[Sca-cooks] A question of resources

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Chip wrote:


> For late period English I know of:
> --Good Hous-wives Treasurie
> --Form of Cury/Cury on Inglishe (I'm still fuzzy on the relationship
> of these two -- one is part of the other?)


The Forme of Cury is the generally accepted title of a 14th Century
cookery book in manuscript form. Curye On Inglysch is the title of a
modern (1985) book edited by Contance Hieatt and Sharon Butler,
including some five volumes from medieval culinary manuscripts, of which
one is the Forme of Cury.

BTW, this is late 14th C.; this might be considered High Middle Ages,
which may or may not be regarded as late period. Certainly it's more
than 200 years before the end of the SCA's period.


> --Liber Cure Cocorum


Add to your 15th C. web resources by going to:

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/c/cme/cme-idx?type=header&idno=CookBk

You'll find Austin's edition of two large, and some smaller, 15th C.
manuscripts, published as "Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books".


>
> French:
> --Menagier de Paris
>
> Italian:
> --Platina
>
> I found mentions of: 2ANCC, liber de couina, Libro di cucina del
> secolo XI but I have zero clue as to their context, culture or time.


By 2ANCC I assume you mean the Two Anglo-Norman Culinary Collections,
published a while ago in Speculum in an article by Constance Hieatt and
Robin Jones. They're English cookbooks written in Norman French sometime
around 1250 C.E., IIRC. The article includes a translation by Hieatt and
Jones; as far as I know this is the only published translation available.

It also just so happens that if you go to:

http://www.godecookery.com/maillist/pdffiles.htm

there's a link to download a .pdf file of this article. Click on
"Special Apicius Group Download: Click Here"


>
> My Main Question (finally!, says they):
>
> What are the best, most widely-accepted, widely-used,
> can't-live-without-em translations of the above manuscripts?


When you say translations, do you mean recipe adaptations, as in, take
two cups of flour, and three eggs, or do you mean _translations_? There
are quite a few translations available. Hieatt includes a great glossary
in Curye on Inglysch that should enable you to do your own translation,
with a bit of practice, and the 15th C. sources are almost in modern
English already.

There's a translation of Le Menagier by Janet Hinson on Cariadoc's web
site, I believe.


>
> I'm doing a feast in late October to feature English, French, and
> Italian courses.  Until now, my feasts (all whopping 3 of them) have
> been perioid -- period ingredients in a reasonable, not-too-modern
> style with a heaping spoonful of research.  They have been
> well-received and I'm proud of them, but now I want to get serious.
> There will be crowd-pleaser dishes and shire favorites (my bacon and
> mushrooms), but I want to really wow them.
>
> My menu is coming along thanks to the many of you who have shared your
> knowledge on the web (private pages mentioned here and all here whose
> expertise is archived in the Florilegium), but if I could just get an
> index of the dishes available to me from period, it'd make my life a
> lot easier.  I'm sure it's out there, I just missed it.
>
> Your thoughts and comments are invited.
>
> My thanks,
> _____________________________________________________________________
> Iyad ibn Bisharo / Thráinn Tjúguskegg


If you're looking for adapted medieval recipes, your best bets are
probably Cariadoc's website (http://www.best.com/~ddfr  , link from
there), and then there's "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" by Cindy Renfrow
(see http://www.thousandeggs.com), as well as a bazillion adapted period
recipes in the Florilegium.


HTH,

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98