SC - medieval salt info

[Stefan li Rous]

Elysant asked:
> I have a question or two - to start with, where did period cooks get their
> salt from?  Did they use sea salt? Or was it manufactured somewhere?

Most medieval salt was sea salt. While some of the German salt mines were still
in use, most of the mines begun by the Romans had been dug so deep that they 
were under the  watertable and were flooded. The pump technology was not there
in the Middle Ages to pump them dry.

Most of the sea salt came from southern Europe where they could evaporate the
sea water using the sun rather than burning wood. And yes, in period there
were different grades of salt. I think it was the sea salt which had the
poorer reputation, but I may be mis-remembering. I know Wilson in her book
on British food history mentions this.

For some more info on the procurement and use of salt in the Middle Ages take
a look at these files in the COMMERCE section of my Florilegium:

salt-msg          (28K)  8/26/98    Medieval salt production and use.
salt-comm-art     (18K)  1/ 9/97    "Salt of the Earth" by Lord Xaviar.

At least one of the Salzburg (sp?) salt mines has a WWW page (in English) and
gives tours.

> Sea salt tastes different from regular salt - so I wonder if period recipes
> we make now tasted a bit different then because of various dirrerent sources
> etc. for ingredients? 

I haven't noticed much of a differance in taste, myself. But yes, there have
been a number of dicussions here on how various fruits and vegetables may
be different now compared to in period and whether the taste has changed. As
well as some rather heated arguments over whether pigs are fatter or less
fat than those in the Middle Ages.

> I read on one of the lists a few weeks ago that
> somewhere (?long Island) they had tried to make dishes using medieval
> spicing
> and it was extremely spicy - too much so for modern tastebuds.  On the other
> hand, most of my old Welsh recipes tend to be on the bland side.

As very few period recipes actually give quantities, I think variations in
the amount of spicing is more likely going to be due to different cook's
tastes than a change over time. For more information on this, you might
want to read this article in the FOOD section of my Florilegium files:

spice-use-art     (18K)  6/ 9/97    "The Question of Heavy Spice Use and
Rotten 
                                       Food" by Lord Xaviar the Eccentric.

Hope this helps.
   Stefan
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:
          http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/rialto.html ****
============================================================================

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".

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