[Sca-cooks] Melton Mowbray was Chuntney

[johnna holloway]

I've always liked Johne Thorne. He's far more readable
than some of the gastronomy writers. He's funny too.
And if he simplifiesthe Middle Ages and Renaissance into one
big generic period of time or age, it's probably
not anything worse than what the textbooks are currently
doing at the Junior High level. I think I have discovered
why the average college freshman can't date when anything occurred
in the past. WWI and the Civil War happened at about the same time.
They probably had a textbook like my son has. Magellan is discussed
in detail on one two page spread. Turn the page and the next person
or subject discussed is Captain Cook. One suddenly loses 250 years
of maritime history. I have already written one letter regarding what
the publisher thought was a typical medieval house.
This isn't history; this is highlights.

Johnna Holloway  Johnnae llyn Lewis

"Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius" wrote:
>
> 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"