SC - Venison sausage-update

[snowfire@mail.snet.net]

Devra at aol.com wrote:
> 
> dear Adamantius,
> 
> Yes, I see your reasoning about the color of the verjuice, but if you grew red
> grapes (or purple, too, I'd guess) wouldn't you use what you had?  And doesn't
> the word "green" also refer to unripe or young--as in a green cheese, or a
> green goose?  Georgette Heyer in her Regency novels is always referring to
> young girls as "green girls", and she was pretty good about her own period's
> slang.

Sure, you'd use what you had, and one could certainly make and support
the argument you've raised. On the other hand, unripe grapes that
haven't yet come into their full sweetness also often haven't quite come
into their full color. Also, verjuice was made from substances other
than grapes, such as crabapples, unripe grain, and sorrel mixed into any
of the other standard juices mentioned above, which would argue that at
least some verjuice was pale yellow, if not the vast majority. Also yet
again, since most red wine is made by steeping the juice pressed from
red or purple grapes with the pulp and the skins, rather than straining
it off immediately, which would, I believe, result in a wine only
slightly pink in color, if not an out-and-out white wine. It's my
understanding that you have to make red wine red by conscious decision;
it doesn't just come that way by default. This may be a modern
distinction, though. I don't know much about period vintning.

While none of this discounts the possibility that the "ver" in verjuice
refers to age rather than color, I'd consider the color-based theory at
least as valid, if not more so by sheer bulk of circumstantial evidence.
However, since I'm extremely hesitant to adopt a "One, True" view of
anything (exceptions being pizza and chowder ;  )   ), I think that
while red or pink verjuices probably were made in various times and
places, pale yellow "white wine" verjuice is probably a more typical
product through SCA period.       
> 
> In fact, I had a long discussion with Cindy Renfrow about her using "blue
> cheese"--i.e., Danish or moldy-type, instead of something like a young
> mozzarella--in one of her redactions.  [The book called for 'a green cheese'.]

I'm inclined to agree with you there, because certain
professional/technical vocabularies have different or archaic meanings
for everyday English words, such as green cheese, green geese, green
bacon, green corn, etc. None of these are actually green.  But, unless
we consider some kind of rule, perhaps one that says if it goes in your
mouth, and it is called green, it's really immature rather than green in
color (and I think you'd agree such a rule wouldn't hold up for long),
we have to consider that there may be no pattern to it, and individual
examples of such usage for the word "green" might not affect usage
across the board.
 
Phew!

Adamantius, looking for that Critical Thinking textbook
Østgardr, East
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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