[Sca-cooks] Period Polenta

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

OK, i've been scouring the ever-useful Florilegium and discovered...
(cue spooky music)
...the Polenta Files

(thanks, Stefan)

1. MILLET "POLENTA"

Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, or to be more specific,
on Thu, 14 Jun 2001 at 20:17:50, Lady Brighid ni Chiarain wrote:

>  Granado has a recipe for millet polenta. (He doesn't *call* it polenta,
>  but the cooked grain is mixed with egg and grated cheese, then cooled
>  and sliced, and the slices fried in butter. If it quacks like a polenta...)

Brighid, if you're still around, do you have the original of this
recipe? I'd like to use this dish in the Catalan course of my
Mediterranean Feast and call it by Granado's name for it :-)

2. BARLEY "POLENTA"

Also, i found barley grits at the Health Food Store. I assume i can
use them to make Pliny's version as sent to this list by Bear waaaay
baaaack on Thu, 9 Apr 1998... or should this be made of whole,
hulled, unpearled barley?

Barley Polenta (pulentium)
from Pliny, _Naturalis Historia_, 18, 73,
in Giacosa, _A Taste of Ancient Rome_

Vicenis hordei libris ternas seminis lini et coriandri selibram
salisque acetabulum.

For each 20 librae of barley, 3 librae of linseeds and coriander 1/2
libra, and salt an acetabulum.

3. BOTH AT ONE MEAL?

Would it be too redundant to serve the barley and the millet in
different courses, seasoned differently, of course (bearing in mind
that most Medieval grains seem to be cooked to mush, if i'm
interpreting the earlier recipes correctly)?

Thanks,
Anahita