[Sca-cooks] Researching....

[Laura C. Minnick]

On Mon, 24 Dec 2001, Terry Decker wrote:

> >This is probably a super stupid question, but it just seems like it should
> >be easier to tell if strawberries were used in pies in the middle ages.
> >
>
> Sabina Welser (1553) has a recipe for strawberry tart, so it is definitely
> Renaissance.
>
> Wild strawberries were harvested by the Romans, but there is not a lot of
> evidnece of their use in the Middle Ages until they appear in the medical
> writings of Nicholas Myrepus.  In mid-14th Century, strawberries began being
> planted in manor gardens and strawberries became an item of religious art
> early in the 15th Century.
>
> Without recipes, we can't tell whether the strawberries were eaten or merely
> ornamental, but my opinion is they were prepared and eaten like other fruit,
> especially in the Late Middle Ages.

I have a memory of a tart of strawberries, it's a custard and the berries
are forced through a 'straynour'- it tastes rather like the Flan of
Alemayn. I made it for a potluck 5 or 6 years ago. I think it was from
_COI_ or _Two Fifteenth Century_. I'm not home, but I'll see if I can find
it when I get home.

'Lainie
-looking at the leftover ham and wishing someone else was home to prevent
her from falling upon it yet again...