[Sca-cooks] Other sources for non-sweet Elizabethan dishes

[johnna holloway]

Going back to the original query, (and I realize that this has taken me
sometime to compile and get on the Cooks list... but I have popped out
the knee again, so I am not in my best form),
I went back surveyed sources other than the printed cookery books for
the desired 1550-1620. Malcolm Thick noted in The Neat House Gardens
that the cookbooks of these times have their limitations for historians
that look at vegetable and vegetable histories. He feels that preparing
and cooking vegetables was so straightforward a process that it did not
require mention in many cookbooks of the time. So for other sources, one
might consult:

Castelvetro, Giacomo. The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy, an
Offering to Lucy, Countess of Bedford", 1614. Translation by Gillian
Riley.  London: Viking Press [Penguin] 1989. ISBN 0-670-82724X. Some
possibilities from this text that was written in England:

He includes for Winter:
turnips--peeled, thinly sliced, cooked, serve with grated cheese and
pepper; carrots--roasted with pepper; onions--again roasted with the
note that they need pepper.
For Fall:
pumpkins; gourds; sweet chestnuts; pine nuts; olives; kohrabi--cook
inbroth, serve with grated cheese, salt pepper, spices.
For Summer:
rice; lentils; chickpeas; marrows; beans; cucumbers.
For Spring:
aubergines; tortelli of fava beans; artichokes; aspapagus.

Buttes Dyets Dry Dinner of 1599 includes mentions and some descriptions
for eating:
rice, beans, pease, gourdes, cappars, olives, chestnuts, almonds, dates,
pistake nuts, pine nuts, walnuts, melons, hazelnuts, medlars, cucumbers,
citron, pomegranats, quinces, limons, orenges, peaches, apricocks,
pears, apples, plums, cherries, strawberries, mulberries, grapes, and
figges.

Another source is Cindy Renfrow's Culinary gleanings from
John Gerard's Herball or General Historie of Plantes from the 1633
edition. It was originally published in 1597. It may be found at:
http://members.aol.com/renfrowcm/gerardp1.html
There is a wide variety of possibilities included here such as:
"Jerusalem Artichoke - pages 752-754.
"Flos Solis Pyramidalis. Jerusalem Artichoke.
These rootes are dressed in diuers waies; some boile them in water, and
after stew them with sacke and
butter, adding a little Ginger: others bake them in pies, putting
Marrow, Dates, Ginger, Raisons of the
Sun, Sacke, &c. Others some other way, as they are led by their skill in
Cookerie. But in my iudgement,
which way soeuer they be drest and eaten they stirre and cause a filthie
loathsome stinking winde within
the bodie, thereby causing the belly to bee pained and tormented, and
are a meat more fit for swine, than
men..."

Johnnae llyn Lewis  Johnna Holloway









---------------
SNIPPED FROM what seems like hundreds of lines of messages---
Kirrily Robert wrote:
---want to avoid the old traditional
> veg dishes  ---- to stick very closely to my Elizabethan food theme, using recipes published in England between, say, 1550 and 1620.--- Small numbers, small site, quality food, good company.
> My challenge now is to find Elizabethan dishes that fit that
> description: vegetarian, non-sweet, "main" dishes.
> Katherine
--------
Now, the challenge is, can we find veg foods that fit into an upper
class feast, that are documentable, that are flavourful, and that are
all we expect from meat dishes? Katherine