[Sca-cooks] Re: (Period cookery questions)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 8 May 2002, at 21:31, El Hermoso Dormido wrote:

> I actually would prefer to stick as much as possible to
> "primary" sources - it's just that I'm not as interested in
> "Sir JoeSchmoe's Boke of ye Period Recipe's" (primary or not)
> as I am in references to how cooking was done, how "improvisational"
> it was, how cooks decided what to make and how to make it, and so on.
> (This is ALSO not to say that original recipes from "period" aren't of
> interest to me as indicators of what ingredients tended to be used in
> what ways - it's just that I'm not having any trouble finding
> THESE....)
>
> I'm assuming there aren't really many (if any) "period" references
> that discuss this directly, so what I need to look for, I think, are
> references with a lot of "incidental" descriptions of kitchens, cooks,
> feasts, etc., which presumably will show up mostly in things like
> lists of kitchen inventories (for ingredients and cooking implements),
> implication from scenes that appear in illuminations, stories, and so
> on.
>
> What I'm really looking for in this thread is validation (or
> invalidation, as the case may be) of the likely authenticity of my
> "cooking reenactment" style that will result from my desire to
> approach the study of medieval cookery and food from the side OPPOSITE
> that of "recipes".  In other words, if I want to create a Spanish dish
> from the mid-1500's, say, rather than reaching for a copy of a
> medieval spanish recipe book, that I'd instead be thinking in terms of
> what ingredients were available, and how cooks in that time and place
> tended to combine and prepare them, and letting the dishes "flow" from
> that.

Speaking as someone who has done some study of mid- (and late-
) 1500s Spanish cooking, I think you are overestimating how easy
it is is to find these "incidental descriptions", and how much you
can learn from them.  Suppose (to invent an example) you read
that a certain priest was chided by his bishop for being overfond of
"capirotada".  No further detail is given.  It might be very easy to
say, "Aha!  Mexican bread pudding is period; I will serve some at
my next feast."  Only by reading the recipes will you learn that
period Iberian capirotada was a savory dish, which generally
included roast fowl of some kind.  Only by reading the recipes will
you have a good idea of which herbs and spices would be
appropriate to this dish.  A kitchen inventory might give you a list of
ingredients, and you might look at it and select, say, marjoram and
cumin as the most appropriate seasonings for capirotada with roast
squab.  The recipes will tell you that 16th century Spanish cooks
were much more likely to reach for the cinnamon, cloves, and
nutmeg when making that dish.

This is not to say that sources such as inventories, health
manuals, tales, and guild regulations don't have their uses, but I
believe that they are most helpful when used as a supplement to
the recipes.


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net