SC - Period fried food

Wed Nov 29 18:36:01 PST 2000

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In a message dated 11/29/00 1:18:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
stefan at texas.net writes:

> I think it had to wait
> until the invention of cheap vegetable oils in the 19th century.
> 
> 

While deep frying may or may not have had to wait until you specify, there 
are recipes that do call for frying things throughout the period corpus. 
Some, such as the chicken recipe I posted some time ago are middle not late 
period. Lard was a commercial product available throughout the middle ages 
and early modern period. I think your hypothesis regarding vegetable oil and 
deep frying is essentially in error especially since most if not all foods 
that are deep fried taste much better when deep fried in lard than when done 
in veggie oil. My suggestion would be to completely (without exception) 
disregard 'modern' thought in this matter and simply follow the recipes as 
written from period. it would go a long way towards over riding suppositions 
and thoughts based on modern thought and bring the cookery 
methods a lot closer to period. Lard was a MAJOR commercial product during 
SCA period. Vegetable oil popularity and mass acceptance was based entirely 
on the necessities of W.W.I and W.W.II. Any conjectures about it's use 
outside that venue is most certainly, IMO, in error. Even if you except the 
erroneous supposition that pig's were skinnier in period (another theory that 
I hold as false) there is no indication that the introduction of frying, deep 
frying or any other type of frying was in any way related to the rise of the 
use of the insipid product called 'vegetable oil.' In fact, extant period 
recipes clearly indicate the opposite was likely.

Ras
The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones.- Solomon Ibn Gabirol

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<HTML>In a message dated 11/29/00 1:18:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, stefan at texas.net writes:
 
 
 <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">I think it had to wait
 until the invention of cheap vegetable oils in the 19th century.
 
 </BLOCKQUOTE>
 
 
 While deep frying may or may not have had to wait until you specify, there are recipes that do call for frying things throughout the period corpus. Some, such as the chicken recipe I posted some time ago are middle not late period. Lard was a commercial product available throughout the middle ages and early modern period. I think your hypothesis regarding vegetable oil and deep frying is essentially in error especially since most if not all foods that are deep fried taste much better when deep fried in lard than when done in veggie oil. My suggestion would be to completely (without exception) disregard 'modern' thought in this matter and simply follow the recipes as written from period. it would go a long way towards over riding suppositions and thoughts based on modern thought and bring the cookery 
 methods a lot closer to period. Lard was a MAJOR commercial product during SCA period. Vegetable oil popularity and mass acceptance was based entirely on the necessities of W.W.I and W.W.II. Any conjectures about it's use outside that venue is most certainly, IMO, in error. Even if you except the erroneous supposition that pig's were skinnier in period (another theory that I hold as false) there is no indication that the introduction of frying, deep frying or any other type of frying was in any way related to the rise of the use of the insipid product called 'vegetable oil.' In fact, extant period recipes clearly indicate the opposite was likely.
 
 Ras
 The test of good manners is to be patient with bad ones.- Solomon Ibn Gabirol</HTML>

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