Nutrition/medicinal (was Re: SC - Period Beet Recipe & period quote about beets)

[Nick Sasso]

Ras,

I think we have agreement on whether people truly listened to health writers of any time or culture.  Menus are as egregious today as they were in Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Bokes (yummy for sure, but not necessarily "heart healthy").  Lots of meat and goodies, and not terribly balanced by todays' nutritional scheme. . . but useful to the pre-natural gas heated nothern Europeans who did lots more walking and laboring.  I wonder, however if the influence is more in the recipe development than the menu planning (micro vs. macro influence).  Cook lots of boiled beef and kid, and then temper it with preparations, sauces and spices to ease the effect on the body.  Likewise, there aren't many roasted beef out there, but there are references to boiling it to make it more usable by the body since beef is cold and dry IIRC.

Certainly the use of "little nutritional value" by Platina could refer to the ability to be sustained on that food in terms of energy.  I wonder this because of the knowldege available at his time of things that would make up what we include in nutrition: viatmins, amino acids, minerals, trace elements, LDL's and HDL's, etc.  They knew that spring greens made them feel better (balanced), but not that they were richer in the vitamins and minerals we assume for good health (nutrition).   I may be way off base on this, but this view is calling to me for consideration.  Consider that vinegar has little nutritional value, but wouldn't be considered a medicine either by Le Menagier or by Julie Childs.  It is often used as a temper throughout the Euopean culinary history in food recipes.  Temper seems to imply a balancing of something.  Not medicinal, but an understanding of balancing 'something' which is easier on the body with vinegar.

I wonder (actual curiosity) if we should view the writings of the humoural proponents as strictly medicinal, or should also be appreciated as an extension of their early understanding of the qualities of and substances in food other than caloric/energy producers.   Not either or, but a combination of understandings by thinkers and scientists of the times of how different things inmpart different effects on the body as they went through the daily tasks.  Sure, the hay baler had no use for such books, but the Baron's household and court may have had exposure to it through the cook/chef hired. 

That doesn't mean that pre-1450's peoples listened to those guys any more than we actually listen to the USDA and their 'model du jour' on balanced diets. . . neither does it mean they didn't.  It just means that we may need to temper our vision a little differently in our looking at cooks and writers who espouse homural balancing.  Just idle musings of a researching mind trying to assimilate lots of knowledge from the ever knowledgable Ras and some books being leafed through.

Just churnings of a researching mind trying to assimilate lots of knowledge from the ever knowledgable Ras and some books being leafed through.

pacem et bonum,

niccolo difrancesco

Agreed but I see these as medical reasons. The humors were balanced not with 
regard to nutrition but rather with an eye on the 'medicinal' quality. Even a 
cursory glance at Platina will show numerous recipes that are recommended as 
medicine but which he frequently makes mention that it is of 'little 
nutritional value.' 

The main emphasis of my previous statements are as I indicated PRE-1450 and 
use in the daily household. Even if 'doctors' of the day recommended, in both 
writing and practice, various medical uses for certain foods that does not 
indicate that the people of the day paid nay more attention to them than they 
do nowadays. In fact, a quick glance at existing menus seems to indicate that 
there was little influence from prevailing medical advise incorporated into 
actual feast menus.

Ras
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
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