[Sca-cooks] Melton Mowbray was Chuntney

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach johnna holloway:
>and there is a great article by John Thorne at:
>
>http://www.outlawcook.com/Page0120.html

You know, I've only recently discovered John Thorne (received "A Pot
On The Fire" as a gift recently), and I haven't yet reached a
verdict, except to note he's far less annoying than M.F.K. Fisher. I
like his systematic drive to find out what he wants to know, but I
suspect he is guilty of some rather Jeff-Smith-ian leaps of logic
(for example, if I read the above-linked article correctly, he says
that pork pies date back to the fourteenth century -- they are almost
certainly older -- and that these pies also use butter instead of the
modern jellied stock as a filler/sealer, which is a thing I associate
with seventeenth-century pies, and more for poultry and venison than
for pork; Thorne is more or less telescoping the entire medieval and
Renaissance period in one too-brief, oversimplified, and basically
inaccurate description).

On the other hand, he writes a bit like Mark Bittman, another
favorite of mine among the newer food writers.

I admire Thorne's basic mission, though. I've always thought the
world needed more Gonzo Cookery with a classical foundation.

Adamantius, considering writing "Fear and Loathing at Spago"