SC - Period Dining Atmosphere (Was RE: Saffron)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

And it came to pass on 5 Apr 00,, that CBlackwill at aol.com wrote:

> Question:  What happens when we reach the end of our historical documents?
>  When we have exhausted all of the ancient information, and have learned
> as much as we can from those texts?  Then does it become okay to
> improvise, or do we become stagnant, afraid to make a decision because we
> have no more historical proof?  Just asking.

It isn't going to happen in the lifetime of anyone on this list.  The 
existing corpus is too huge, and between new discoveries and 
translations of previously inaccessible materials, it grows year by year.  
I can't imagine exhausting the medieval and renaissance 
Spanish/Catalan sources -- not in the sense of being thoroughly familiar 
with them, let alone cooking all the dishes I want to try out.  And then 
there's all the English and French and Italian and German and Middle 
Eastern and...

However, your response to Lainie makes me believe that you meant this 
question as a theoretical one, a thought experiment of sort.  What 
would happen *if* we exhausted, etc.?  If that is the case, then I have to 
decline to answer.  It may be a worthy question, but I'm much too busy 
having fun with the 14th century Catalan confectionery manual that I just 
got through ILL.  There's a recipe for candied pine nuts that looks like it 
might be similar to the one mentioned by Platina...


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net