow that
a food was eaten in the same form in the 12th century.

Celery, for instance was used in period medieval cookery. Today a traditional
ME dish similar in every way to the period recipe includes sliced celery and
is designated as a 'traditional' dish. The problem is that the modern
traditional dish is not period because only hte leaves of celery were used in
the MA because the stalks were very bitter and more like stems than stalks. 

While a person may because of numerous reasons include 'trafitional'  or
'ethnic' dishes in a feast menu. , we must be very careful not label these
dishes as period. These dishes have evolved right along with the rest of the
world and are in fact a product of mofculture albeit a product which sometimes
bears some resemblance to the dish from which it evolved.

So if the legend behind the dish is true, then there is a possibility that
shelled fresh sugar peas may have been eaten. But so far a I know, from the
few references that I have access to, pea dishes during the middle ages were
prepared from dried peas with a remote possibility that fresh unshelled sugar
peas may have been consumed in period.

Ras
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================