[Sca-cooks] No Sugar in 10th Century??

[Jenne Heise]

> After re-reading the website from which my question
> initially arose, and reading these posts on the
> subject, I am of a mind that we may be mistaking
> 'Heavily Spiced' with 'Containing a wide variety of
> spices.'  The recipes I have access to do suggest that
> medieval cooks used a wide variety of spices in their
> dishes, but not necessarily a large 'quantity' of any
> one particular spice.  Many recipes suggest the
> addition of ginger, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc...
> or, more often, 'sweet spices', but as has been said,
> rarely list any quantities.

Unfortunately, 'spicy' has come to mean 'something with
hot seasoning' in modern american parlance... otherwise
I would say that medieval cooking, from looking at recipes,
was certainly more spicy than modern 'american' cooking.

--
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at mail.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"It's no use trying to be clever-- we are all clever here; just try
to be kind -- a little kind." F.J. Foakes-Jackson