[Sca-cooks] dissolved pearls

[Stefan li Rous]

Ester gave some good ideas for Roman or psuedo-Roman feasts and among
this said:
> Come up with a dessert -- or even a soup -- based on the grand old
> cracker
> of Cleopatra dissolving a pearl in wine -- a "soup" in which "pearls"
> of
> sour cream/cream cheese, that sort of thing "dissolve".
Pardon me if I misunderstood you, but it sounds like you don't believe
they dissolved pearls in Roman times. But I imagine they did, at least
for the most prosperous. They did it in the Middle Ages, and I suspect
they were doing it from medical tradition handed down from Classical
times.
For more information on this, check this file in the ACCESSORIES
section of the Florilegium:
pearls-msg        (22K)  7/19/99    Period pearls. Use in jewelry and
elsewhere.
I suspect though that disolving pearls in the populace's drinks might
be a bit expensive. Perhaps you could do it for the headtable. The rest
of us peons could get say Tums in ours. :-)
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****