[Sca-cooks] RE: Elephants and ambergris

[Mark.S Harris]

> So, the elephant/ambergris association is a little weaker than I
> thought.  Oh, well...
>
> -Magdalena
> penitant Environmental Science major...  I focused on ecology and
> engineering, not animal science!

Well, ivory was one of the things that was used as a material for
carving in the Middle Ages. I've seen some pretty complex Medieval
ivory carvings in the Metropolitan Museum in NYC and in books.

Those that are trying to use ivory to re-create period pieces in
these Current Middle Ages face some of the same problems as the
cooks trying to recreate dishes that used ambergris. Most of the
synthetics and substitutes can be used, but often fall short in
one way or another. These files discuss some substitutes for
ivory, but I don't have any for ambergris, which is why I didn't
mention these earlier when the question about ambergris sources
first came up.

Here are some files in the Florilegium that might be of interest
to those wanting to find out more:
ivory-bib         (10K)  1/ 4/99    Bibliography of medieval ivory
carving by
                                       Mary Haselbauer (Slaine).
http://www.florilegium.org/files/CRAFTS/ivory-bib.html
ivory-msg         (76K)  1/ 4/00    Ivory carving. ivory substitutes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/CRAFTS/ivory-msg.html
ambergris-msg     (12K)  9/11/01    Use of ambergris in period.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/ambergris-msg.html

Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net