Fw: Paul D. Buell on Tea Meal was: Fw: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks digest, Vol 1 #2334 - 12 msgs

[Phlip]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul D. Buell" <pbuell at seanet.com>
To: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 11:52 PM
Subject: Re: Paul D. Buell on Tea Meal was: Fw: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks
digest, Vol 1 #2334 - 12 msgs


> I not only love SCA land, but find your cooking suggestions highly useful.
> It helps me understand my texts better.
>
> Many of the sharbats mentioned appear more wines than nice, innocent sweet
> drinks. In the Middle East they are generally not fermented, but the
Chinese
> make it clear that the "thirst waters," their term for sharbat, were in
many
> cases. See the beverage examples in A Soup for the Qan. We will soon
provide
> many more recipes when we get the other text done. I have already
translated
> the "thirst waters" section but there are no notes and my colleagues have
> not gone over it yet so it is not ready for the world to see. Ya, the
ginger
> beer thing is a good comparison.
>
> One point, don't think of the Middle east as not having lots of fermented
> beverages during the Middle Ages. The moralists moralized, but a lot of
> fruit boozes were drunk in 'Abbasid times, a lot, and distillation was in
> the process of appearing too. The expert on this, in German alas, is Peter
> Heine. See his Weinstudien, Untersuchungen zu Anbau, Produktion und Konsum
> des Weins in arabisch-islamischen Mittelalter [Wine Studies,
Investigations
> of the Cultivation, Production, and Consumption of Wine during the
> Arabic-Islamic Middle Ages], Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 1982. The booze
> in question often cut, by the way, with nasty things such as hash and
opium
> and other narcotics.
>
> I live in Washington State; no camels, except in the zoo. Well, maybe in
> Eastern Washington.
>
> Cow and goat or ewe milk will not work very well. The needed sugar is
mostly
> lacking in the milks. You need six lactating mares, by the way, to keep
one
> nomad drinking in kumiss during the summer.
>
> Milking mares, by the way, I am told is a LOT of work. Camels are even
more
> fun since they are big and like to kick people in the head.
>
> Paul
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
> To: "Buell" <pbuell at seanet.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 11:50 AM
> Subject: Fw: Paul D. Buell on Tea Meal was: Fw: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks
> digest, Vol 1 #2334 - 12 msgs
>
>
> > More comments and questions ;-)
> >
> > Phlip
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Susan Fox-Davis" <selene at earthlink.net>
> > To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> > Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2002 2:36 PM
> > Subject: Paul D. Buell on Tea Meal was: Fw: [Sca-cooks] Re: Sca-cooks
> > digest, Vol 1 #2334 - 12 msgs
> >
> >
> > > I really, really appreciate that this friendly scholar regards "SCA
> land"
> > as
> > > kindly as he does, instead of the frequently-encountered attitude we
> > usually get
> > > from "real" academics.  He understands the meaning of the word
"amateur"
> > as
> > > ama-teur, who does these things for the love of it!
> > >
> > > >  If its Mongol food the beverage choices
> > > > > would be a) kumiss, the preferred drink, b) a sharbat, probably
> > > > > non-alcoholic but fermented ones were served as well, use a
Persian
> > > > recipe,
> > >
> > > Fermented sharbat?  That little phrase suggests LOTS of possibilities.
> As
> > I
> > > understand the word 'sharbat' it means a flavored sugar or honey syrup
> > plus
> > > water.  These fermented sharbats would be along the lines of the small
> > meads or
> > > ginger beers we already make, yesno?
> > >
> > > > > or c) "Mongolian Tea," i.e., brick tea boiled in milk. Tsampa, tea
> > with
> > > > > butter and other things was also consumed. For lack of period
> recipes
> > use
> > > > > modern Tibetan ones. "Mongolian Tea," by the way, which I have
had,
> is
> > > > > excellent. However, in general, no self-respecting Mongol during
the
> > period
> > > > > would have been without his kumiss. That was THE prestige food. If
> you
> > can't
> > > >
> > > > > get horse kumiss, use camel.
> > >
> > > I don't know where he lives, but in SoCal we see more horses than
> camels.
> > I
> > > suppose if I put the word out to the Caid list that I'd like some
mare's
> > milk
> > > for experimentation, I'd get razzed horribly,  so I'm out of luck
> anyway.
> > Will
> > > cow's or goat's milk approach the "real" thing?  [I'm looking it up in
> the
> > > Florilegium after work, honest.]
> > >
> > > Selene Colfox
> > > selene at earthlink.net
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Sca-cooks mailing list
> > > Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> > > http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>