SC - Book opinions

[Oughton, Karin (GEIS, Tirlan)]

>                               
> Food and Feast in Medieval England ~ P. W. Hammond, Alison Sim / Sutton
> Publishing / October 1997 
> 
	I found this good for general information about culinery matters -
it gave more of a overall feel of how the diet was structured through the
classes , rather than specific recipes and dishes. It also concentrated very
heavily on documented sources of food to create this diet categorisation,
which while it is accurate in the sense that it is PROVABLE , gave me a
slightly uneasy feeling because of the fact that it ignored food that is
freely available in nature. 

	Having just made nettle soup, dosed my cold with elderflower cold,
had plantain salad for lunch and with pots of elderflower sorbet in the
freezer, I wonder how important 'gathered' or 'kitchen garden' food woould
have been medievally and hence how much the book ignores by concentrating on
the documented facts only.

	I guess the best description to me is as an 'absorbtion book' -
quality data which woolgathers in your brain, slushes around with other
data, and eventually forms together to give a fairly balanced picture. Needs
to be read in context with other stuff though.

	I've been reading  Lady Margaret Hobys diary , ( Elizabethan period
) and the Paston Letters (1400??) and in the few hints she gives about her
activities , I think the surrounding countrysides harvest was very important
in that period.

	Karin
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