SC - Re: [sig] Polish medieval cooking

[Jenne Heise]

>> Or flat bread to wrap the food in- the original souvlaki, falafal, gyros
>> sandwich etc. Even food like barley can be served in bread bowls.
>
>And when we discussed bread bowls further back no one could point to
>bread bowls being period as food containers. Anyone have any evidence
>for this being done in period, now?

Yes. In Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae (III. 125-126vol 2, pp 83-85, 1928
edition), from a string of disjointed quotations:

"Give me a mystilê [ed.- a piece of bread used in lieu of a spon]; for I
will not use the word mystron..."

And then:

[Athenaeus quoting Nicander] "'But when you prepare a dish of fresh-killed
kid or lamb or capon, sprinkle some groats in a hollow bowl and pound them
well, then stir in a fragrant oil, well mixed.  When the broth is boiling
hard, pour it over the meal, put the lid on the pan, and smother it; for
when it is stewed in this way, the heavy meal swells up.  Serve it when
mildly warm in hollow mystra.' [Athenaeus speaking] In these
terms...Nicander indicates the use of pudding and barley-groats , directing
that a broth of lamb or kid or fowl be poured over it.  To repeat his
words: pound the groats in a mortar, mix oil with it and stir it in the
broth when it begins to boil.  When, after these preliminaries, the mixture
actively boils up again, it should be stirred with the ladle without adding
any other ingredient; simply spoon it off as it is, to prevent any of the
rich fat at the top from boiling over.  That is why he says 'put on the lid
and cover the boiling liquid'; for the meal swells up then it is smothered
in this way.  Finally, when it has cooled to a mild heat, eat it with
hollow pieces of bread."


He mentions earlier (p. 105), in a list of comestibles served at a feast,
"stuffed fig-leaves".  The editorial note says "[spelled in greek letters]
thrion, a dish often mentioned by the comic poets, consisting of eggs,
milk, flour, honey, cheese, and lard in a  wrapping of fig leaves.  Cf. the
modern Greek dish dolmades, made with grape leaves.

No time to look for more now...

HTH,

Cindy