SC - Cressee webbed

[Stefan li Rous]

Eden commented:
> looking at Cariadoc's cressee pictures (now *I* want a digital camera too!)
> I have a presentaiton suggestion - and it's a fussy anal garnishing thing
> which is completely out of character for me :->  in order to preserve the
> color contrast of the cressee I would have two types of cheese one white &
> one yellowish and sprinkle them on the appropriate colored squares to
> highlight the color differences.

When I first looked at Master Cariadoc's pictures my first response
was similar. "The grated cheese is covering up the color differances.
Why did he (of all people) use cheddar cheese?". Then I reread the
recipe and realized he had used Parmesan cheese. It was just probably
a moister Parmesan cheese than I'm used to working with since it grated
into longer strands than I usually expect. I then thought that maybe
a grater with smaller holes should be used to create finer strands, but
the drawings, at least, of medieval graters appear to be rather rough
with bigger holes.

I think most of our yellow cheeses are artifically colored or at least
intentionally colored. Anyone out there who has actually made cheese
have any comments? So I would wonder if the period cook would have
had multi-colored cheese available unless he intentionally colored
it. And I would imagine if that were the case, it would have been
explicitly mentioned since it would be out of the norm. The recipe
is pretty explicit on coloring the noodles in two colors, for instance.

It may also be that we have been so conditioned by seeing brightly 
colored foods, due to the use of artifical colors, that we consider 
the more pastel shades not to be useful, whereas the medieval diner
may have been quite happy with them.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
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