[Sca-cooks] we do care

[Volker Bach]

Druighad at aol.com schrieb:

> OFC: I am looking for 5-6th century Celtic(Irish-Celt)recipes but am having a
> great deal of difficulty as the written word didn't get to Eriu until those
> darn priests got there.Hmph. Can anyone give me any ideas where to look
> except the Book Of Kells?

I had the mixed fortune of studying this period at
Trinity, Dublin, under a highly Celtophile and
Catholic lecturer. From what I heard there I don't
think you can find much in the way of actual
recipes, but will definitely find some food ideas
in the epic poems that, while written down much
later, have roots going back to that period. I
think the (Ohmigod, I can't spell Gaelic) Taine Bo
Cuailgne  - cattle raid of Cooley, anyways, it's
the Chu Chullain story - can be a decent start (I
do not even remember which of the other poems are
Irish and which are Welsh). Get a translation (I
don't think any of the prosified versions I read
preserve much by way of feast descriptions) and
look for where the heroes eat.
Another source that might be of interest, if
they're worth the trouble, would be Iriash law
codes. Law is conservative, and the secular law
codes (more so than those of the Germanic
kingdoms) preserve a lot of the usages and
sentiments of an earlier period. For example, one
indicator of status (that of the substantial
farmer - Boaire IIRC) was for a farmer to have a
pig ready to serve to honored guests and a kettle
to boil it in, which (along with plenty of other
evidence) tells you to serve boiled pork to
high-status feasters.

I do not know whether such things are addressed in
any publication, but I am prepared to bet that
Lord Stefan Li Rous has something in that amazing
Florilegium of his...

YIS

Giano