[Sca-cooks] Bardic Feast, was Sugar Plate/Paste; Stained Glass Sugar

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Sun, 13 Jan 2002 lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

>
> I wrote:
> >  > I'm also trying to find some
> >  > interesting ways to serve fruit - since California is a major
> >  > producer of fruit, we get quite a variety of good stuff... But i
> >  > don't find many references to raw or only slightly cooked fruit.
>
> Stefan li Rous responded:
> >We did discuss whether raw vegetables and fruit were eaten in period,
> >recently. If you didn't save those messages, perhaps some of the
> >referances in this new file might be of use. They may not cover the
> >cultures or the time you are interested in, but perhaps they'll help.
>
> As i recall - and i will check the Florilegium - *Europeans* did not
> often eat raw fruit. But remember, i am Near Eastern, and we do not
> share the same fears as those barbaric Franji :-)
>

Umm. Where do you think the barbaric Franji got the idea in the first
place? Much of the medieval/Rennaissance medical theory (which includes
the idea that the humors of raw fruit are unhealthy for you) was Galen and
contemporaries filtered through--you guessed it--Arab medical treatises.

This is not to say that people didn't eat raw fruit, just that the medical
theory of the time frowned upon the practice. In both Europe and the Near
East.

Margaret, still researching that humoral theory article