SC - more medieval food myths!

[Christine A Seelye-King]

And it came to pass on 17 Nov 00, , that Lee-Gwen Booth wrote:

> I got this piece of drivel in my inbox today and thought that the Cooks'
> List might also like to howl in pain at it!
> 
> "Long gone are the medieval days when people ripped into roasted birds with
> bare hands. These days we rely on the more civilized method of carving the
> holiday gobbler with a knife, a tricky skill to master.

Uh huh.  Tricky indeed.  That's why Enrique de Villena's the "Arte de 
Cortar" (Spanish, 1423) spends 12 pages discussing the proper ways to 
carve various species of edible birds.  Not to mention all the other medieval 
carving manuals...  
As for bare-handed eating, it can be done delicately.  Remember Chaucer's 
Prioress, who "Ne wette hir fyngres in hir sauce depe".  The "Arte de 
Cortar" has an interesting instruction in the chapter on birds.  There's a 
Spanish dish called Capirotada, which is essentially  pieces of roast fowl 
and bread slices in alternating layers, topped with a sauce.  Villena says 
that when serving Capirotada to a king, the carver should remove the 
bones from the hens, even though they're already carved into serving 
portions, so the feasters don't get their hands greasy.

> *sigh*  So now, there were not only "no knives at table", but cooks and
> servers didn't have them either!   

Maybe you should send these folks the URL for the medieval food clipart 
page, with all those neat pictures of well-equipped kitchens?

>I am surprised that they even cooked the
> bloody bird ....

They didn't.  Haven't you ever read "Four and Twenty Blackbirds"?  :-)

> Gwynydd (the exasperated.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net