[Sca-cooks] A question or two...

[Susan Fox-Davis]

David  of Caithness wrote:

>I've a couple of questions that I know someone out there will have the answers to...
>
>What was sour cream called in period? Was it used much? In what ways principly?
>
>When did the use of cow's milk (and cream) become common in cooking?
>
>Thanks,
>David of Caithness
>___________________________________
>
Gosh, that's a good question.  I should think that sour cream was not so 
much of an invention but an inevitability in any tribe that used animal 
milk at all.  Sour cream is just a step on the way to churning butter, 
n'est-ce pas?    There is a discussion worth reading in the Florilegium: 
 <http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/dairy-prod-msg.html>

A quick surf through Google shows that the word "smetanik" shows up in 
the Domostroi in a creamy context, whereas the modern Russian word for 
"sour cream" is "smetana". 
 <http://medievalrussia.freeservers.com/food-cabbage.html>

 Yogurt, a soured milk, appears in al-Baghdadi, that's dated 1220 if 
it's a solid documentation date you need.  See here, some translated and 
redacted recipes in Caridoc's Miscellany: 
 <http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/islamic_wo_veggies.html>

Other terms worth considering:  Kefir, labna, tahn, etc.  But I don't 
think Western Europeans did much with sour cream except besides churn it 
for butter.  More the fools they.  

Bon Appetit and much affection,
Selene