SC - Riccotta cheese

[allilyn@juno.com]

On Wed, 22 Mar 2000 LrdRas at aol.com wrote:

> These books are good BUT the do NOT contain period cookbooks as was 
> requested. They do contain some period recipes from various sources and some 
> redactions as well as historical information. They are also rather expensive. 
> 
> OTOH, Cariadoc's Collection contains ONLY period cookbooks and is inexpensive.
> 
> Ras

Cariadoc's is an excellent source, but is not necessarily the place to
start (although i started with it...).  Which is probably one reason that
i am so pleased to see books like Redon's and Hieatt's which give the
beginner some background and framing for the text.

I'd certainly suggest a person new to renaissance cooking start with
heiatt and then go on to Forme of Curye and the Two Fifteenth Century
Cookbooks; start with Redon and go on to Le Menagier and Taillevent; start
with Santich's The Original Mediterranean Cuisine and go on to Platina and
Epulario.

There was a time when we had to plunge right in with no textual framing,
and only the first-person framing we could get from our SCA mentors.
Now we have a choice, and while Cariadoc's collection is certainly the
most bang for your buck in the historical cookbook field, this lady asked
specifically for a -first- cookbook, and to me that meant that she was
looking for something to give her an introduction.

elaina