[Sca-cooks] Preserved (Pickled) Lemons

[James Prescott]

At 16:10 -0700 2003-12-16, Harris Mark.S-rsve60 wrote:

>> There are many in Lancelot de Casteau. Ouverture de Cuisine. Liege:
>> Leonard Streel, 1604. Note that Casteau's active working life, when
>> he used these recipes, was prior to 1600.

> I must have missed this earlier, or have simply forgotten it. Is this a French book in French?

Largely in the French culinary tradition, with some obvious Italian 
and Dutch and Spanish influences, written in French with some Walloon
words, from what is today called Belgium.


> Isn't "sour lemons" a bit redundant? Aren't all lemons sour? But each of these recipes, or at least the translation, use this term. Or are these recipes calling for a type of lemon that is particularly sour and then salted?

There are regular lemons, and there are lemons which are noticeably
more sour.  The original French uses two different words.  Think of
the difference between regular oranges and the sour Seville oranges
destined for the modern marmalade.

The original French offers phrases which can be translated as "fresh 
lemon", "fresh sour lemon", and "salted sour lemon".

Sour lemons are available today preserved in salt.


Thorvald