[Sca-cooks] Dessert first

[Nancy Kiel]

My understanding of the "having dishes that we today think of as desserts in 
with meat dishes and veggie dishes instead of waiting until the end of the 
meal" was that the cook is simply offering A VARIETY of dishes from which 
the diners can choose.  Maybe you, as the diner at a medieval feast, loathe 
everything that is offered in the first course except for the apple pie.  So 
you have the apple pie and hope for better luck with the next course. Of 
course, you may hate the idea of having something sweet at that point in 
your meal.  So you have an empty plate until the next course---it's a 
personal CHOICE for you.  Menus of the day seem to be more likely to heavier 
dishes in the early courses, and lighter dishes as the meal goes on, but 
that is a very general description.  Desserts are offered when one 
"de-serves" the table, so they are light, to clear your palate, or perhaps a 
variety of nuts & fresh fruit.  And after all, sugar is a luxury item 
basically through the end of the SCA period, so the more you can offer it 
the richer you look;  you're also not generally consuming the amount of 
sugar in a candy without any other food (apple pie has carbs, etc) so it 
shouldn't make that much difference to your blood sugar.

I'm glad your nephew is better.

Nancy Kiel
nancy_kiel at hotmail.com
Never tease a weasel!
This is very good advice.
For the weasel will not like it
And teasing isn't nice.





>
>Foods containing large amounts of refined sugar tend to cause a rapid spike 
>in blood sugar, which in turn has a suppressing effect on the appetite (I 
>believe that there was a brand of "diet candy" that worked this way).  If 
>dessert is eaten first it can cause the diner to eat less of the food 
>that's actually good for them.
>
>When my nephew was three years old he was brought to the edge of 
>malnutrition and anorexia because his mother *always* allowed him to eat 
>candy just before meals and did not encourage him in any way to eat 
>anything else.  When my mother managed to get custody the boy had lost a 
>frightening amount of weight, looked horribly gaunt, and had dark rings 
>around his sunken eyes.  It took quite a while for him to learn to eat 
>again - his appetite had almost completely vanished.
>
>Separating sweet and savory dishes is not always done in modern cuisines, 
>even in the US.  I wouldn't hesitate to serve honey glazed beets or a sweet 
>sauce over meat (butter, sugar, and cinnamon taste wonderful on venison) as 
>part of the main course of a dinner.  However, sugar does not make up the 
>bulk of such dishes.
>
>My children seem to understand just fine why they can't eat dessert first.  
>They also feel that fruit is a perfectly good thing to have at the end of a 
>meal.  On the other hand, I've also seen them finish a dessert of ice cream 
>and go on to eat any broccoli that would have been leftovers.
>
>- Doc
>
>
>--
>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>  Edouard Halidai  (Daniel Myers)
>  http://www.medievalcookery.com/
>-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
>_______________________________________________
>Sca-cooks mailing list
>Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks

_________________________________________________________________
Say “good-bye” to spam, viruses and pop-ups with MSN Premium -- free trial 
offer! http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200359ave/direct/01/