[Sca-cooks] cookbook ratings

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>Adamantius commented:
>>  ...the
>>  unfortunate reality is that while she deserves respect as a
>>  trailblazer, there are now a _LOT_ more books on this subject than
>>  there used to be, and for anyone seriously interested in eating
>>  medieval food as it was in the Middle Ages, in the way it was eaten in
>>  the Middle Ages, there are a lot of options available, and very nearly
>>  every last one of them is better than "Fabulous Feasts". I can think
>>  of one book I would recommend _after_ "Fabulous Feasts".
>
>I'm curious. So which medieval cookbook would you recommend 
>"Fabulous Feasts" ahead of?

"Take A Buttock of Beefe", by Verity Isitt, which juxtaposes ECW-era 
recipes (Joan Cromwell's cookery-book, IIRC) with semi-modern and 
modern recipes using the same ingredients. If you didn't read it 
carefully you'd think it was just really bad adaptations of 
early-post-period recipes. Technically, I suppose, it would be really 
easy to argue that it was never the author's intention to responsibly 
provide period recipes in modern adapted form, for modern cooks, but 
just to provide a sort of half-a**ed cookbook for those with an 
interest in the history of domestic science.

>Actually, from discussions here and from glancing through my copy, I 
>think the first half of the book is not that bad. It seems that the 
>recipes in "Fabulous Feasts" are the thing that most folks have a 
>problem with.

Yes. The ultimate expression of the trouble with medieval cookbooks 
written by people who can't cook, but know a little about medieval 
manuscripts. Even Hieatt and Butler (less so Hieatt and Jones, 
because apparently Jones was the one who knew about food) displayed 
the occasional gap in what should have been an eclectic, of fairly 
basic, knowledge of food. So, the did stuff like interpreting a 
14th-century English instruction to stick a pen in the skin of a bird 
for roasting ( a reed or quill to inflate it like Peking Duck), as 
basting it with a feather. (I STR this appears in one of the 
footnotes or glossary entries of Curye On Inglysh.)

The lady I spoke to last night, after hearing my heartfelt, plaintive 
moan about Cosman's garnishing of a dish with shredded red licorice 
whips, when there was a complete science of confectionery already on 
hand to supply confited seeds, peels, roots, etc., bright pomegranite 
kernels, etc., said that Cosman hadn't actually come up with the 
recipes herself, but had a sister or cousin (I forget which) come up 
with them, and she only added the embellishments of licorice whips.

Adamantius