SC - RE: THE ALIEN PLANT

[Chris Stanifer]

> Greetings,
>
> I would like to get the opinion of people who have Terence
> Scully's Neapolitan Cuisine. (At $47.50 I need some assurances!)
>
> To me, when I read The Medieval Kitchen, I wanted to make almost
> every recipe. When I read Early French Cookery I found it
> interesting from an academic point of view, but it didn't make me
> want to run into my kitchen.
>
> Which one would you say Neapolitan Cuisine resembles?
>
> Thank you,
> Beatrice
>

That pretty much depends on what you are looking to use it for.  The
Medieval Kitchen does a good basic overview of 14th-15th c. French & Italian
cooking {although they did gloss over the impact of humors}, and they
generally do a good job of explaining each recipe and the reasoning behind
their redactions.   Early French Cookery is more of a research document.

Since I don't know how much cooking experience you have or what you are
hoping to obtain from this potential purchase, I can only offer you the
following advise.  If you don't have much experience in cooking and/or
redacting and are looking for guidance, this isn't the book for you.  If you
know your way around period sources and are looking for new material to work
from, it's a great source.  For example, I just taught a class at the
University of Atlantia last month on sauces from this manuscript.  I had 23
people sampling 6 sauces that are not found in any other existent cookbook.

The manuscript was written mid-15th c. around Naples and has 220 recipes.
Scully provides each recipe in the original language, a modern English
translation, and a commentary on each recipe ranging from a sentence to
several paragraphs.  You have to do some flipping back and forth, because he
has it organized as a chapter of the original recipes 1-220, then a chapter
of commentaries on recipes 1-220, and finally a chapter of the English
translations 1-220.  So, all the information is not combined in one easy
location.  There are no redactions.  He also provides the feast menus from 5
banquets {some  are 20+ courses & 70+ dishes} but only in the original
language {horribly irritating to those of us who can't translate it; the
biggest complaint I have about the book}.  He also covers the Catalan
influence on Naples and the inter-relationships between the two cuisines.

My wife bought it for me as a birthday present when it first came out, and
the price was about what you're projecting to pay.  To me, it's been worth
the expense, although you may be able to find a cheaper copy.  If you're not
rushed for time on making a decision, I'd suggest heading to your local
library and try to obtain a copy to peruse through ILL.  Look it over and
see if it's worth it to you.  I've done that for several books.  It's worth
spending $2-3 to find out I would have wasted $30 buying something sight
unseen.

Hope this helps you.

John le Burguillun