[Sca-cooks] Tips on Redactions

[Philip & Susan Troy]

A F Murphy wrote:

> What are some of the other references we have, outside of the cookbooks?
> Did some Paston write "And for a miracle, he didn't cook the meat to
> dishrags, but it came to the table a nice pink throughout"? Or,
> conversely, "I don't know why this cook never bothers to roast the meat
> through!"  (The Pastons were quite capable of writing things like that,
> they're a wonderful source... nice and chatty.) And if so, how do we
> know what are individual preferences as opposed to standards?


IIRC, someone in late period, probably either Gervase Markham or the
author of the Proper Newe Boke of Cokery, speaks in a fairly general way
of meats [roasts] being done when the juices run clear. (In other words,
  like modern poultry doneness standards: medium to medium-well.)

When you consider that the meats these people were generally eating (as
much as this can be generalized) were not castrated steers, prematurely
bulked by hormones, weren't normally lambs rather than ewes and rams,
etc. (note that even modern veal is generally eaten fairly well-done
because of its high proportion of connective tissue), it seems pretty
likely that a lot of meat was cooked primarily with tenderness in kind.
Add to that the medieval habit of parboiling certain meats, then larding
and roasting them, it seems that other methods may have been employed
for keeping meats moist and tender than the modern expedient of not
overcooking them.

I suspect that the texture of roasted red meats in period may have
resembled that of barbecued brisket, at least much of the time.

YMMV.

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