[Sca-cooks] Questions about de Nola

[Stefan li Rous]

Maire asked:
> I'm having a pleasant Sunday afternoon, reading de Nola on the
> Florilegium (I'm trolling for ideas for a feast bid), and have had my
> curiosity prickled by a couple of things.
<snip>
> 2.  A number of the sauces and pottages are strained through a woolen
> cloth.  Would this more likely have been a coarse cloth, allowing small
> particles of the almonds or chicken or whatever to pass through, or a
> finer quality, designed to make everything puree-ish?
Yes, why wool? Linen would be the other cheap cloth and that wouldn't 
stain as easily. I don't expect that this straining cloth was a 
use-once and throw away item. Wool can be spun much finer though than 
how most wool is spun today. Is wool stronger? Than linen?
> 3.  Does anyone have an online or mail-order source for sour orange
> juice? It's just *not* available up here....
This other Florilegium file, in the FOOD-FRUITS section does have a 
source for seedlings so you can grow your own. :-) Too slow? Then there 
are mentions of the Goya sour orange juice and other comments on the 
sour orange marinade that is available (hmmm. I've got a can somewhere. 
But many things are still MIA since the move). Unfortunately, no 
specific mail order sources are given in this file.
fruit-citrus-msg  (48K) 12/14/02    Period citrus fruits. Recipes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-FRUITS/fruit-citrus-msg.html

You might try this file though:
food-sources-msg  (64K)  3/20/03    Modern sources for unusual medieval 
meats
                                        and other foods.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/food-sources-msg.html

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 ****