SC - Verjus/agraz

[Valoise Armstrong]

Hauviette wrote:
> In Alya Atlas's work, the word "agraz" is also used to denote verjus. She
> mentions the fact that Charlemagne was the ruler of Germany at one point and
> had some influence on the culinary arts in this regard. I dont' have the
> manuscript in front of me, so forgive the generalities, time to go to work,

According to the lexicon in the back of Wiswe's Kulturgeschichte der
Kochkunst, agraz comes from agresta so the word would seem to be
going north from Italy to Germany not the other way.

I noticed in Sabina Welserin's verjuice recipe that she adds salt to
the juice. 

204 How to make verjuice from early grapes

First take the unripe grapes and pound them and strain them. An four
quarts of juice put a handful of salt and put it in a small vat and
stir it around everyday, then it becomes good verjuice.

Wouldn't the salt prevent fermentation? Maybe the salt is meant to
act as a preservative.

Valoise