[Sca-cooks] Food in 1632? sorta OP/OT

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> Chili:
> Chili powder commonly contains ground dried chiles, it also includes cumin,
> oregano, cloves, coriander, pepper, and salt. They would not have had access
> to the chili's

Hard to tell, since peppers were being grown, if not eaten, in Europe
before 1600, and the story is set in 1632. We also think we've found
peppers in painting dated not long after 1600.

> No Tomatos

Tomatoes were known by the English to be eaten in Spain either in 1597 or
1629 (Depending on whether it was Gerard or his editor who put  the
stuff about Tomatoes into the _Herbal_-- I'm inclined to believe Gerard
wrote that., though.)

> Ground beef as we know it probably would not have been available (someone
> else might have better insight on that.)

Well, neither spaghetti with tomato sauce or chili _requires_ meat anyway,
and once you've grilled ground-up or chopped and pounded beef, you
wouldn't know much of a difference.


> The pasta itself, while they would have had pastas, the modern extruded
> "spaghetti" would have been unavailable.

I suspect that there is a way to make spaghetti without modern machinery,
probably by stretching out rolled dough-- like making milleflori beads.

> As Johanne said, the texts we work with commonly are at best late 16th
> century, some changes were bound to have occured. In Rumpolt (also
> late 16th http://clem.mscd.edu/~grasse/GK_Rumpolt1.htm) there is an
> entire chapter devoted to Turkey and how to prepare it. So some new
> world foods were being used. But many were slow to catch on - Turkey
> was the forerunner. In my mustard experiments, the mustard out of
> Rumpolt was the spiciest that I prepared. One stalwart dunked a hunk
> of bread in and I said "that is really spicy" and he just smiled like
> I was a wuss. He spent the next 10 minutes turning funny shades of
> red, sweating and tearing up. I suggested he eat more plain bread.

That's certainly true. There's nothing so much fun as watching knights and
squired grab a round of bread, spread it thickly with mustard, and chomp
down. Even if they don't turn colors, they are generally startled. :)

> My personal opinion, compared to medieval dishes, most modern dishes are
> mildly spiced.

Definitely.

>With our use of capsium peppers we do have heat, heat, heat
> but frequently at the expense of flavor.

*nod*

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
".. objections to the evils of political correctness have become a
hypocritical reflex that lets people justify all kinds of rude behavior
while telling themselves that they're actually standing up for freedom and
values and tradition and stuff."
-- Phil Agre, author, Red Rock Eater News Service.