[Sca-cooks] To the King's Taste (was Pennsic Potluck, revisited)

[Daniel Myers]

On Aug 28, 2004, at 9:43 AM, Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:

> You don't see much citrus in English cooking until the late
> 16th century.

This statement kind of caught me off guard, so I had to do some 
checking.

While oranges don't show up in English cooking texts until the late 
16th century, they do show up in French texts in the late 14th century 
(see below).  I'd be surprised if it took 200 years for oranges to make 
their way across the English channel.  More likely, the oranges were 
known, but didn't show up in kitchens often enough to override the 
natural tendency towards plagiarism of early English cookery book 
authors.


Le Menagier de Paris (Hinson, trans.) ca. 1392

9 recipes, see link -  
http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi-bin/search.pl?term=oranges&file=lmdp
(While this doesn't seem like a lot, it should be noted that there are 
only 15 recipes in this book that reference cabbage)

-=-

Du Fait de Cuisine (Elizabeth Cook, trans.) ca. 1420
3 recipes

"10. For a lofty entremet, that is a castle, [...] One should take note 
of the sauces of the said pike with which it should be eaten, that is: 
the fried with oranges, the boiled with a good green sauce which should 
be made sour with a little vinegar, and the roast of the said pike 
should be eaten with green verjuice made of sorrel. [....]"

"For marine fish: for the turbot should be given green sauce, salmon 
with cameline, ray with garlic cameline which is made with almonds and 
with its liver; sea-crayfish with vinegar, sturgeons with parsley, 
onions, and vinegar, fried sardines with mustard, fried sole with 
sorrel verjuice and oranges, eels roasted on the grill with verjuice, 
anchovies with parsley, onions, and vinegar and powder on top."

"In the year of grace 1400 Aymé, first duke of Savoy, [...] and the 
pikes should be eaten with the boiled with green sauce, the fried and 
the roasted with green verjuice or with oranges."

-=-

The Vivendier (Scully, trans) ca. 1450
one recipe

"To cook a Fish in Three Ways and Styles, that is, boiled, roasted and 
fried.  [...]  Serve it as an entrements, the boiled part with Green 
Sauce, the roasted with orange juice and the fried with Cameline."

- Doc


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  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
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