New World Foods- was Re: [Sca-cooks] Earthapples eyc

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> >> Medieval cuisine is a specialized cuisine, just as Italian, French,
Thai,
> > Japanese, and many other cuisines which are seperated from us by space,
> > rather than by time, are. In order to learn it, you need to do the same
> > things you'd do learning any of the others- study the recipes, make
them,
> > understand the peculiar techniques, not only of heating, but of spicing
that
> > makes it distinctly Medieval, rather than modern American.
>
>
> The term 'medieval cuisine' is misleading.  There was no single cuisine of
the middle ages, and
> the authors of many of these books were from different cultural
backgrounds.
In the same sense, that's true of many other cuisines- Norr5thern Itallian
is quite different from Southern Italian, Classical French is quite
different from Rural French, let's not get into all the cuisines that are
quite legitimately Chinese, and so forth. Even "American" cuisine differs
quite markedly from one area of the country to another- just in the southern
eastern US, you have Southern Home cooking, and in around New Orleans, Cajun
and Creole, just to name a few.


 When you use the
> term 'distinctly medieval', what do you mean?  Distinctly medieval
Britain?  Disctinctly Medieval
> France?  Rome?  Greece? The Middle East?  Even between these few cultures,
there were wide, wide
> differences, both in techniques and ingredients.
>
> WdG

Certainly there were- just as there are any time you get two cooks together.
To bring it down tighter, I guarantee the cuisine here at 434 Water St
differs quite a bit from that at 438 Water St. Hel, Margali and I differ
considerably in what we prepare, and we share the same kitchen ;-)

OTOH, what we're looking for is the similarities between them. Just as
you'll find hamburgers are ubiquitous all over the modern US, you'll find
blancmange ubiquitous in much of our period. Even the Arabs have dishes that
were similar.

They also tend to adhere to the humoral theory, in so far as what they
serve, and mix, with what. Thickening with bread crumbs is much more common
for them than it is for us. And there are many other examples.

The thing is, we're not going to know what they did to their foods and why ,
unless we study what we know they did. And "inventing" medievaloid food
isn't going to accomplish that purpose.

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....