[Sca-cooks] all there is to know about food... in three minutes!

[Brett / Wistan]

A couple odd perceptions that come up when talking about food in the
middle ages.

1.  People didn't use many spices because they didn't have any.

2.  People used lots of spices because their food spoiled too quick. (
I tell them only the French did this, an it was post period. ;) )

Note that number 2 assumes a complete lack of preservation techniques.
 Delving into methods of preservation reveals why many foods exist in
the first place.  We still eat cured foods because we like them, we
often don't consider that they were born of necessity.



On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 08:57:41 -0700, David Friedman
<ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> wrote:
> Lainie asked:
> 
> >So my question is this- if I can devote a minute or two of three,
> >I'd like to at least touch on medieval diet and meals. A little
> >de-bunking might be necessary. So if you had three minutes to say
> >something about medieval food, what would you say? If you were in
> >the class, what would you ask?
> 
> Contrast Piers Plowman's complaint about what he had left to eat in
> the spring before more stuff became available with one of the
> Menagier's menus with Chiquart's menu? Mention limits imposed by
> region and season. And I have found it striking that, according to
> the economic historian Carlo Cippola (if I remember correctly), grain
> doubled its price in 20 miles by land transport--all the effort
> needed to plant, tend, and harvest the stuff was matched by the
> effort to move it 20 miles overland--which really limits what could
> be done to relieve famine.
> 
> Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org 
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks 
>