[Sca-cooks] Lemons in Middle English

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Terry Decker wrote:

> The Viander (1250-1395, depending on the particular manuscripts) does 
> not mention lemons.  Neither does Menagier (1393) or Du fait de 
> cuisine (1420). The Liber cure cocurum (1st half of the 14th Century) 
> doesn't mention them and I don't remember the Two Fifteenth Century 
> Cookbooks (1430 and 1450) having lemons in any recipe.  

[snip]

They don't.  The "Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books" are part of the 
Middle English database that William searched.  No mention of lemons.

> The Anonimo Veneziana (sic?) (14th Century) does mention them as do 
> Martino (15th) and De Nola (16th).

The "Libre de Sent Sovi" (14th c. Catalan) does also.

> Keukenboek (16th century Dutch) makes no mention of lemons.  In 
> England, A.W. A Book of Cookrye (1591) has recipes as does A Closet 
> for Ladies and Gentlewomen (1608, which is IIRC a screw citation for 
> Plat).
>
> Curiously, Markham's The English Housewife makes no mention of lemons 
> that I can find.
>
> What these cookbooks suggest is that lemons were not used much in 
> Northern Europe before the 16th Century and that they were introduced 
> into Mediterranean cooking in the 14th Century and popularized in the 
> 15th and 16th Centuries.  The cooks who created these recipes would 
> certainly have used lemons if they were available.  The fact that they 
> are not mentioned leads one to believe that lemons were not available.

[snip]

> None of us is opposed to you being right, we just want to see the 
> evidence, because we haven't found it.
>
> Bear.

Bear,

Thank you for your well-reasoned answer.  You have said all of the 
things I wanted to say, and said them more clearly than I would have.

-- 
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net