SC - Verjuice

[Stefan li Rous]

Kiri commented: 
> I agree, and even though I may not be able to get the right kind of grapes now,
> it would be handy to know what to do with them when I do get them...if I can
> talk a vineyard out of letting me have some!

It is my feeling that in period the grapes used in verjuice were the
green ones that had to be culled from the vines anyway. Used in verjuice
they had more value than as animal feed or compost.

I suspect the case may be true for modern vineyards. The main problem
may be in convincing them that it is worth dealing with in the quantities
you or others want than their usual disposal methods.

>From another message by Kiri,
> I agree with what you are saying, but until we can get vintners to 
> produce things like verjuice and sappa, we will have to "make do" 
> with the substitutions ...

And there are a few vineyards that are making verjuice and selling it
commercially. So you can get it, but the price may not be as low as
you might like. But then at one time, Grains of Paradise and other
"medieval" spices were difficult to get, too. Now there are a number
of places that sell these spices, just generally not your local grocery.

As mentioned before, there are some verjuice merchants mentioned in
this file in the FOOD section of the Florilegium. I still think "real"
verjuice may be workable instead of the substitutes.
verjuice-msg      (62K)  3/30/01    Medieval verjuice. Modern substitutions.
- -- 
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****