[Sca-cooks] Am I at least minimally clueful? (Period cookery questions)

[Jane Williams]

On 8 May 2002 at 15:46, El Hermoso Dormido
wrote:

> I find that what I've come to think of
> as the "Medieval Style of Cookery" (by which I mean the act of food
> preparation, not specifically the food itself) appeals to my style
> in the kitchen.

Me too.

> 1)It appears that there really is no analogue for MODERN-style recipes in
> "period".  I get the impression that where a modern-style recipe is
> generally step-by-step "scientific" instructions intended for people
> who may know little about cooking but has SOME experience, Medieval versions
> of what we'd call "recipes" were usually "cliff notes" for experienced cooks

That's the impression I've got: exact quantities aren't
mentioned, timings are unspecific. But then after a
bit of experience (not much, but some) of trying to
cook for large numbers of people in a kitchen I've
never been in before, I think they did it that way
because it's the only way that works. You cook "until
done", and how long that takes depends on
quantities, the strength of the flame, and the
draughts around. Giving exact times would be
counter-productive.

I now do my modern cooking the "take some, and
cook till done" method, and it's improved a lot as a
result.

Trouble is guessing the "some", I find. No doubt I'll
learn more as I go. It varies with period too, of
course: a "grete deal" of sugar would be what: a
teaspoon? in early period, "empty a few bags" in
Elizabethan times.

> , with a few exceptions intended as tutorials for people with NO experience
> with cookery (such as the manuscript, whose name escapes me for the moment,
> written by the wealthy merchant for his wife, who, having come from a noble
> family, had never learned cookery before...).

Menagier de Paris (No doubt you've remembered
yourself by now, but just in case ...)