SC - carving class

[grizly@mindspring.com]

And it came to pass on 4 Feb 01, , that Stefan li Rous wrote:

> But I'm getting the feeling that peaches were not used that often
> in period cooking. Perhaps it is just the recipes I've been reading,
> but I thought I remembered one of the books saying this.

Peaches were introduced into Europe from Persia by the Arabs. 
Karen Hess says that there were some planted in the royal garden 
at Westminister during the 13th century. 

Humourally, they are cold and moist, and are best served at the 
end of the meal.  Platina suggests serving them dried, or cooked in 
honey.

Enrique de Villena (1423) gives instruction in his carving manual for 
cutting and serving peaches -- peel them, remove the pit and the 
bitter parts, and cut them into slices.  Then they are put on a plate, 
if they are not being served in wine.

There are 14th century Catalan recipes for preserving peaches in 
honey or sugar.  

Nola has one recipe for a peach pottage, which appears to be 
meant as a accompaniment to roasts: peaches cooked in broth-
based almond milk, seasoned with sugar, ginger, and drippings 
from the spit.

Granado (1599) has various recipes for peaches, including 5 
different preserves and confections.  He also has 2 recipes for 
peach pie.  One is sort of a cheescake, whose filling is a mixture of 
peach puree, various cheeses, sugar, and eggs.  The other pie 
(possibly one of the Italian recipes he plagiarized from Scappi) has 
slices of peach with spices, sugar and butter.

I'll let one of the gardeners on the list answer questions about 
growing them.  Presumably, they require mild weather, since they 
flourish in places like Georgia.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
now at a new address: rcmann4 at earthlink.net