[Sca-cooks] Raw vs. cooked foods, was: Period food myths

[Volker Bach]

Tara schrieb:
>
> Jadwiga mentioned the food myth that people didn't eat raw fruits and
> vegetables in period.  I'd love to discuss this one a bit more!
>
> I've argued that one more from a logical perspective than a documentable
> one.  While there may not be much discussion of raw food in menus, if
> you're out working in the orchard and get hungry, wouldn't you eat an
> apple?  Or, if you're travelling, most raw fruit and veggies travel much
> better than most cooked ones.  So, I would doubt that people never ate
> stuff raw.  Plus, well, sometimes raw fruit and veggies are yummy.  I'm
> sure people figured that out.  I'm sure that poor people would have
> stockpiled fuel through the summer, and would therefore have cooked less
> then.

I don't know about how it wqould be served up at
feasts, but there is a story from 15th century
Italy called il villano smascherato in which a
peasant is caught stealing a nobleman's peaches
and eating them on the spot. The moral of the
story is that 'that kind of food' (it is not
entirely clear whether raw fruit or fruit in
general) is not for 'that kind of people'. Edited
in Rivista di storia dell'agricultura 1967 by G.L.
Masetti-Zannini and quoted by M. Montanari in La
Fame e l'Abbondanza.

> However, I know of little menu documentation for *serving* foods raw,
> which is why I generally avoid it in my own practice.  This, too, makes
> sense from a period perspective.  Everything from the earth is given to
> us to perfect.  We must cook it or prepare it to make it worthy, such is
> our duty under God.  So, if you were trying to impress people, it would
> be with prepared food, not raw food.  Even things that I can think of
> that weren't cooked were still prepared in some respect.

Meister Eberhard R36 states that a certain
vegetable (no translation offhand) makes the eater
sleepy, whether enjoyed cooked or raw. Given the
medical nature of much of Eberhard's book I assume
he would have made some disapproving noise if he
considered eating it raw unsound. So again, we
find that some things were regularly eaten raw by
the 15th century.

YIS

Giano