SC - Re: Where's the beef OT-preserved foods

[Bethany Public Library]

Alban et al:
Well, yes, in a way, but we (the general we) as modern cooks do like to
blithely disregard the season and purchase whatever we can according to the
recipe that strikes our fancy. One wouldn't historically eat spring
vegetables in Fall (autumn) as is commonly done at modern feasts. I do that
sometimes, so i can't claim complete accuracy myself. The usual harvest time
is high summer (spring brings it's own small harvests of leaf crops and
leafy vegetables, etc.) through early autumn, and slaughtering generally
came in early to mid-spring (young animals), or late autumn (animals you
don't want to winter over). Late autumn is another matter entirely, and
depending upon your location pretty darned near winter.

Would love to discuss this a bit more, but am away from the desk until
tuesday. If anyone wants to correspond in the mean time I'm at
liontar at ptd.net, the home addy.

Cheers

Aoife

Alban wrote (quoting me)> I contend that most of our feasts served in
>the Modern Middle Ages aren't really accurate renditions of what real
feasts
>or meals would have been like (except for the High Summer ones), because we
>uniformly fail to include food that has been preserved in an appropriate
>manner. These foods would have been very common during the fall, winter,
and
>spring.
Fall? Heavens, that's when harvest is! You'd get  lot more fresh foods in
the Fall. Vegetables, fruits, wheats and grains all come due in September
and October (think: Harvest Festival, and you get the idea); plus that'd
be the best time to start slaughtering the livestock, so you wouldn't have
to
feed them all over the winter. . .