[Sca-cooks] obscure measurements

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius commented:
> Cool! Did you actually eat off your own, or simply add your pieces to
> the general pool? It might be interesting to see a kid's
> interpretation of the proper size for, say, an oatmeal versus an ice
> cream bowl.
Huh? There is supposed to be a difference in size? I don't ever 
remember having two sizes. Then or now. Some of my bowls are plastic 
and a few or pottery. They are still about the same size though.
>
> As for pottery, an interesting side note: Clive la Pense always
> recommended pottery drinking vessels when adapting period brewing
> recipes. It was a way of breaking free of modern standards of
> judgement and our obsession with clear brews: if most people weren't
> drinking out of transparent beer glasses until qute recently anyway,
> what difference does a little cloudiness make, and is there, perhaps,
> a _reason_ why historical brewing recipes tend to ignore this
> criterion of quality?
Most period beers, and particularly ales, *were* drunk fairly young. I 
think it takes time for them to settle out. If anything, I think the 
cloudiness might have been considered an asset rather than a detriment. 
The period worker would probably have thought you were cheating him if 
you gave him one of the clear, particularly the light colored, beers of 
today. Even on this list I hear jeers about Coors beer and such. I 
think you'd get similar comments even about beers and ales we consider 
heavy. If someone who has studied this has conflicting evidence, please 
correct me. I have a book or two with period quotes on ales and beers, 
but I've not had time to go through them.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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