SC - intro and questions

[Elaine Koogler]

At 15:41 +0100 2001-04-02, Christina Nevin wrote:
> 	Thorvald skrev:
> 	Inaccurate.  Verjuice grape varieties were cultivated specifically 
> 	for making verjuice, and were harvested before they were ripe.
> 	Undoubtedly sub-standard verjuice was made from all sorts of other
> 	things including grapes from other varieties that just weren't going
> 
> 	to grow up to be proper adult grapes; but the good stuff was made 
> 	from varieties developed and grown for the purpose.
> 	<snip>
> 	In some French recipes whole verjuice grapes, cooked and uncooked, 
> 	are called for.
> 
> This is interesting. Documentation for it please?


For the whole "verjuice grapes", Viandier de Taillevent in three 
recipes, "Pork intestine", "Grape dish", and "Grape sauce".


For cultivation:

Le Robert dict. hist. de la langue française, 1998, p. 1938, "acid
juice of certain species of grape picked green" (my translation).

Scully The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages 1995 p. 79 "Verjuice,
the early juice of a particularly tart variety of grape".  p. 102
"... verjuice, yielded by a particular variety of grape at a date
earlier than that of the regular grape harvest."

OED says for 'verjuice grape' "one or other variety of grape suitable
for the making of verjuice"; and mentions four grape varieties as 
'verjuice grapes', Chasselas (1706), Gouais, Farineus, Bourdelas 
(le Grey) (1725).



- -- 
All my best,
Thorvald Grimsson / James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net> (PGP user)

"It is impossible to forsee the consequences of being clever,
so you try to avoid it whenever you can." Christopher Strachey