SC - need a wow! dish-What about a castle?

[mefistofeles@DeathsDoor.com]

Hullo, the list

My error and my apologies, Master Huen. I should not have grouped all
dairy products together. I also should have made it more clear that
while butter was eaten under a wide variety of circumstances in
different places, its use on or with bread at the beginning of a
feast-day noon dinner (i.e. what we would call a feast) seems not to
have been universal in medieval Europe. It may have been somewhat
confined to Northern Europe and its uses in a feast setting are unclear.

Medically speaking, after a brief reacquaintance with Boorde’s Dietery,
the Liege Tacuinum Sanitatis, and a couple of secondary sources, I have
to say that butter differs from other dairy products in that it was
considered to open the chest and stomach, rather than closing them,
which would suggest it might have been considered a usefull addition to
the beginning of a big meal. But...
  
From: "James L. Matterer" <jlmatterer at labyrinth.net>
To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
Subject: Re: SC - Bread and Circuses

> > And, FWIW, the whole cheese/bread/butter thing at the beginning of a
> > meal seems to be way off prevailing medieval European medical theory
> > (dairy products, especially cheeses and cheese dishes, would normally be
> > served at or near the end of the meal to close the chest and stomach up
> > while digesting, and I've seen no evidence of butter being spread on
> > bread in medieval Europe, and some evidence to suggest it was not).
> 
> > Adamantius

>I'm afraid I have to disagree with this somewhat. John Russell's Boke of
>Nurture clearly states that butter is eaten with bread:

<snip>

>"Butter is a wholesome food, at the beginning and end of a meal, for it
>fortifies the stomach and protects it from poisons; it also nourishes by
>opening the stomach and clears away ill humours - and on white bread it
will add relish to eating."

...Russell still doesn’t say (at least not here) under which
circumstances bread and butter is eaten, nor does he present the concept
of white bread eaten with butter as a widespread practice, other than by
recommending it, again, for an unknown set of circumstances.

Certainly Walter of Bibbesworth’s detailed account of a great feast
(presumably in England, described in his late 13th century Treatise)
makes a point of referring to those items served that aren’t part of the
regular menu. While he does specifically mention bread, wine and ale,
and in all cases he says these are of the best quality, he makes no
mention of butter, and of no other aperitif, unless you count wine.
Constance Hieatt, in her introduction to “Curye on Inglysch”, suggests
butter was most commonly eaten by upper classes on fish days outside of
Lent. 

>Scully uses this quote in "The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages" to
>show that bread & butter were used as an apertif to begin the meal.

Um, not exactly. He uses the quote as an example of an aperitif, then
immediately thereafter says, “There is no widespread agreement on the
best aperitif.” He goes on to give other examples, of various seeds,
usually steeped in honey or sugar. Chiquart seems to favor sugared nuts
at the beginning of the meal, with sugared spices at the end. Geography
may be a factor here, it may not.

>Dyetary of Helth (Andrew Boorde, 1490-1549) also recommends butter to
>begin the day with: "Butter is made of crayme, and is moyste of
>operacion; it is good to eate in the mornyng before other meates."

Again, Boorde immediately goes on to say about butter:

“It doth not only norysshe, but it is good for the breast and lunges,
also it doth relave and mollyfie the bely. Doche men doth eat it at all
tymes in the daye, the which I dyd not prayse whan I dyd dwell amonges
them, consyderynge that butter is unctyous and every thynge that is
unctyous is noysome to the Stomacke for as moche as it maketh
lubryfaction. And also every thynge that is ‘unctyous’, that is to say,
butterysshe, oyle, grese, or fatte, doth Swymme above in the brynkes of
the stomacke, as the fatnes doth swym above in a boylynge Potte, the
excesse of such nawracion or superflyte will ascend to the oryfe of the
stomacke, and doth make eructuasyons. Wherfore eatynge of moche butter
at one refection is not comendable, nor it is not good for them the
whiche be in any ague or fever, for the unctuosyte of it doth augment
the heate of the lyver. A lytell porcyon is good for every man in the
mornynge yf it be newe made.”

That doesn’t sound to me like a recommendation butter appear at the
beginning of a feast-day noon meal. He also doesn’t mention it in
connection with bread, but let's not quibble, especially since I haven't
been able to find the passage I read a while back about Heugenot
refugees living in the south of England, with their weird Flemish habit
of spreading butter on their bread. This would be, of course, a good
deal later than John Russell, but not much later than Boorde.    

>As for cheese, John Russell (Boke of Nurtute) says that it is "hard
>cheese" that should be restricted to the end of the meal, not all
>cheeses or dairy products. In fact, he recommends that cheese be served
>with the very first items of a dinner.

>Before dinner Russel says you should serve:
>"Good sone, alle maner frute that longethe for seson of the yere,
>Fygges, reysons, almaundes, dates, butur, chese, nottus, apples & pere."

>After dinner should be:
>"Aftur mete, peeres, nottys, strawberies, wyneberies, and hardcheese."

Russell also says, 
“...Mylke, crayme and cruddes, and eke the joncate,
 they close a man’s stomak, and so doth the possate;
therfore ete hard chese aftir, yef ye sowpe late,
and drynk romney modoun, for feere of chekmate.”

Russell’s own conclusion is not in complete agreement with the evidence
he gives (junket being a fresh cheese often made from skimmed cream, not
a milk drink as Scully suggests), and the menus collated in “Curye on
Inglysch” seem to suggest dairy products in general appear more often on
fish day menus, which seems consistent with Walter of Bibbesworth’s
account. When dairy products such as custards and herbolastes appear on
meat-day menus, they seem to usually appear near the end of the meal,
but there are occasional exceptions. Platina specifically says cheese
appears in the third course, and Taillevent and Le Menagier de Paris
include recipes for pipefarces and for cheese wafers, clearly intended
to be eaten near the end of the meal. Entries on cheese in the Tacuinum
Sanitatis and in Boorde’s Dietery (itself mostly a rehashing of Galen in
English) seem to support this.   

>Furnivall (editor of Boke of Nurture) says that the cheese used in the
>beginning may be butter-cheese, milk-cheese, or cream-cheese, as
>contrasted with hardcheese. Butter was considered a separate item.

Furnivall, of course, was writing in 1870, and may well have presented
an opinion based on his own experiences, rather than Russell’s. Can you
find an equivalent statement in “The Boke of Nurture”, or do you know
what Furnivall is basing this statement on? I don’t have a copy.

My own conclusion is that while this is not a hard and fast rule never
broken, the concept of “the usual cheeses, breads and butters” (my
apologies if I misquote the good gentleman from the Midrealm) served at
the beginning of a noon or evening feast-day meal is a bit of an
oxymoron, since I doubt very much they were usual. Of course I never
suggested that the practice would be terribly inappropriate for
appeasing carbo-and protein-depleted fighters. 

Thanks to all for your patience,
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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