SC - Mongolian Cookbook... Period?

[Craig Jones.]

>
>Have you missed the rather extensive discussion we've had on this list
>regarding Buell & Anderson's "A Soup for the Qan", an annotated recipe
>book and materia medica from the Yuan Chinese Capital of the 14th
>century? The Khan in question is Kublai, IIRC.

Um I think I missed that. Stefan is there a floregium entry for these
discussions?

I have the book (and a lovely book that it is) but would love to see the
discussions...

>You might want to be careful and really, really clear when dealing with
>Mogolian students in this matter. A year or so ago I did a feast in my
>local group, with, admittedly, some rather speculative dishes, plus
>several from Ni Tsan's fourteenth-century southern Chinese recipes, and
>a couple from what would later be published as "A Soup for the Qan"
>(Paul Buell had given permission for a few of his recipe translations to
>be booted about on this list by a couple of people who had corresponded
>with him), and one of our locals, a very lovely young lady whose family
>is, I believe, connected with the Mongolian Consulate, was asked how she
>would rate the feast in terms of accuracy. As I understand it, she said
>something to the effect of, it was tasty, but not at all like what my
>grandmother cooked. Which doesn't especially surprise me, unless the
>lady's grandmother was alive in the fourteenth century. We have several
>on this list who might be willing to verify that The Forme of Cury is
>not at all like what their grandmothers cooked, either.

Not surprising.  Many of the YSCY recipes are kinda odd.  I raise an eyebrow at
the 'speculative dishes'.  There are enough recipes in YSCY to do a full feast
(with careful selection), so long as your feasters are carnivores and like
mutton.  The Kofte recipe looks great (I'll be doing that one this weekend,
maybe)...

This is a great cuisine to cook in Lochac as generally lamb/hoggett/mutton is
well received and I can get whole mutton sheep, cut up into cuts for <A$40 a
carcass if I head out of town.  That's about $0.50 per pound (I think...). 

Drake.