SC - Re: Pommes Dorre- Methodology

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/9/00 7:35:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time, ChannonM at aol.com 
writes:

<< I worked out the recipe a few times and was using the sugar as a modern 
 person would i.e. to make the dish sweet. When I began to think like a cook 
of 
 the 14th C, ie sugar is warming, and is treated as a spice not a condiment, 
I 
 decreased it's use >>

I, as a modern cook, do NOT think sugar as an ingredient in a dish means 
sweet. I had thought that the recipe said honey or sugar. If that is accurate 
then I presumed that honey would have been a first choice and sugar would 
have been a second choice to show wealth.

I will leave out the sugar and use honey instead of sugar if that is an 
option. Also considering the social class for which the original manuscript 
was used I would not see a sweet dish as out of line.

<<and the result was more people liking the dish than had  when the sugar 
content was higher. >>

This does not surprise me as mincemeat is not an item that is well like by a 
majority of people. I usually just make a dish to taste good and seldom use 
the number of people who like it as a barometer for judging whether the 
recipe was done correctly or not. I had not thought to compare recipes in 
different manuscripts from different times because I do not see this as a 
meaningful exercise. 

Ras