[Sca-cooks] Beets (was Eggplant)

[Nancy Kiel]

Your best bet might be to look at other receipts in that same cookbook, 
since if you see a list of "greens" (i.e. spinach, sorrel) and beets, my 
assumption is that the beet greens are meant.  Sometimes the author will 
refer to "beetroots" specifically.  But as "beets" are listed by themselves, 
I think they could be interpreted either way.



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.
 >
> > The original recipe, as quoted by Maire from _To the Queen's Taste_, 
>was:
> >
> > "How to make Lumbardy Tarts.  Take beets, chop them small, and to
> > them put grated bread and cheese, and mingle them wel in the
> > chopping.  Take a few corrans, and a dishe of sweet butter, and melt
> > it.  Ther stir al these in the butter, together with three yolkes of
> > egges, sinamon, ginger, and sugar, and make your tart as large as you
> > will, and fill it with the stuffe, bake it, and serve it in."
> >
> > Looking at this, I actually do assume it means beet greens. In this
> > version of the recipe, at least (I haven't seen the _Dining with
> > William Shakespeare_ version), it is the bread and cheese that are
> > grated, not the beets, which are just being chopped small. Le
> > Menagier de Paris (late 14th c., so a good deal earlier), talking
> > about beets, clearly means the greens; and the lumdardy tarts recipe
> > reminds me of a contemporary (i.e. late period) English recipe for
> > spinach, so we know they did things similar to this with greens:
> >
> > An Excellent Boiled Salad (English Huswife book 2, p.40):
> >
> > To make an excellent compound boil'd Sallat: take of Spinage well
> > washt two or three handfuls, and put it into faire water and boile it
> > till it bee exceeding soft and tender as pappe; then put it into a
> > Cullander and draine the water from it, which done, with the backside
> > of your Chopping-knife chop it and bruise it as small as may bee:
> > then put it into a Pipkin with a good lump of sweet butter and boile
> > it over again; then take a good handfull of Currants cleane washt and
> > put to it, and stirre them well together, then put to as much Vinegar
> > as will make it reasonable tart, and then with sugar season it
> > according to the taste of the Master of the house, and so serve it
> > upon sippets.
> > ------
> > So my guess is that it really is greens, not beetroot.
> >
> > Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook
>

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