[Sca-cooks] Marzipan sauce anyone? (was Re: An Evil Thought- Excercise in Intelligence)

[Heleen Greenwald]

Thanks to Doc and to Avraham for cluing me in.
Phillipa
----- Original Message -----

>> >
> > To mix two dissimilar liquids together.
...............SNIP......................
>
>  Terrence Scully had an essay in
> "Food in the Middle Ages" (ISBN: 0-8153-1345-4) entitled "Tempering
> Medieval Food" in which he spends 20 pages on just this topic.
>
> His (well supported) conclusion is that the use of the word reflects
> the "four humors" belief of the time.  Some ingredients would be too
> sanguine or phlegmatic or whatever, and to bring its humors into proper
> balance its aspects must be "tempered" by the aspects of a food with a
> different (and somewhat opposite) balance of humors.
>
> For example, if the humor of an ingredient is a "hot" one (like ginger
> or pepper) it can be used to temper a "cold" humored substance (such as
> pea puree perhaps) in order to make it "slightly warm" (which is
> suitable for the consumption of humans, who themselves are supposed to
> be "warm").
>
> So while the word "temper" can be taken as "mix", it's good (maybe) to
> remember that it may imply a philosophical reason for mixing the
> specific ingredients.
>
> How's that? > > - Doc