[Sca-cooks] Rotten meat and spices... (a few excerpts from Apicius)

[David Friedman]

>It is my personal belief, based upon what I have seen in the texts, 
>that the researcher in
>question will find credible evidence of one of two things:
>
>1) There is proof enough in the various recipes for her to make a 
>claim that bad meat was made
>good with spices (or other methods), or
>2)  These are the reasons it is *commonly believed* that bad meat 
>was made good with spices (or
>other methods), even though they may not hold the weight of scrutiny.
>
>And that, I believe, was the reason for the post in the first place.

I agree that if the evidence suggests that the belief is a myth, that 
leaves us with the interesting question of where the myth comes from. 
The same question arises for the weaker form of the myth--the claim 
that medieval food was badly overspiced.

Your original post, however, made a clear and explicit claim--not 
that there was some source for the myth but that the myth was true, 
at least in part--that medieval cooks at least sometimes overspiced 
food to hide the fact that the meat was spoiled. You wrote:

---
"I also have references in several books which indicate that 'off' or 
'putrid' meat can be made
edible with the copious addition of spices or seasonings.

[When I asked, you clarified "books" to "period books"]

I'm not saying that this was a common proactice...merely that there 
is plenty of proof that it
*was* done, and recipes such as the ones I mention are likely the 
source of the modern opinion
that medieval folk ate rotten food covered with spices.  In fact, 
they did do it, but perhaps not
as often as modern folk like to think. "
---
If you say that "there is plenty of proof" for a claim that other 
people believe to be false, you shouldn't be surprised when they ask 
for that proof--or angry at their becoming sceptical when it turns 
out that you don't have any to offer.

Getting back to the interesting question of the origin of myths about 
medieval food ...  .

The Drummond book would probably be worth looking at as one possible 
source, along with whatever sources it cites. For the "overspicing" 
version, the earliest source I know is the introduction to _Two 
Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_, written at the end of the 
nineteenth century. It's clear from context that the author is 
reacting not to the amount of spices, which he has no information on, 
but to the unfamiliar use of particular spices--I think to putting 
cinnamon in soup in the example he mentions.

Anyone know of an earlier example?
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com