SC - Period Beet Recipe & period quote about beets

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/21/99 2:08:52 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
cclark at vicon.net writes:

<<  but that
 doesn't mean that they didn't apply the concepts at an intuitive level.
 
 Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon >>

Correct but since the roots of chard are so small in relation to the rest of 
the plant, I find it extremely hard to belief that any one would have noticed 
any nutritional effects if they were added to the overall diet. Also I think 
you are forgetting that the average manor fed 20 people each meal. I, for 
one, would never have destroyed a cut and come again plant so long as it was 
producing leaves and stalks for eating. To do so would not be in the best 
interests of the household with regard to mass of available food. Perhaps 
such use did occur regularly late in period. But even then such destruction 
would most likely have occurred in the late fall or early winter after top 
production had dwindled to insignificance.

IMO, the introduction of 'nutritional' concepts into the discussion is at the 
very most a highly unlikely reason for anyone in the middle ages to have 
eaten these roots. Actually the introduction of 'nutrition' as a concept in 
any discussion of medieval cookery would be questionable. Reasons for 
introducing specific foods or parts of plants as medicinal would be more 
appropriate for the medieval cook.

I think that the tendency to interject modern scientific reasoning into 
period is, in most cases, an invalid argument. For instance, one could 
wrongly argue that during the MA's greens were consumed in the spring time 
because they were nutritionally superior. While the nutritional superiority 
of greens is not to be doubted, the fact is that greens were specifically 
eaten to 'purge' the body of the poisons accumulated during the winter months 
and were one of the first fresh foods available at that time of year. Or to 
put it another way, the eating of fresh greens after a long winter of 
preserved foods simply made people feel better. We know it is was because of 
the nutritional content. Medieval people only knew that it made them feel 
better.

I have not seen anything that makes me change my mind about the use of beet 
greens as being the rule rather than the exception in the middle ages. 
Certainly evidence has been presented here that in late period beetroot was 
becoming more common in wealthier households. I have no argument about their 
use in early modern recipes. But I have seen little evidence that the root 
was COMMONLY eaten in medieval households pre-1450 CE. The manuscripts we 
have certainly do not indicate their use with any regularity in the MAs.

Ras
============================================================================

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".

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