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

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> 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.

Could it simply have been peaches specifically that were not a food for
peasants?

Two vegetables I recall seeing references that might be to serving raw
would be cucumbers and radishes; and the other Magdalena sent me
documentation for raw carrots but I can't find it.

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
"Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."