SC - New World Foods-list

[Decker, Terry D.]

Greetings all,
 thanks for the interest, I'll post what I can of the Spanish feast, 
I'll post the menu, and a few of the recipes. 

> By "documented everything" do you mean that you have recipes from
> period for mole sauce, milk ices, etc.? Or do you mean that you have
> period mentions from which you reconstructed recipes? Or do you mean
> that some source somewhere asserts that these things existed in
> period? Enquiring minds want to know--and are more interested the
> closer to the beginning of the list the answer turns out to be. 
 Yes, correct on all the above. Translating period Spanish cooking 
texts, is somewhat difficult in the middle of Indiana, when you have a 
mundane life. We used a little of everything, I'll post the most 
interesting that we found, especially the mole' sauce which was created 
in the 1570's by Mexican Carmelite nuns to impress their bishop. I'm 
going to Val Day in Kalamazoo, MI, so I will post this after I return. 
I'll say this much now the Gwyntarrian cooks guild members who attended 
the feast were adamant I post feast info to this list, and raved about 
the marinated cumin-carrots. 
 Penguins were period by the 1500's, especially by the 1560's. It really 
depends on what your definition of 'period' is. Konrad Gesner has 
woodcuts, of auks and penguins, in his Historia Animalium. Yes, all 
6,500 plus pages in Latin with pictures of armadillos, sea-serpents,
mules, auroch, apes, insects, etc. I found an accessible copy at the 
University of British Columbia. This edition was printed in 1563, and 
has been painted by someone who went to great lengths to paint the 
creatures they knew the exact colors of. I.e. the horses, elephant, 
hare, fish, deer, certain birds, a dolphin, etc. 
The camelopard was not, or most whales, neither were the fantastic 
beasts, such as manticore, but interestingly enough sea serpents were. 
More research needed to find out this answer.
The books are primary documentation for my period zoology studies,
and yes, as a true science, zoology, as we know it, was not period.
 I'll double check with my notes on the penguins to make sure, but
I'm pretty definate. As far anyone eating a penguin, well I haven't run 
across any nobility dining on rock-hopper roast, but I'm pretty sure 
that some sailors had too. Besides, the eggs of penguins are quite a 
delicacy, I've heard. And a good example is the extirmination of the 
Great Auk mainly wiped out for said food purpose, oil, and feathers.

Seanan