SC - 14th Century Food

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

- -----Original Message-----
From: Margo Hablutzel <margolh at nortelnetworks.com>
To: 'sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG' <sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG>
Date: 20. janúar 1999 18:18
Subject: SC - 14th Century Food


 Hartshorn was used as
a leavening, if you include it why not have yeast listed?

Wasn´t it hawthorn? Or do I need new glasses?

Currants may be eaten and used fresh, not just dried.

That´s redcurrants and blackcurrants, not plain "currants" (small dried
grapes (raisins))

I am not sure that tuna was eaten in
period, it doesn't seem to be from the right places (could be wrong).

The small white tuna (albacore) and the larger bluefin tuna were very common
from ancient times in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. They were
appreciated by the Phoenicians, the Romans and also in the Middle Ages, not
least pickled in brine. I think most old recipes that call for tunny fish
(the version used until the 19th century) actually refer to albacore. Very
popular on fast days!

Perhaps this has been much discussed and resolved earlier, but my sources
all indicate that rutabagas (swedes) didn´t even exist at this time; that
they seem to have evolved in Bohemia in the seventeenth century, travelled
northward at first (to Sweden), and wasn´t considered as human food in
Britain until imported from Sweden in 1781 (but it seems to have been
introduced into England from Holland in 1755, then called "turnip-rooted
cabbage". If anyone can point me at a source that verifies the existence of
swedes in the 14th century, I´d be grateful.

Nanna

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

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".

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