SC - 16th Century recipes a few questions.

[Decker, Terry D.]

> I have been looking through the translation Das Kochbuch der Sabina
> Welserin 
> for recipes and have a couple of questions
> 
> 1. In recipe number 89, To make a strawberry tart, the recipe says "Next
> let 
> it bake a short while, pour Malavosia over it and let it bake a while,
> then 
> it is ready. "  What is Malavosia?
> 
Malavosia is malmsey.  You will probably find it in under the name Malvasia
( or possibly Malvoisie, depending on vintner) at your wine dealer.  It is a
sweet, light gold colored wine.  It was difficult to find in Norman, OK,
when I did this recipe.  

> 2.  In recipe number 186, To make an herb tart, it calles for Parmesan 
> cheese.  I know that the "cheese" debate has occured on the list before,
> but 
> for the life of me I cannot remember if  Parmesian was listed as one of
> the 
> period cheeses.  Is Parmesan cheese period?
> 
> Noemi
> 
Parmesan cheese is definitely period and was very likely available to the
Welsers as they were one of the major German banking families in the
international trade.

Bear