SC - Thoughts on Medieval food

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/1/99 4:03:01 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jlmatterer at labyrinth.net writes:

<< Mead's evidence is mostly references to household
 records and recipes.
 
 Huen >>

It is sad when a supposed 'scholar' can make so many obvious errors based on
data which clearly shows the opposite of what he believes. For instance, at
least one household account of a Lady who's name evades me at the moment,
clearly shows that the consumption of cinnamon, as an example, averaged to be
about 1 tesapoon per person per week. Given that cinnamon was one of the most
commonly used spices in the MA's, I fail to see how this man could possibly
draw a conclusion for over use of spices from household accounts since the
accounts we have record of show this clearly to be NOT the case. 

His arguments for covering the taste of rancid or spoiling meat are, of
course, absurd.  The average number of people fed on even a small holding
averged 20 people without considering the possibility of guests. It doesn't
take a rocket scietist to figure out that 20 people pack away a LOT of meat at
a sitting. Slaughter of adult animals was usually accomplished during the cool
months so meat would not spoil in the couple of days it would take to consume
a small cowand a sheep could esily have been consumed at a single sitting.

In our low-fat, small portion society, I think we often times forget that 3 oz
protions of meat are an oddity of modern culture and that the service of these
tiny portions to a guest even 30 yrs. ago would have been taken as an insult.
:-(

Ras 
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