SC - Food and Feast in Tudor England - Book Review

[HICKS, MELISSA]

Sim, Alison (1997) Food and Feast in Tudor England, Sutton Publishing: Great
Britain.  ISBN: 0-7509-1476-9

Chapter Headings:
Intro: Food and Society in 16th C
Kitchens & Kitchen Equipment
Staffing and Provisioning in the Kitchen
Beer and Brewing
Wine
Health and Diet
Tableware
Table Manners
Feasts, Entertainment and Luxury Food
Banquets

This book gives an OVERVIEW if foodways in Tudor England.  It contains no
recipes, but the bibliography and illustrations (and the few photographs of
extant kitchenware) makes up for it.

Overall I was disappointed with the book.  Sim has a tendency to make
sweeping statements and over-generalisations.  She uses extensive footnotes,
but these are only referring to the well-known primary sources many of us
already know and use.  In some cases she draws information from other
secondary sources such as Banquetting Stuffe.  She doesn't seem to do much
analysis on the information she has.

An example taken at random, umm p154, 3rd para:

Originally marmalade was made from quinces, and was imported from Portugal.
The name comes from the Portuguese word for 'quince', which is 'marmelo'.
The marmalade was boiled for longer than our version, so that it was fairly
solid, then it was dried in the sun.  It was eaten as chunks.

The footnote for that paragraph was: "The Evolution of the Banquet Course"
in Banquetting Stuffe p 22-5.

Recommendations:
If you are complete beginner in this area then this is an excellent book.
The bibliography is very extensive and although I do not like the way she
has written the text, it does provide a wide-ranging overview.  It is a good
starting point.

If you are moderately experienced in renaissance cooking, then don't bother.
You would already have most of relevant primary sources (such as those
Master A mentioned in a previous post) and can do this level of analysis
yourselves.

If you want info on Banquets, spend your money on "Banquetting Stuffe"
instead.  It goes into a lot more analysis and provides recipes.

IF anyone has a differing view, please advise - I would love to see a
differing viewpoint.

Regards
Meliora.

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