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

[Pat]

If you will check a later post I have on this subject, you will see that I do own a copy of Vehling, and that I didn't throw it out when I moved.  What I was trying to say to William was that I would not have chosen Vehling as my ONLY cookbook to take with me when I moved.  If I had to trim the list for space considerations, Vehling would have been the first I trimmed.  William had said he had other, more reliable authors in his collection.  I was wondering why he chose the least reliable of them as the only one he took with him.
 
Mordonna


el2iot2 at mail.com wrote:
Sorry, have to disagree with this. all works have a benefit, even if its one that tells you what is wrong with a period's thinking. As in Victorian ideas about sex and editing of anything that offended thier personal sensitivities.

joy


----- Original Message -----
From: Pat 
To: "Cooks within the SCA" 
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Rotten meat and spices... (a few excerpts fromApicius)
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 20:12:09 -0700 (PDT)

> 
> Numbers 1 through 3 have to do with honey, not meat. Two entirely 
> different problems. Numbers 4 and 5 have to do with "strong 
> smelling" birds, not rotted birds. Vehling seems to think this 
> means they were in an advanced state of mortification, Vehling was 
> often quite wrong.
> In my experience, wild birds can have a VERY strong odor, depending 
> on what they've been eating, especially fish eating birds. I don't 
> think this particular passage refers to spoiled birds. I think it 
> refers to birds with a strong odor.
> My question to you is why on earth, with a lot of good authors out 
> there, you would choose Vehling as worth saving? He'd be the first 
> I threw on the discard file.
> 
> Mordonna
> 
> Chris Stanifer wrote:
> 
> These are just a few of the food adulteration sections from JDV's 
> text 'Apicius: Cookery and
> Dining in Imperial Rome', which may lend a bit of credence to the 
> idea that, yes, bad food was
> commonly made 'good' during our period of study. And, while Apicius 
> pre-dates the medieval period
> precisely, it is at the very least a starting point for the researcher.
> 
> I will add to these as I pull books out of storage. Apicius was the 
> only book I brought with me
> when I moved to Las Vegas last month :)
> 
> 1. pg 48 - VI [9] To Improve a Broth
> If broth has contracted a bad odor, place a vessel upside down and 
> fumigate it with laurel and
> cypress and before ventiliating it, pour the broth in this vessel...
> 
> 2. pg 51 [17] Spoiled Honey Made Good
> How bad honey may be turned into a saleable article is to mix one 
> part of the spoiled honey with
> two parts of good honey,
> 
> 3. pg 51 [18] To Test Spoiled Honey
> Immerse elencampane in honey and light it; if good, it will burn brightly.
> 
> 4. pg 147 [229] Treatment of Strong Smelling Birds of Every Description
> For birds of all kinds that have a goatish smell, pepper, lovage, 
> thyme, dry mint, sage, dates,
> honey, vinegar, wine, broth, oil, reduced must, mustard. The birds 
> will be more luscious and
> nutritious, and the fat preserved, if you envelop them in a dough 
> of flour and oil and bake them
> in the oven. (note: Vehling notes that this probably refers to 
> animals in an advanced state of
> mortification)
> 
> 5. pg 148 [230] Another Treatment of Odor
> If the birds smell, stuff the inside with crushed fresh olives, sew 
> up and thus cook, then retire
> the olives.
> 
> Anyway, those were just the ones I was able to find readily in the 
> Vehling Apicius.
> 
> There are others in the more modern manuscripts, which I will have to dig out.
> 
> 
> 
> Pat Griffin
> Lady Anne du Bosc
> known as Mordonna the Cook
> Shire of Thorngill, Meridies
> Mundanely, Millbrook, AL
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks



joy

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Pat Griffin
Lady Anne du Bosc
known as Mordonna the Cook
Shire of Thorngill, Meridies
Mundanely, Millbrook, AL