[Sca-cooks] P things to put on bread?

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

> I asked Tom about this. He says he doesn't know of any evidence for oil and
> vinegar on bread in the Spanish or Catalan cuisine. Nothing in the recipe
> books, and no depictions in art of which he is aware, either. Which of
> course doesn't mean they didn't do it -- absence of evidence is not evidence
> of absence -- but it can't be documented. It could certainly be one of those
> things that didn't need to be written down.
>
> Apparently there's no evidence for *anything* on bread, except as sops, even
> cheese. But we serve cheese with bread at Banquet, because it appeals to
> modern tastes. So you could certainly serve oil and vinegar, as long as you
> didn't say it was documentable. And as long as you got good oil and vinegar!
>
> Our experience is that if you have good sauces, and tell people in advance
> to soak up the leftover sauce with the bread, you don't need anything else
> to put on the bread.
>
> Cynara

There's evidence for oatmeal mixed with butter as a condiment on bread,
also soft cheese, possibly with honey, for medieval Ireland. I served soft
cheese with a drizzle of honey atop it, and plain butter, with the bread
on the tables at my more-or-less Norman Irish 12th Night feast.

The source is an article about bread in early medieval Munster. The
citation itself is actually in the Flori-thingy somewhere.

Granted, this doesn't help with Spain, but it is a citation. :-)

Margaret