SC - Definitions and Examples: Period, Peri-oid and OOP

[Catherine Deville]

Lady Celia des L'archier wrote:
>Lady Aelfwyn posted her proposed menu for Harvest Moon Shoot which included
>honey butter (which I assume from her statements has been determined by
>this list to be OOP) and Christianna replied with documentation on herb
>butter (from Hugh Plat _Jewel-house of Arte & Nature_ 1594 entitled "2. How
>to make sundry sorts of most dainty butter with the saide oils") 
>which contained
>the following:
>
>>    This laste Sommer I did entertaine divers of my friends with this kinde
>>  of butter amongst other country dishes, as also with cinnamon, mace, and
>>  clove butter (which are all made in one selfe same manner) and I knew not
>>  whether I did please them more with this new found dish, or offend them
>>  by denying the secret unto them, who thought it very strange to find the
>>  naturall taste of herbs, and spices coueied into butter without any
>>  apparent touch of color.  But I hope I have at this time satisfied their
>>  longings.  2re, if by som means or other you may not give a tincture to
>>  your creme before you chearne it, either with roseleaves, cowslep leaves,
>>  violet or marigold leaves, &c. And thereby chaunge the color of your
>>  butter.
>>    And it may be that if you wash your butter throughly wel with rose
>>  water before you dish it, and work up some fine sugar in it, that the
>>  Country people will go neere to robbe all Cocknies of their breakfasts,
>>  unlesse the dairie be well looked unto...
>
><remainder snipped>
>
>This last paragraph, mentioning the working of sugar into butter, along
>with the fact that butters served with the essential oils of cinnamon, mace
>and cloves implies to me that folks may have had a taste for sweet butters.
>honey was more readily available than sugar.  So why do we believe that
>honey butter is not period (again, I realize that this may be an old
>argument and a pointer to the flori-thingy will suffice if it's been over
>done>) ?

I don't see a relationship between cinnamon or clove flavored butter 
and butter with rosewater and sugar. If the butter has only the spice 
in it - and there's no indication in the above quote that both sugar 
and spice were used together - then it will not be sweet, just spicy.

It also suggests that the sugar was used only with rose water. This 
would taste like neither the honey butter nor spiced butter. So the 
only sweet butter i see documented above is sugar-and-rose-water 
butter.

In conclusion, the passage seems to indicate that these flavors, 
rather than being common, were instead surprising. So i don't see how 
you come to the conclusion that people had a taste for sweet butters. 
Second, the quote is English, and i have no idea how common any 
flavored butters were in other parts of Europe. Third, this is rather 
late period, so it seems likely that it would not have been common in 
SCA period, which generally ranges from perhaps 600 (or 450 or) to 
1600 officially or 1650 unofficially.

Anahita al-shazhiyya