SC - Re: theme menus

[Vincent Cuenca]

>"A feast that could have been put on in period" has to consist of
>dishes all of which were in use at the same time at the same place,
>since a period feast happened at some particular time and place in
>period; it wasn't smeared across three centuries and four countries.
>"A feast made up of dishes that could have been served in period"
>generally means a dish from period recipes, since that is usually the
>only way we know a dish could have been served in period.

I've been discussing this same topic with Ras on another list; the general 
consensus I've been finding among the "experts" (Revel, Scully, Santich, et. 
al.) is that there was a lot of recipe trading going on.  Revel identifies 
recipes in Taillevent from "Forme of Cury" as well as some German and even 
Muslim Sicilian ones.  De Nola has French mustard, Genovese tart, and a 
whole slew of German bruets.  The "mig-raust" in "Sent Sovi" shows up in 
Platina as "Mirause" and de Nola as "Mirrauste".  Everybody and his brother 
has some variation on blancmange.  Even if you work from one source, you may 
end up doing the same sort of mix-and-match you were trying to avoid in the 
first place, since they were apparently doing it back then.  Nobody actually 
says "I got this recipe from X manuscript" (except for Platina maybe, but 
he's a rare fellow anyway), but it is possible to trace provenances.

On the subject of themed feasts, we were considering doing a sort of 
cook-off thing here in Three Rivers, Calontir: two cooks, each one preparing 
courses from contemporaneous sources.  One could perhaps pit Taillevent 
against Chiquart, or Platina against de Nola.  Hmmm... the possibilities are 
endless...


Vicente
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com