SC - Chocolate documentation?

[Decker, Terry D.]

Hey all from Anne-Marie

Clothilde and Allison speak on the use of vinegar in the middle ages....

I dont find that the vinegar amount in Pleyn Delit is so high...and I take
the words "make it sharp with vinegar" to mean make it sharp with vinegar,
ie it should have a definate twang.

Now I love vinegar, and have been known to drink the good stuff straight,
but 1/2 cup of vinegar for 8 people is nothing in my experience. And I
ALWAYS test my recipes for group consumption on someone who isnt as much a
vinegar hound as me just to be sure.

Much depends on the type of vinegar yoiu're using....I only use white
distilled vinegar for cleaning my fridge, and save the yummy cider vinegar
or red wine vinegar or balsamic for cooking. THose have a lot less sour
power per unit used. 

Dishes that use vinegar and you can taste it (other than
egredouce/soubriquet) include the paste en pot/civee de veau, Civee
d'oeufs, , most of the medieval sauces (consisting of vinegar and herbs,
vinegar and spices, etc, mustard and mustard based sauces), le menagier's
sauce for chicken ("half vinegar, half rosewater, and chilled, etc. Item,
orange-juice is good.") aceteria (a 17-18th century treatise on veggies)
has a whole article on it, all of the salats of course use vinegar, and
Apicius uses vinegar almost as much as he uses liquimen and pepper
(mmmm...chicken sour......:)). Even wardyns in syrop have a "lytil venegre".

Now, lots of these specify vinegar or verjuice. Verjuice (in my experience)
can range from VERY ascerbic to a gentle bit of pucker. Its possibel that
Redon and Hieatt, in an effort to make the ingredients more "safeway
friendly" have changed out all the verjuice for vinegar, and that's why
youre getting more vinegar than you care for. 

and one of the neat things about reconstructing medieval recipes is that
they DONT give amounts, and so you can play with amounts on ingredients you
dont care for (to a degree, anyway). 

The medieval palette of flavors in my experience is sour and spicey...a
stew of vinegar, poudre forte. Sure, thre are dishes that dont use this
palette but my interpretation is that they LIKED these flavors, at least
according to the number of dishes that come out this way. Where the cooks
skill can come in is in menu design so that the whole meal doesnt come off
as monochromatic. Have a dish of civee de veau, but contrast it with funges
and frumenty, buttered worts, and an apple krapfen. The bright flavors of
the sour and spicey stew will come across as a high note, with the others
being accompanyments. all will end up augmented.

at least this is my opinion,
- --Anne-Marie, a notorious vinegar hound, who has to have several people
test her recipes and review her menus to make sure they're balanced :)